adult history Kristen Pursley: Write Gov Brown to Request Funds for Adult Schools - japraklupo

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cosas

Shared with permission rom Kristen Pursley's Save Your Adult School blog:

Write Governor Brown Now to Request More Funding for Adult Schools

Posted on February 5, 2017 by kpursley

In January, Governor Brown released a proposed 2017-2018 budget that, once again, fails to provide any additional money for California’s adult schools.  The  amount of the Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG), which now provides the only state funding for adult schools, is still $500 million, the same amount that was provided when the block grant was created two years ago.  Of the $500 million provided by the AEBG, only $350 million is earmarked for adult schools.  The state spent $750 million on adult schools before the financial crash of 2008.  If the budget passes with the amount of the AEBG unchanged, 2017-2018 will mark the ninth year that adult schools have gone without an increase in their state funding, which is their largest and most important source of funding.  Of those nine years, 6 were years of cuts and steep declines in funding; since 2013, adult school funding has held the line at the low and deeply inadequate level of funding adult schools reached after the 6 years of cuts.

Now is the time to write to Governor Brown and our state legislators to request a much-needed increase in adult school funding.  Between now and the governor’s May revise of the budget, Sacramento will be engaged in negotiations about what the final budget will be.  We need to let our elected officials know that the current level of funding for adult schools is inadequate and puts the adult education system, and the Californians it serves, at risk.

Understandably, the governor has adopted a very cautious budget to prepare for uncertain times ahead under new federal leadership, an uncertainty made greater by California’s commitment to protect its immigrant population in the face of threatened retaliation by the federal government.  However, adult schools are an important piece of the infrastructure California will need to protect and support its immigrant population through the difficult years ahead.  Since their founding in the mid-nineteenth century, California’s adult schools have had service to the immigrant community as a key part of their mission, and they still provide the bulk of English as a Second Language instruction in the state.  They are gathering places where immigrants find a community, receive support, access services and learn to participate in civic life in the United States.  The immigrants most in need of protection, those without documents, rely on adult schools for educational services, as most of them cannot afford the expensive out-of-state tuition they have to pay at community colleges. To truly support these immigrants, you have to support their education.

Adult schools provide crucial services for other marginalized populations as well, providing basic literacy and a second chance at a high school diploma  for adults who, for whatever reason, were unable to attain those things as children. They offer support for adults with disabilities and seniors.  Adult schools serve all the vulnerable groups of people who will be most hurt by proposed cuts to federal programs.

For this reason, it is vital that adult schools survive.  Because of chronic underfunding for the last eight years, they are vulnerable to being swept away in the financial chaos that may well come.  California should have been providing adult schools with adequate funding when times were good.  Now that we face a challenging future, the state must somehow find the money to protect this valuable resource.

Please write a letter to Governor Brown today and request more funding for adult schools. You can use the template below. Please feel free to adapt the language and be sure to insert any information about your own experience with adult schools and why you think they are valuable.
Don’t forget to send a copy to your legislators; the budget is to a certain extent in their hands now. You can find your state legislators here:

http://www.legislature.ca.gov/legislators_and_districts/legislators/your_legislator.html

Here is a template for a letter:
Governor Jerry Brown
C/O State Capitol,
Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814 

Dear Governor Brown,

I am writing to request that funding for California’s adult schools be increased through an increase in the Adult Education Block Grant for the 2017-2018 year.  California’s adult schools have been underfunded for eight years, and are the only branch of education that did not receive an increase last year. Due to chronic underfunding, adult schools are in danger of being swept away by the next financial crisis. It is crucial that the state assure the survival of this invaluable resource during the uncertain years ahead.

Adult schools serve the vulnerable adults who are most likely to be hurt by many of the proposed changes to federal policy: poor people, immigrants, people with low levels of literacy, the disabled and seniors.  If California is to defend these marginalized people, as it has bravely pledged to do, it must protect the institutions that serve them.  They must be able to participate to the fullest extent in the economic and civic life of the state, in order to be strong themselves and to keep the state strong.  Adult schools are a key resource to help them fulfill their potential.

I respectfully request that the amount of the  Adult Education Block Grant be increased for 2017-2018.

Sincerely,
 

Shared with permission rom Kristen Pursley's Save Your Adult School blog:

Write Governor Brown Now to Request More Funding for Adult Schools

Posted on February 5, 2017 by kpursley

In January, Governor Brown released a proposed 2017-2018 budget that, once again, fails to provide any additional money for California’s adult schools.  The  amount of the Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG), which now provides the only state funding for adult schools, is still $500 million, the same amount that was provided when the block grant was created two years ago.  Of the $500 million provided by the AEBG, only $350 million is earmarked for adult schools.  The state spent $750 million on adult schools before the financial crash of 2008.  If the budget passes with the amount of the AEBG unchanged, 2017-2018 will mark the ninth year that adult schools have gone without an increase in their state funding, which is their largest and most important source of funding.  Of those nine years, 6 were years of cuts and steep declines in funding; since 2013, adult school funding has held the line at the low and deeply inadequate level of funding adult schools reached after the 6 years of cuts.

Now is the time to write to Governor Brown and our state legislators to request a much-needed increase in adult school funding.  Between now and the governor’s May revise of the budget, Sacramento will be engaged in negotiations about what the final budget will be.  We need to let our elected officials know that the current level of funding for adult schools is inadequate and puts the adult education system, and the Californians it serves, at risk.

Understandably, the governor has adopted a very cautious budget to prepare for uncertain times ahead under new federal leadership, an uncertainty made greater by California’s commitment to protect its immigrant population in the face of threatened retaliation by the federal government.  However, adult schools are an important piece of the infrastructure California will need to protect and support its immigrant population through the difficult years ahead.  Since their founding in the mid-nineteenth century, California’s adult schools have had service to the immigrant community as a key part of their mission, and they still provide the bulk of English as a Second Language instruction in the state.  They are gathering places where immigrants find a community, receive support, access services and learn to participate in civic life in the United States.  The immigrants most in need of protection, those without documents, rely on adult schools for educational services, as most of them cannot afford the expensive out-of-state tuition they have to pay at community colleges. To truly support these immigrants, you have to support their education.

Adult schools provide crucial services for other marginalized populations as well, providing basic literacy and a second chance at a high school diploma  for adults who, for whatever reason, were unable to attain those things as children. They offer support for adults with disabilities and seniors.  Adult schools serve all the vulnerable groups of people who will be most hurt by proposed cuts to federal programs.

For this reason, it is vital that adult schools survive.  Because of chronic underfunding for the last eight years, they are vulnerable to being swept away in the financial chaos that may well come.  California should have been providing adult schools with adequate funding when times were good.  Now that we face a challenging future, the state must somehow find the money to protect this valuable resource.

Please write a letter to Governor Brown today and request more funding for adult schools. You can use the template below. Please feel free to adapt the language and be sure to insert any information about your own experience with adult schools and why you think they are valuable.
Don’t forget to send a copy to your legislators; the budget is to a certain extent in their hands now. You can find your state legislators here:

http://www.legislature.ca.gov/legislators_and_districts/legislators/your_legislator.html

Here is a template for a letter:
Governor Jerry Brown
C/O State Capitol,
Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814 

Dear Governor Brown,

I am writing to request that funding for California’s adult schools be increased through an increase in the Adult Education Block Grant for the 2017-2018 year.  California’s adult schools have been underfunded for eight years, and are the only branch of education that did not receive an increase last year. Due to chronic underfunding, adult schools are in danger of being swept away by the next financial crisis. It is crucial that the state assure the survival of this invaluable resource during the uncertain years ahead.

Adult schools serve the vulnerable adults who are most likely to be hurt by many of the proposed changes to federal policy: poor people, immigrants, people with low levels of literacy, the disabled and seniors.  If California is to defend these marginalized people, as it has bravely pledged to do, it must protect the institutions that serve them.  They must be able to participate to the fullest extent in the economic and civic life of the state, in order to be strong themselves and to keep the state strong.  Adult schools are a key resource to help them fulfill their potential.

I respectfully request that the amount of the  Adult Education Block Grant be increased for 2017-2018.

Sincerely,
 

adult history COSAS Notes on Responding to Federal Policy Changes - japraklupo

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Judul : adult history COSAS Notes on Responding to Federal Policy Changes - japraklupo
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cosas

COSAS - Communities Organized in Support of Adult Schools - arose in response to the cuts and closures of Adult Education that began in 2009.  They meet weekly for years and now meet monthly.  Kristen Pursley is the founder of COSAS and writes the Save Your Adult School blog.  Here, with her permission, are meeting notes from a recent January 30, 2017 COSAS meeting.  They contain excellent suggestions on how to respond to changes in Federal policy that affect Adult Education and the communities we serve.

These notes can be found in this Save Your Adult School blog post.


Responding to New Federal Immigration Policy (Travel Ban, etc.)

Teachers need to teach students how to contact their U.S. congressional representatives by phone in case they are personally affected by the new immigration policies and need help.   Representatives can sometimes intervene on behalf of constituents who are affected by federal policy.  Here is the link for finding congressional representatives by zip code: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

While we sometimes teach our adult school students how to write to members of congress and other elected officials to influence policy, we need to also teach them that they can reach out to their representatives when they are affected by federal policies.  Representatives sympathetic to immigrants will want to know when people living in their districts are adversely affected by federal policies, and may be able to offer assistance with individual cases.

(The group came up with this recommendation while discussing a newspaper article about a mother whose son was prevented from entering the U.S. because of the travel ban and wrote to President Trump.  While writing the president is not a bad thing, she might have been able to get more immediate help by contacting her representative.)

Other Ideas for Responding to New Federal Policies

How will federal policies affect older people?  There may be cuts to Social Security , Medicare, and other programs older adults rely on. We need to find ways to keep seniors healthier longer.Education is an important way to do that.

Adult school teachers should make contact with their local mosques in order to find ways to support Muslim students.

The Indivisible Guide, by former congressional staffers, is a resource for getting congress to pay attention to citizen concernts: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has excellent resources for addressing issues of racism, xenophobia, and bullying,  including many resources for classroom use through its Teaching Tolerance program: https://www.splcenter.org/

Adult school teachers need to teach students about their rights and about civic engagement.

New Meeting Time for COSAS

COSAS will now meet on the second Monday of every month from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. The next meeting will take place on Monday, February 13.

 

COSAS - Communities Organized in Support of Adult Schools - arose in response to the cuts and closures of Adult Education that began in 2009.  They meet weekly for years and now meet monthly.  Kristen Pursley is the founder of COSAS and writes the Save Your Adult School blog.  Here, with her permission, are meeting notes from a recent January 30, 2017 COSAS meeting.  They contain excellent suggestions on how to respond to changes in Federal policy that affect Adult Education and the communities we serve.

These notes can be found in this Save Your Adult School blog post.


Responding to New Federal Immigration Policy (Travel Ban, etc.)

Teachers need to teach students how to contact their U.S. congressional representatives by phone in case they are personally affected by the new immigration policies and need help.   Representatives can sometimes intervene on behalf of constituents who are affected by federal policy.  Here is the link for finding congressional representatives by zip code: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

While we sometimes teach our adult school students how to write to members of congress and other elected officials to influence policy, we need to also teach them that they can reach out to their representatives when they are affected by federal policies.  Representatives sympathetic to immigrants will want to know when people living in their districts are adversely affected by federal policies, and may be able to offer assistance with individual cases.

(The group came up with this recommendation while discussing a newspaper article about a mother whose son was prevented from entering the U.S. because of the travel ban and wrote to President Trump.  While writing the president is not a bad thing, she might have been able to get more immediate help by contacting her representative.)

Other Ideas for Responding to New Federal Policies

How will federal policies affect older people?  There may be cuts to Social Security , Medicare, and other programs older adults rely on. We need to find ways to keep seniors healthier longer.Education is an important way to do that.

Adult school teachers should make contact with their local mosques in order to find ways to support Muslim students.

The Indivisible Guide, by former congressional staffers, is a resource for getting congress to pay attention to citizen concernts: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has excellent resources for addressing issues of racism, xenophobia, and bullying,  including many resources for classroom use through its Teaching Tolerance program: https://www.splcenter.org/

Adult school teachers need to teach students about their rights and about civic engagement.

New Meeting Time for COSAS

COSAS will now meet on the second Monday of every month from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. The next meeting will take place on Monday, February 13.

 

adult history Perspective: Kristen Pursley on the Issue of Fees for Adult Education - japraklupo

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Judul : adult history Perspective: Kristen Pursley on the Issue of Fees for Adult Education - japraklupo
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cosas

Kristen Pursley

COSAS
 Communities Organized
to Support Adult Schools

The following is a perspective piece from Kristen Pursley, founding member of COSAS (Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools) and author of the Save Your Adult School Blog.   She is against charging fees for Adult Education.  She lays out her reasons for this and gives background on the topic in this letter to CCAE (California Council for Adult Education).

 

 

 

To: California Council for Adult Education (CCAE)

Dear CCAE,

As I renew my membership in CCAE, I wish to register my opposition to legislation that will lock in fees for adult school ESL and Citizenship classes.  As an ESL instructor in an adult school that has managed to survive without charging fees for these classes, I am very concerned that legislation allowing districts to  permanently charge for ESL and Citizenship  classes would greatly damage our program and shut many of our students out of an education.

Hit the "read more" link to learn more.

As recently as 2010, California law required that ESL and Citizenship classes be offered free. In 2011, as an emergency response to the budget crisis of 2008 and the  resulting severe defunding of adult schools, the state passed legislation, which CCAE supported, that temporarily allowed adult schools to charge for ESL and Citizenship classes. While the legislation as originally written would have allowed districts to charge permanently, it was amended to sunset on July 1^st of this year.  As I recall, CCAE even supported the version of the bill that would have allowed charging permanently, though the bill did not pass in that form.

Ever since that legislation passed in 2011, I have been anxiously watching to see what would happen when it expired.  Here is a link to what I wrote about the legislation when it passed:  https://saveouradultschool.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/ab-189-has-become-law/

I stand by what I said at the time. Charging fees for adult school ESL and Citizenship classes is a blow to the principle of public education in California and shuts many of the most vulnerable immigrants out of access to basic literacy services.  Under the new legislation governing California adult schools, AB104/SB77, we have a mandate to eliminate barriers to adult education for our students. Charging fees for ESL and Citizenship classes erects a barrier rather than taking one down.  We need to find ways to eliminate fees, not make them permanent.

Our adult school actually tried to charge fees briefly, but it was simply unworkable with our model.  We are located in a financially distressed urban area, where many of our ESL students are low income and have limited access to transportation.  We accommodate them by offering classes at sites throughout the community, so that our students can walk to school and attend classes in their own neighborhoods.  We offer classes at 15 off-campus sites; many of our classes take place at elementary schools in the district. Most of the schools where we offer classes are Title I schools, which means more than 50% of the families are eligible for a free or reduced price lunch.  At many of the schools where we have classes, the percentage of families eligible for free or reduce price lunch is more like 80 or 90 per cent.

In addition to effectively providing access to English classes for our students, our model increases parent involvement in the schools and helps to implement the Full Service Community Schools model to which the two largest cities within our district, as well as the district itself, are committed.  But our experiment with charging fees was a disaster.  Having the teacher collect fees at the site would have been unsafe, so students were required to go to the main campus to register.  Many had no way to get to the main campus, and so were unable to enroll.  Desperate teachers piled students into their cars and drove them to the main campus, even though this is against school rules and incurred possible liability for the school.   Worse yet, our students were stigmatized because they had not been paying before.  Those who managed to make it to the main office were often treated badly by the office staff, who considered them freeloaders.  The chaos and poisonous atmosphere of that time are painful to recall.

Things got so bad that we stopped charging after six months.  And we survived.  We didn’t have to close our doors or even eliminate classes.  In six months, we collected about $20,000 in fees – probably not even enough to cover the cost of the extra clerical help needed to process them.

This is why I say that legislation that would permanently allow charges for ESL and Citizenship classes would damage our program.  Charging fees may work at adult schools where all classes take place at the same site.  Adult schools that have accommodated their students by providing classes at diversified sites are punished when they are expected to institute fees.  Adult schools in more well-to-do areas have an advantage when it comes to charging fees; they have more access to students who have the ability to pay.  Adult schools in low income areas lose students when they charge fees, even modest ones. Their students are shut out of educational opportunities, and the adult school loses federal WIOA funding due to lower enrollment, resulting in fewer payment points for the school.

The ability to charge fees quickly becomes a mandate to charge fees.  At our mid-term WASC review this year, the WASC representative asked us pointedly whether we charge fees for ESL classes and how we afford to offer classes without charging.  The subtext of this interchange was that it might go hard with us at our next WASC review if we still were not charging, even though we have been successfully offering ESL and Citizenship classes without charging for years.

The expectation that we charge fees for ESL and Citizenship classes could change the face of our program dramatically.  We would probably end up closing all classes that take place off campus, reducing the number of ESL classes we offer from 35 to 4.

I know there is an argument that charging for ESL classes causes students to value their classes more highly and take them more seriously.  My experience simply does not bear this out.  When we were charging for classes, we had two grant-funded classes for which we still did not charge.  Attendance and persistence for those two classes were excellent.  I also find that our immigrant students are highly responsible and hard working.  They hold down two or three jobs, raise families, often support families in the home country as well, and somehow find time to go to school.  The argument that we have to make them more responsible by charging them money, while undoubtedly well-meaning, strikes me as condescending.

Worse yet, if we adopt the idea that our adult school students, who tend to be in their late 20s to 40s, need to be taught responsibility like a bunch of 15-year-olds, this construction may blind us to the realities of their lives.  We may be prevented from creating solutions that would really allow struggling students to stay in school if we rely on charging money to solve everything.  Effective interventions like connecting students in difficult family situations to services, or making it easy for students to transfer to classes that fit their schedule when their work schedules suddenly change, may elude us if we think our students are feckless and assume that when they stop coming to school it is because they just don’t care because we didn’t charge them enough.

I hope adult schools that believe their student outcomes are better since they started charging fees will take a hard look at whether the improvement comes from excluding students who are harder to serve because they are struggling more.  The student with a highly erratic work schedule who gets in an education when she can, the student with a health issue that is draining his finances and sometimes prevents him from coming to school, the student with overwhelming family responsibilities who makes it to class whenever she can—these students are discouraged from trying to get an education by fees. Their absence may make the school’s data look good, but it does not improve the literacy rate in California.

I understand that the state government has basically made a hash of adult schools over the last eight years, and that we are all surviving the best we can.  We are struggling with a haphazard overhaul of adult education that has many grey areas, some contradictory mandates, and some badly thought out procedures such as a funding schedule that makes it very difficult to plan for the future.  For those adult schools that really need to charge fees a bit longer in order to survive, I would support a gradual phase-out of fees accompanied by vigorous advocacy to the state for adequate funding for adult school ESL and Citizenship programs.  But I cannot support legislation that would lock in fees permanently.

Under the Regional Consortia and the new laws governing adult education, we have a mandate to remove barriers to education for adults.  One barrier came down on July 1^st of this year.  How can we, in good conscience, put it up again?

Sincerely,

Kristen Pursley

CC:

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson

Senator Kevin de León, Senate President Pro Tempore

Assembly Member Toni G. Atkins, Speaker of the Assembly

Senator Carol Liu, Chair, Senate Education Committee

Assembly Member Patrick O’Donell, Chair, State Assembly Committee on Education

Assembly Member José Medina, Chair, Assembly Higher Education Committee

Assembly Member Luis Alejo, Chair, Latino Legislative Caucus

Assembly Member Das Williams, Chair, Asian and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus

Senator Loni Hancock

Assembly Member Tony Thurmond

Kristen Pursley

COSAS
 Communities Organized
to Support Adult Schools

The following is a perspective piece from Kristen Pursley, founding member of COSAS (Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools) and author of the Save Your Adult School Blog.   She is against charging fees for Adult Education.  She lays out her reasons for this and gives background on the topic in this letter to CCAE (California Council for Adult Education).

 

 

 

To: California Council for Adult Education (CCAE)

Dear CCAE,

As I renew my membership in CCAE, I wish to register my opposition to legislation that will lock in fees for adult school ESL and Citizenship classes.  As an ESL instructor in an adult school that has managed to survive without charging fees for these classes, I am very concerned that legislation allowing districts to  permanently charge for ESL and Citizenship  classes would greatly damage our program and shut many of our students out of an education.

Hit the "read more" link to learn more.

As recently as 2010, California law required that ESL and Citizenship classes be offered free. In 2011, as an emergency response to the budget crisis of 2008 and the  resulting severe defunding of adult schools, the state passed legislation, which CCAE supported, that temporarily allowed adult schools to charge for ESL and Citizenship classes. While the legislation as originally written would have allowed districts to charge permanently, it was amended to sunset on July 1^st of this year.  As I recall, CCAE even supported the version of the bill that would have allowed charging permanently, though the bill did not pass in that form.

Ever since that legislation passed in 2011, I have been anxiously watching to see what would happen when it expired.  Here is a link to what I wrote about the legislation when it passed:  https://saveouradultschool.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/ab-189-has-become-law/

I stand by what I said at the time. Charging fees for adult school ESL and Citizenship classes is a blow to the principle of public education in California and shuts many of the most vulnerable immigrants out of access to basic literacy services.  Under the new legislation governing California adult schools, AB104/SB77, we have a mandate to eliminate barriers to adult education for our students. Charging fees for ESL and Citizenship classes erects a barrier rather than taking one down.  We need to find ways to eliminate fees, not make them permanent.

Our adult school actually tried to charge fees briefly, but it was simply unworkable with our model.  We are located in a financially distressed urban area, where many of our ESL students are low income and have limited access to transportation.  We accommodate them by offering classes at sites throughout the community, so that our students can walk to school and attend classes in their own neighborhoods.  We offer classes at 15 off-campus sites; many of our classes take place at elementary schools in the district. Most of the schools where we offer classes are Title I schools, which means more than 50% of the families are eligible for a free or reduced price lunch.  At many of the schools where we have classes, the percentage of families eligible for free or reduce price lunch is more like 80 or 90 per cent.

In addition to effectively providing access to English classes for our students, our model increases parent involvement in the schools and helps to implement the Full Service Community Schools model to which the two largest cities within our district, as well as the district itself, are committed.  But our experiment with charging fees was a disaster.  Having the teacher collect fees at the site would have been unsafe, so students were required to go to the main campus to register.  Many had no way to get to the main campus, and so were unable to enroll.  Desperate teachers piled students into their cars and drove them to the main campus, even though this is against school rules and incurred possible liability for the school.   Worse yet, our students were stigmatized because they had not been paying before.  Those who managed to make it to the main office were often treated badly by the office staff, who considered them freeloaders.  The chaos and poisonous atmosphere of that time are painful to recall.

Things got so bad that we stopped charging after six months.  And we survived.  We didn’t have to close our doors or even eliminate classes.  In six months, we collected about $20,000 in fees – probably not even enough to cover the cost of the extra clerical help needed to process them.

This is why I say that legislation that would permanently allow charges for ESL and Citizenship classes would damage our program.  Charging fees may work at adult schools where all classes take place at the same site.  Adult schools that have accommodated their students by providing classes at diversified sites are punished when they are expected to institute fees.  Adult schools in more well-to-do areas have an advantage when it comes to charging fees; they have more access to students who have the ability to pay.  Adult schools in low income areas lose students when they charge fees, even modest ones. Their students are shut out of educational opportunities, and the adult school loses federal WIOA funding due to lower enrollment, resulting in fewer payment points for the school.

The ability to charge fees quickly becomes a mandate to charge fees.  At our mid-term WASC review this year, the WASC representative asked us pointedly whether we charge fees for ESL classes and how we afford to offer classes without charging.  The subtext of this interchange was that it might go hard with us at our next WASC review if we still were not charging, even though we have been successfully offering ESL and Citizenship classes without charging for years.

The expectation that we charge fees for ESL and Citizenship classes could change the face of our program dramatically.  We would probably end up closing all classes that take place off campus, reducing the number of ESL classes we offer from 35 to 4.

I know there is an argument that charging for ESL classes causes students to value their classes more highly and take them more seriously.  My experience simply does not bear this out.  When we were charging for classes, we had two grant-funded classes for which we still did not charge.  Attendance and persistence for those two classes were excellent.  I also find that our immigrant students are highly responsible and hard working.  They hold down two or three jobs, raise families, often support families in the home country as well, and somehow find time to go to school.  The argument that we have to make them more responsible by charging them money, while undoubtedly well-meaning, strikes me as condescending.

Worse yet, if we adopt the idea that our adult school students, who tend to be in their late 20s to 40s, need to be taught responsibility like a bunch of 15-year-olds, this construction may blind us to the realities of their lives.  We may be prevented from creating solutions that would really allow struggling students to stay in school if we rely on charging money to solve everything.  Effective interventions like connecting students in difficult family situations to services, or making it easy for students to transfer to classes that fit their schedule when their work schedules suddenly change, may elude us if we think our students are feckless and assume that when they stop coming to school it is because they just don’t care because we didn’t charge them enough.

I hope adult schools that believe their student outcomes are better since they started charging fees will take a hard look at whether the improvement comes from excluding students who are harder to serve because they are struggling more.  The student with a highly erratic work schedule who gets in an education when she can, the student with a health issue that is draining his finances and sometimes prevents him from coming to school, the student with overwhelming family responsibilities who makes it to class whenever she can—these students are discouraged from trying to get an education by fees. Their absence may make the school’s data look good, but it does not improve the literacy rate in California.

I understand that the state government has basically made a hash of adult schools over the last eight years, and that we are all surviving the best we can.  We are struggling with a haphazard overhaul of adult education that has many grey areas, some contradictory mandates, and some badly thought out procedures such as a funding schedule that makes it very difficult to plan for the future.  For those adult schools that really need to charge fees a bit longer in order to survive, I would support a gradual phase-out of fees accompanied by vigorous advocacy to the state for adequate funding for adult school ESL and Citizenship programs.  But I cannot support legislation that would lock in fees permanently.

Under the Regional Consortia and the new laws governing adult education, we have a mandate to remove barriers to education for adults.  One barrier came down on July 1^st of this year.  How can we, in good conscience, put it up again?

Sincerely,

Kristen Pursley

CC:

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson

Senator Kevin de León, Senate President Pro Tempore

Assembly Member Toni G. Atkins, Speaker of the Assembly

Senator Carol Liu, Chair, Senate Education Committee

Assembly Member Patrick O’Donell, Chair, State Assembly Committee on Education

Assembly Member José Medina, Chair, Assembly Higher Education Committee

Assembly Member Luis Alejo, Chair, Latino Legislative Caucus

Assembly Member Das Williams, Chair, Asian and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus

Senator Loni Hancock

Assembly Member Tony Thurmond

adult history The Battle for Adult Education in California: Historical Context - japraklupo

cosas - Hallo sahabat fashion, Pada Artikel yang anda baca kali ini dengan judul cosas, kami telah mempersiapkan artikel ini dengan baik untuk anda baca dan ambil informasi didalamnya. mudah-mudahan isi postingan Artikel cosas, Artikel Cuts and closures, Artikel Facts, Artikel Flexibility, Artikel General, Artikel Grassroots, Artikel How Things Work, Artikel K-12 Adult Ed, Artikel K12 and CC Coordination, Artikel Older Adults, Artikel Parent Ed, Artikel Public Education, Artikel Public vs. Private, Artikel Reform, Artikel Think About It, yang kami tulis ini dapat anda pahami. baiklah, selamat membaca.

Judul : adult history The Battle for Adult Education in California: Historical Context - japraklupo
link : adult history The Battle for Adult Education in California: Historical Context - japraklupo

cosas

From left to right,
Bruce Neuberger,
George & Kristen Pursley
Cynthia Eagleton

At the 2015 Network for Public Education Conference in Chicago, Kristen Pursley, Bruce Neuberger, and I presented a panel entitled, "The Battle for Adult Education."

The Conference was deep and powerful.
An AEM post on the conference is coming soon. 

Cuts and reform in California Adult Education are part of a larger puzzle affecting every piece of Public Education in the US.  To understand what is happening in Adult Education in California - and to influence it in a positive direction - we need to understand what is happening elsewhere - and we need historical context.

Historical context is what Kristen provided at our panel discussion.  Kristen is a lead ESL teacher at West Contra Costa Adult School.  She is a founding member of COSAS - Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools, a group that formed in response to the cuts six years ago and has met weekly since.   She authors the Save Your Adult School blog, a priceless repository of facts and insight about Adult Education. 

Click the link to see her powerpoint:

From left to right,
Bruce Neuberger,
George & Kristen Pursley
Cynthia Eagleton

At the 2015 Network for Public Education Conference in Chicago, Kristen Pursley, Bruce Neuberger, and I presented a panel entitled, "The Battle for Adult Education."

The Conference was deep and powerful.
An AEM post on the conference is coming soon. 

Cuts and reform in California Adult Education are part of a larger puzzle affecting every piece of Public Education in the US.  To understand what is happening in Adult Education in California - and to influence it in a positive direction - we need to understand what is happening elsewhere - and we need historical context.

Historical context is what Kristen provided at our panel discussion.  Kristen is a lead ESL teacher at West Contra Costa Adult School.  She is a founding member of COSAS - Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools, a group that formed in response to the cuts six years ago and has met weekly since.   She authors the Save Your Adult School blog, a priceless repository of facts and insight about Adult Education. 

Click the link to see her powerpoint:

adult history All Out for West Contra Costa Adult School - japraklupo

cosas - Hallo sahabat fashion, Pada Artikel yang anda baca kali ini dengan judul cosas, kami telah mempersiapkan artikel ini dengan baik untuk anda baca dan ambil informasi didalamnya. mudah-mudahan isi postingan Artikel Action Step, Artikel cosas, Artikel Grassroots, yang kami tulis ini dapat anda pahami. baiklah, selamat membaca.

Judul : adult history All Out for West Contra Costa Adult School - japraklupo
link : adult history All Out for West Contra Costa Adult School - japraklupo

cosas

Even as things are generally improving for Adult Schools and Adult Education, yet another Adult School faces a serious challenge.  This time, it's West Contra Costa Adult School, where Kristen Pursley, author of the Save Your Adult School blog and founder of COSAS (Communities United to Save Adult Schools), works.  Other COSAS members work there, as well.   Many parts -if not all of - the Adult Ed program at WCCAS is under threat of dissolution. 

West Contra Costa Unified School District serves a population where almost 60% of the kids live with one or more foreign-born parent and 25% of the children live in poverty.  (Kidsdata.org)   I think we can safely assume Adult Education is needed.  Supporting adults with language, civic, community, and job skills directly benefits school age children.    What the heck is the West Contra Costa Unified School District thinking?

Visit this Save Your Adult School blog post for a list of Adult School Teachers United concerns.

Hit the "read more" link to learn more.


The reasons behind the crisis at WCC Adult School are complex.  Part of the problem is the ongoing instability of state funding.  Until we know exactly what Adult Schools will receive and how the funds will be channeled, all Adult Schools are vulnerable to bad behavior and poor choices.  Another problem is bad behavior and poor choices that have no direct relation to the crisis which Adult Education has been weathering since 2009. 

And a third part is what I see as a misguided attempt to fix kid problems by seeing and dealing with kids as disconnected from their families and their communities.  Do the kids in your district have problems?  Are their test scores low?  Are they hungry?  See and treat them in isolation.  Do not see them as members of groups which, if given proper support, could help those kids thrive.  See the kids -  and the families and communities from which they come and in which they live - as separate entities - and from a deficit perspective.  My question about that approach:   Has it worked so far?  And since the answer is always no, please consider this statement:   Maybe that's because all kids of any ethnicity and any income bracket are part of families and communities.  Understanding and supporting kids happens best and fastest when you also understand and support the families and communities in which they live and grow.  And just in case it's not clear:  that all works best when you do it from an asset perspective.  (If you're wondering about this asset and deficit thing it's basically whether you start with what you think is wrong with something or someone or whether you start with what you see is right with them.  If you're confused about that, ask a member of your family.  They can probably tell you in a hot minute the perspective you use.)   

Hard-ball candy version of the previous paragraph:   When you were a kid, how did you want to be seen and understood and treated?   If you have kids, how do you want them to be seen and understood and treated?   If you answered, "as part of a family and community that has worth," you got it.

Here is some information about the upcoming May 6th meeting of the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board, contact info for the board, as well as a letter from a lawyer.  The letter is a matter of public record and can be shared.

Kristen and COSAS have been invaluable leaders in the work to save Adult Schools and Adult Education.  Please stand up for them now.  Send an email.  Share the info.  And sign the Restore Protected Funding Petition.  Remind others that until all of us are all the way through this passage, none of us are truly safe.

It took some years for folks to connect with each other to form a larger movement to save Adult Schools and Adult Ed - but connect and form it we did.  Now is the time to use it!

WEST CONTRA COSTA ADULT ED NEEDS OUR SUPPORT!

If you are unable to attend the board meeting on May 6th, please take a moment to send an email to West Contra Costa Unified School District Board members and stand up for our friends at WCCAE.  Kristen Pursley and many of the members of COSAS (Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools) work at WCCAE.  They have done a tremendous amount of work to secure the future of Adult Ed statewide and now they need all of us to support their efforts to save their school.

Here are the email addresses of the board members:

toddagroves@gmail.com randallenos@sbcglobal.net mkronen@aol.com LizBlock@comcast.net  Valerie.Cuevas@wccusd.net  Click here for their phone numbers. Ask them NOT to close adult ed classes. Ask them NOT to lay off adult ed teachers. Ask them NOT to cut the babysitting staff. Ask them to support their adult ed teachers and provide them with the rights they deserve, as mandated by law. Tell them that  ADULT EDUCATION MATTERS  and we stand together in the struggle  to secure the future of K-12 Adult Ed in California.

LAW OFFICES OF

ROBERT J. BEZEMEK ROBERT J. BEZEMEK

PATRICIA LIM A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION

DAVID CONWAY THE LATHAM SQUARE BUILDING

1611 TELEGRAPH AVE., SUITE 936

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94612

Telephone: (510) 763-5690 ! Facsimile (510) 763-4255

April 16, 2015

Superintendent Bruce Harter, Ph.D.

West Contra Costa Unified School District

1108 Bissell Avenue, Room 100

Richmond, CA 94801

President and Members of the Board of Education

of the West Contra Costa Unified School District

1108 Bissell Avenue

Richmond, CA 94801

West Contra Costa Adult Education

Re: Rights of Adult Education academic employees

Dear Superintendent Harter and Members of the Board of Education,

     I write on behalf of Adult School Teachers United (“ASTU”), a labor organization

composed of academic employees employed by the District at the West Contra Costa Adult

Education unit. The faculty of the West Contra Costa Adult Education schools are presently not

represented by an exclusive bargaining agent.

     This letter has several purposes. First, to notify the District that the West Contra Costa

Adult Education schools are currently being organized for purposes of representation under the

EERA by the ASTU. This letter provides this notice to assure that the District takes no action to

interfere, restrain, coerce or discriminate against employees in regard to their rights of selforganization under the law.

     Second, to bring to the District’s attention a number of District actions which violate the

California Education Code, and to request that it take prompt and effective action to remedy

these violations.

     Third, to assure that the District understands that it has a legal obligations to meet and

confer with a labor organization representing some of its otherwise unrepresented employees,

West Contra Costa Unified School District even when that organization has not yet achieved exclusive recognition by the District, or certification by the Public Employment Relations Board as an exclusive bargaining agent of Adult School employees.

     Having had extensive experience with the West Contra Costa Unified School District in

prior years,1 I hope that the District will act promptly to rectify various matters discussed in this

letter.

I. Organizing of Adult Education Employees

     The ASTU hereby gives formal notice to the District that it is conducting a campaign to

organize the unrepresented West Contra Costa Adult Education academic employees. ASTU

wishes to remind the District that employees are entitled to engage in union organizational

activities on school premises, during non-work time. .

     In addition, we emphasize that the District and its Adult Education division is forbidden

by the Educational Employment Relations Act (“EERA”) from interfering, restraining or

coercing employees in their exercise of their organizational rights. To that end, the District is

prohibited from engaging in surveillance of union activities, and is forbidden from taking action

to discourage employees from choosing to organize a labor organization or from seeking

recognition from the District. This letter is not a demand for recognition as an exclusive

representative, but it does ask that the District acknowledge its statutory duty to confer with

ASTU as a representative of unorganized employees of the Adult Education Division (“Adult

School”).

II. The Right of ASTU to Meet and Confer With the District

and to Represent Its Members

     The PERB has consistently affirmed the rights of non-exclusive organizations such as

ASTU to meet with the District, and to receive notice from the District, of policy actions which

may affect the wages, hours or terms and conditions of Adult School employees. Mt. Diablo

Unified School District. (1977) EERB Decision No. 44. Clovis Unified School District (1984)

PERB Decision No. 389 and Santa Monica Community College District (1977) PERB Decision

No. 103; Los Angeles Unified School District (1983) PERB Decision No. 285.

______________________________________

     1 In 1991 I represented the Richmond Federation of Teachers, and various individuals, in

legal action which ultimately compelled the State of California to provide funds to keep the

District operating. See, e.g. Butt v. State of California, 4 Cal. 4th 668 (1992). And in 1994 I filed

suit against the District on behalf of CRTA Protect, a group of retirees who represented nearly

2,000 WCCUSD retired employees. This lawsuit, which resulted in an unpublished appellate

opinion, was eventually settled, restoring much of the lost benefits to the retirees.

West Contra Costa Unified School District

     For instance, in Summerville Elementary School District (1992) PERB Dec. No. 856 16

PERC ¶ 23170, PERB again explained that a “district was obligated to meet and discuss

proposed terms and conditions of employment with [a] union as nonexclusive representative.”

     Former PERB General Counsel and later ALJ William P. Smith cogently summarized the

rights of a non-exclusive union in 1988,

“ EERA guarantees a nonexclusive representative certain statutory rights e.g., the right to

represent its members, the right of reasonable access to school facilities, and the dues

deduction.5 In addition, the Board has held that, so long as no exclusive representative

exists a nonexclusive representative has the right to represent its members in grievance

procedures. See Mt. Diablo Unified School District, et al. (1977) EERB Decision No. 44.

Clovis Unified School District (1984) PERB Decision No. 389 and Santa Monica

Community College District (1977) PERB Decision No. 103.

In Los Angeles Unified School District (1983) PERB Decision No. 285, the Board did not

decide the full parameters of the nonexclusive representatives' rights but held that they

did include the right to meet and discuss subjects that are as fundamental to the

employment relationship as wages and fringe benefits.” Butte Community College

District, 12 PERC ¶ 19144, 1988 WL 1588982 (ALJ William P. Smith 1988)

Another PERB ALJ summarized a non-exclusive Union’s rights in this way:

“PERB has held, however, that in the absence of an exclusive representative, an employer

with knowledge that a non-exclusive representative represents employees affected by an

alleged unilateral change has an obligation to provide, at a minimum, notice and an

opportunity to meet and discuss with the employer subjects that are fundamental to the

employment relationship such as wages and fringe benefits, etc. (See Los Angeles

Unified School District (1983) PERB Decision No. 285 ( Los Angeles ).) Although the

full scope of the duty to consult has not been determined, it appears to require that the

employer consider the employee organization's proposals, but does not require an attempt

to reach a negotiated written agreement. (See San Dieguito Union High School District

(1977) EERB20 Decision No. 22, reversed on other grounds, and Los Angeles. )” San

Luis Obispo County Community College District, 20 PERC ¶ 27128 (1996)

ASTU’s right to represent its members is an enumerated right within section 3543.1(a) of

the Government Code.

As the above authorities explain, the District is legally obligated to meet with ASTU,

upon its request, to discuss pending complaints, described below. While this letter is not a

request to meet, ASTU recognizes that such a meeting may prove beneficial in resolving issues

West Contra Costa Unified School District identified in this letter.

III. The District’s Failure to Properly Classify Adult School Employees

and Provide Letters of Assignment

     ASTU believes that the District has misclassified its Adult School teachers as “substitute”

teachers. In fact, as provided for in the Education Code, nearly all adult education employees are

either temporary or permanent employees, possessing the rights which accompany that status.

     Substitute employees are clearly defined in Education Code section 44917 as being

employees who fill the positions of other employees, who are “absent from service.”. This

section states that,

     “Except as provided in Sections 448881 and 44920, governing boards of school districts

     shall classify as substitute employees those persons employed in positions requiring

     certification qualifications, to fill positions of regularly employed persons absent from

     service.” (Emphasis added.)

     Despite this mandatory requirement, the District has inaccurately classified its regular,

probationary or temporary adult school employees as “substitutes.” This inaccurate designation,

unless corrected, could serve to deprive them of benefits to which they are entitled under various

California laws, such as the Unemployment Insurance Code. Temporary adult school employees

are entitled to unemployment benefits under the case of Cervisi case, (Cervisi v. California

Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, 208 Cal. App. 3d 635 (1989))

     ASTU is aware that many Adult School teachers have served many years, teaching the

same subjects in the same schools. Some have taught the same class more than 10 years. We

assume the District is aware of this situation.

     Second, the Education Code assures that adult education teachers are eligible for, and

should be classified as, permanent, probationary or temporary, depending on their employment

history. First take a look at section 44925.25:

§ 44929.25. Adult class teachers

When a teacher of classes for adults serves sufficient probationary time as

provided in Sections 44929.20 to 44929.23, inclusive, and Section 44908 to be

eligible for election to permanent classification in that district, his or her

tenure shall be for the service equivalent to the average number of hours per

week that he or she has served during his or her probationary years. In no

case shall the employee be classified as permanent for more than one full-time

assignment. The service for which the person has acquired tenure may be reduced

in conformity with Sections 44955 and 44956.

Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, in a district that has, or in a

district that is one of two or more districts governed by governing boards of

identical personnel that have a combined average daily attendance of 400,000 or

more, as shown by the annual report of the county superintendent of schools for

the preceding fiscal year, no person who is assigned 10 hours or less a week in

adult classes in the district shall be eligible for election to permanent classification

in the district on account of the assignment in adult classes.

Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, any person who is

employed to teach adults for not more than 60 percent of the hours per week

considered a full-time assignment for permanent employees having

comparable duties shall be classified as a temporary employee, and shall not

become a probationary employee under the provisions of Section 44954.

     From what ASTU has been able to determine, the District has been referring to adult

school teachers as “substitutes,” even though they do not substitute for anyone, and have taught

their own classes for years. The ASTU wants to be certain that regular, probationary and

temporary adult school faculty are recognized and classified in these classifications, and not

erroneously treated as “substitues.”

     Next, the District has not been annually notifying adult school teachers of their

classification status, despite a mandatory legal duty to do so. In this regard, the Education Code

is also quite clear. Education Code section 44916 requires that at the time of initial employment,

and annually thereafter, the employee must receive a written statement of employment

status:

The classification shall be made at the time of employment and thereafter in the

month of July of each school year. At the time of initial employment during each

academic year, each new certificated employee of the school district shall receive a

written statement indicating his employment status and the salary that he is to be paid. If

a school district hires a certificated person as a temporary employee, the written

statement shall clearly indicate the temporary nature of the employment and the

length of time for which the person is being employed. If a written statement does

not indicate the temporary nature of the employment, the certificated employee

shall be deemed to be a probationary employee of the school district, unless

employed with permanent status. (Section 44916, emphasis added)

     It appears that this year the District did not provide a written statement of classification to

many, if not all, adult school teachers. ASTU requests that the District promptly come into

compliance with section 44916.

     In prior years, ASTU understands that letters of assignment were usually explicit as to the

contingent nature of the assignment: a minimum number of students was required. Previously,

such assignment letters explained that if that minimum class enrollment could not be sustained,

the class could be closed and the District could not guarantee employment for the teacher within

that semester (nor, implicitly, at any future time.)

      The District Adult Education catalogue continues to be explicit that there are class size

minimums below which a class will be cancelled.

     In order for the District to comply with the law, not only must these letters be issued but

they should be clear about the various contingencies (attendance minimums, funding, program

changes) that might lead to the abrupt termination of the teacher’s services.

IV. District’s Failure to Properly Credit and Apply Sick Leave for Adult School Employees

     Finally, there is the issue of sick leave credit. In accordance with Education Code section

44978, adult education teachers are entitled to and do earn Sick Leave. Section 44978 provides as

follows:

Every certificated employee employed five days a week by a school district shall be

entitled to 10 days' leave of absence for illness or injury and additional days in addition

thereto as the governing board may allow for illness or injury, exclusive of all days he or

she is not required to render service to the district, with full pay for a school year of

service. A certificated employee employed for less than five schooldays a week shall be

entitled, for a school year of service, to that proportion of 10 days' leave of absence for

illness or injury as the number of days he or she is employed per week bears to five and is

entitled to additional days in addition thereto as the governing board may allow for

illness or injury to certificated employees employed for less than five schooldays a week.

Pay for any day of this absence shall be the same as the pay that would have been

received had the employee served during the day. Credit for leave of absence need not be

accrued prior to taking the leave by the employee and the leave of absence may be taken

at any time during the school year. If the employee does not take the full amount of leave

allowed in any school year under this section the amount not taken shall be accumulated

from year to year with additional days as the governing board may allow.

The governing board of each school district shall adopt rules and regulations requiring

and prescribing the manner of proof of illness or injury for the purposes of this section.

The rules and regulations shall not discriminate against evidence of treatment and the

need therefor by the practice of the religion of any well-recognized church or

denomination. (Section 44978, emphasis added)

     Despite this section, the District has advised many adult school teachers that they do not

earn, or have no accumulated sick leave, even though such sick leave has been accumulating for

years, as guaranteed by the Education Code. The accumulated hours of faculty should be printed

on some portion of every paycheck. The District has apparently failed to provide an on-going

and easily accessible accounting of sick leave for many many years, in violation of Education

Code section 44978.

     Board policy has historically specified that an adult education teacher accumulated 1 hour

of sick leave for every 17 hours worked. Yet the Adult School Administration has informed

teachers this year that they are not entitled to Sick Leave benefits. The comment, “Subs don’t

get sick leave” has been directed at regular temporary and permanent adult education teachers.

     Veteran teachers have many hours of sick leave accumulated, time which is credited to

their STRS accounts when they choose to retire. Any attempt to deprive them (or any teacher)

of previously accumulated hours is a serious violation of the law. It amounts to a form of wage

theft. Despite these oral statements by the Adult Education administration attempting to deny

eligibility for or accumulation of Sick Leave, there has been no formal notification, explanation

nor policy change in this matter, and no such change could deprive Adult School employees of

their rights to sick leave benefits. Because of the relationship of this leave to their retirement

benefits, it is critical that the District promptly rectify the problem.

V. Conclusion

     Adult school teachers are concerned about the situation described above. Therefore, on

their behalf, I respectfully request that the District review these matters and inform the the

undersigned in regard to what steps it will take to rectify the problems identified in this letter.

     Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or wish to discuss these matters.

                                                                                                  Sincerely,

                                                                                                  Robert J. Bezemek

                                                                                                  Counsel for ASTU

cc: ASTU

Z:\Documents\0226-Richmond Adult School\Let WCCUSD re u issues 04-07-15 FINAL.wpd

Even as things are generally improving for Adult Schools and Adult Education, yet another Adult School faces a serious challenge.  This time, it's West Contra Costa Adult School, where Kristen Pursley, author of the Save Your Adult School blog and founder of COSAS (Communities United to Save Adult Schools), works.  Other COSAS members work there, as well.   Many parts -if not all of - the Adult Ed program at WCCAS is under threat of dissolution. 

West Contra Costa Unified School District serves a population where almost 60% of the kids live with one or more foreign-born parent and 25% of the children live in poverty.  (Kidsdata.org)   I think we can safely assume Adult Education is needed.  Supporting adults with language, civic, community, and job skills directly benefits school age children.    What the heck is the West Contra Costa Unified School District thinking?

Visit this Save Your Adult School blog post for a list of Adult School Teachers United concerns.

Hit the "read more" link to learn more.


The reasons behind the crisis at WCC Adult School are complex.  Part of the problem is the ongoing instability of state funding.  Until we know exactly what Adult Schools will receive and how the funds will be channeled, all Adult Schools are vulnerable to bad behavior and poor choices.  Another problem is bad behavior and poor choices that have no direct relation to the crisis which Adult Education has been weathering since 2009. 

And a third part is what I see as a misguided attempt to fix kid problems by seeing and dealing with kids as disconnected from their families and their communities.  Do the kids in your district have problems?  Are their test scores low?  Are they hungry?  See and treat them in isolation.  Do not see them as members of groups which, if given proper support, could help those kids thrive.  See the kids -  and the families and communities from which they come and in which they live - as separate entities - and from a deficit perspective.  My question about that approach:   Has it worked so far?  And since the answer is always no, please consider this statement:   Maybe that's because all kids of any ethnicity and any income bracket are part of families and communities.  Understanding and supporting kids happens best and fastest when you also understand and support the families and communities in which they live and grow.  And just in case it's not clear:  that all works best when you do it from an asset perspective.  (If you're wondering about this asset and deficit thing it's basically whether you start with what you think is wrong with something or someone or whether you start with what you see is right with them.  If you're confused about that, ask a member of your family.  They can probably tell you in a hot minute the perspective you use.)   

Hard-ball candy version of the previous paragraph:   When you were a kid, how did you want to be seen and understood and treated?   If you have kids, how do you want them to be seen and understood and treated?   If you answered, "as part of a family and community that has worth," you got it.

Here is some information about the upcoming May 6th meeting of the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board, contact info for the board, as well as a letter from a lawyer.  The letter is a matter of public record and can be shared.

Kristen and COSAS have been invaluable leaders in the work to save Adult Schools and Adult Education.  Please stand up for them now.  Send an email.  Share the info.  And sign the Restore Protected Funding Petition.  Remind others that until all of us are all the way through this passage, none of us are truly safe.

It took some years for folks to connect with each other to form a larger movement to save Adult Schools and Adult Ed - but connect and form it we did.  Now is the time to use it!

WEST CONTRA COSTA ADULT ED NEEDS OUR SUPPORT!

If you are unable to attend the board meeting on May 6th, please take a moment to send an email to West Contra Costa Unified School District Board members and stand up for our friends at WCCAE.  Kristen Pursley and many of the members of COSAS (Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools) work at WCCAE.  They have done a tremendous amount of work to secure the future of Adult Ed statewide and now they need all of us to support their efforts to save their school.

Here are the email addresses of the board members:

toddagroves@gmail.com randallenos@sbcglobal.net mkronen@aol.com LizBlock@comcast.net  Valerie.Cuevas@wccusd.net  Click here for their phone numbers. Ask them NOT to close adult ed classes. Ask them NOT to lay off adult ed teachers. Ask them NOT to cut the babysitting staff. Ask them to support their adult ed teachers and provide them with the rights they deserve, as mandated by law. Tell them that  ADULT EDUCATION MATTERS  and we stand together in the struggle  to secure the future of K-12 Adult Ed in California.

LAW OFFICES OF

ROBERT J. BEZEMEK ROBERT J. BEZEMEK

PATRICIA LIM A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION

DAVID CONWAY THE LATHAM SQUARE BUILDING

1611 TELEGRAPH AVE., SUITE 936

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94612

Telephone: (510) 763-5690 ! Facsimile (510) 763-4255

April 16, 2015

Superintendent Bruce Harter, Ph.D.

West Contra Costa Unified School District

1108 Bissell Avenue, Room 100

Richmond, CA 94801

President and Members of the Board of Education

of the West Contra Costa Unified School District

1108 Bissell Avenue

Richmond, CA 94801

West Contra Costa Adult Education

Re: Rights of Adult Education academic employees

Dear Superintendent Harter and Members of the Board of Education,

     I write on behalf of Adult School Teachers United (“ASTU”), a labor organization

composed of academic employees employed by the District at the West Contra Costa Adult

Education unit. The faculty of the West Contra Costa Adult Education schools are presently not

represented by an exclusive bargaining agent.

     This letter has several purposes. First, to notify the District that the West Contra Costa

Adult Education schools are currently being organized for purposes of representation under the

EERA by the ASTU. This letter provides this notice to assure that the District takes no action to

interfere, restrain, coerce or discriminate against employees in regard to their rights of selforganization under the law.

     Second, to bring to the District’s attention a number of District actions which violate the

California Education Code, and to request that it take prompt and effective action to remedy

these violations.

     Third, to assure that the District understands that it has a legal obligations to meet and

confer with a labor organization representing some of its otherwise unrepresented employees,

West Contra Costa Unified School District even when that organization has not yet achieved exclusive recognition by the District, or certification by the Public Employment Relations Board as an exclusive bargaining agent of Adult School employees.

     Having had extensive experience with the West Contra Costa Unified School District in

prior years,1 I hope that the District will act promptly to rectify various matters discussed in this

letter.

I. Organizing of Adult Education Employees

     The ASTU hereby gives formal notice to the District that it is conducting a campaign to

organize the unrepresented West Contra Costa Adult Education academic employees. ASTU

wishes to remind the District that employees are entitled to engage in union organizational

activities on school premises, during non-work time. .

     In addition, we emphasize that the District and its Adult Education division is forbidden

by the Educational Employment Relations Act (“EERA”) from interfering, restraining or

coercing employees in their exercise of their organizational rights. To that end, the District is

prohibited from engaging in surveillance of union activities, and is forbidden from taking action

to discourage employees from choosing to organize a labor organization or from seeking

recognition from the District. This letter is not a demand for recognition as an exclusive

representative, but it does ask that the District acknowledge its statutory duty to confer with

ASTU as a representative of unorganized employees of the Adult Education Division (“Adult

School”).

II. The Right of ASTU to Meet and Confer With the District

and to Represent Its Members

     The PERB has consistently affirmed the rights of non-exclusive organizations such as

ASTU to meet with the District, and to receive notice from the District, of policy actions which

may affect the wages, hours or terms and conditions of Adult School employees. Mt. Diablo

Unified School District. (1977) EERB Decision No. 44. Clovis Unified School District (1984)

PERB Decision No. 389 and Santa Monica Community College District (1977) PERB Decision

No. 103; Los Angeles Unified School District (1983) PERB Decision No. 285.

______________________________________

     1 In 1991 I represented the Richmond Federation of Teachers, and various individuals, in

legal action which ultimately compelled the State of California to provide funds to keep the

District operating. See, e.g. Butt v. State of California, 4 Cal. 4th 668 (1992). And in 1994 I filed

suit against the District on behalf of CRTA Protect, a group of retirees who represented nearly

2,000 WCCUSD retired employees. This lawsuit, which resulted in an unpublished appellate

opinion, was eventually settled, restoring much of the lost benefits to the retirees.

West Contra Costa Unified School District

     For instance, in Summerville Elementary School District (1992) PERB Dec. No. 856 16

PERC ¶ 23170, PERB again explained that a “district was obligated to meet and discuss

proposed terms and conditions of employment with [a] union as nonexclusive representative.”

     Former PERB General Counsel and later ALJ William P. Smith cogently summarized the

rights of a non-exclusive union in 1988,

“ EERA guarantees a nonexclusive representative certain statutory rights e.g., the right to

represent its members, the right of reasonable access to school facilities, and the dues

deduction.5 In addition, the Board has held that, so long as no exclusive representative

exists a nonexclusive representative has the right to represent its members in grievance

procedures. See Mt. Diablo Unified School District, et al. (1977) EERB Decision No. 44.

Clovis Unified School District (1984) PERB Decision No. 389 and Santa Monica

Community College District (1977) PERB Decision No. 103.

In Los Angeles Unified School District (1983) PERB Decision No. 285, the Board did not

decide the full parameters of the nonexclusive representatives' rights but held that they

did include the right to meet and discuss subjects that are as fundamental to the

employment relationship as wages and fringe benefits.” Butte Community College

District, 12 PERC ¶ 19144, 1988 WL 1588982 (ALJ William P. Smith 1988)

Another PERB ALJ summarized a non-exclusive Union’s rights in this way:

“PERB has held, however, that in the absence of an exclusive representative, an employer

with knowledge that a non-exclusive representative represents employees affected by an

alleged unilateral change has an obligation to provide, at a minimum, notice and an

opportunity to meet and discuss with the employer subjects that are fundamental to the

employment relationship such as wages and fringe benefits, etc. (See Los Angeles

Unified School District (1983) PERB Decision No. 285 ( Los Angeles ).) Although the

full scope of the duty to consult has not been determined, it appears to require that the

employer consider the employee organization's proposals, but does not require an attempt

to reach a negotiated written agreement. (See San Dieguito Union High School District

(1977) EERB20 Decision No. 22, reversed on other grounds, and Los Angeles. )” San

Luis Obispo County Community College District, 20 PERC ¶ 27128 (1996)

ASTU’s right to represent its members is an enumerated right within section 3543.1(a) of

the Government Code.

As the above authorities explain, the District is legally obligated to meet with ASTU,

upon its request, to discuss pending complaints, described below. While this letter is not a

request to meet, ASTU recognizes that such a meeting may prove beneficial in resolving issues

West Contra Costa Unified School District identified in this letter.

III. The District’s Failure to Properly Classify Adult School Employees

and Provide Letters of Assignment

     ASTU believes that the District has misclassified its Adult School teachers as “substitute”

teachers. In fact, as provided for in the Education Code, nearly all adult education employees are

either temporary or permanent employees, possessing the rights which accompany that status.

     Substitute employees are clearly defined in Education Code section 44917 as being

employees who fill the positions of other employees, who are “absent from service.”. This

section states that,

     “Except as provided in Sections 448881 and 44920, governing boards of school districts

     shall classify as substitute employees those persons employed in positions requiring

     certification qualifications, to fill positions of regularly employed persons absent from

     service.” (Emphasis added.)

     Despite this mandatory requirement, the District has inaccurately classified its regular,

probationary or temporary adult school employees as “substitutes.” This inaccurate designation,

unless corrected, could serve to deprive them of benefits to which they are entitled under various

California laws, such as the Unemployment Insurance Code. Temporary adult school employees

are entitled to unemployment benefits under the case of Cervisi case, (Cervisi v. California

Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, 208 Cal. App. 3d 635 (1989))

     ASTU is aware that many Adult School teachers have served many years, teaching the

same subjects in the same schools. Some have taught the same class more than 10 years. We

assume the District is aware of this situation.

     Second, the Education Code assures that adult education teachers are eligible for, and

should be classified as, permanent, probationary or temporary, depending on their employment

history. First take a look at section 44925.25:

§ 44929.25. Adult class teachers

When a teacher of classes for adults serves sufficient probationary time as

provided in Sections 44929.20 to 44929.23, inclusive, and Section 44908 to be

eligible for election to permanent classification in that district, his or her

tenure shall be for the service equivalent to the average number of hours per

week that he or she has served during his or her probationary years. In no

case shall the employee be classified as permanent for more than one full-time

assignment. The service for which the person has acquired tenure may be reduced

in conformity with Sections 44955 and 44956.

Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, in a district that has, or in a

district that is one of two or more districts governed by governing boards of

identical personnel that have a combined average daily attendance of 400,000 or

more, as shown by the annual report of the county superintendent of schools for

the preceding fiscal year, no person who is assigned 10 hours or less a week in

adult classes in the district shall be eligible for election to permanent classification

in the district on account of the assignment in adult classes.

Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, any person who is

employed to teach adults for not more than 60 percent of the hours per week

considered a full-time assignment for permanent employees having

comparable duties shall be classified as a temporary employee, and shall not

become a probationary employee under the provisions of Section 44954.

     From what ASTU has been able to determine, the District has been referring to adult

school teachers as “substitutes,” even though they do not substitute for anyone, and have taught

their own classes for years. The ASTU wants to be certain that regular, probationary and

temporary adult school faculty are recognized and classified in these classifications, and not

erroneously treated as “substitues.”

     Next, the District has not been annually notifying adult school teachers of their

classification status, despite a mandatory legal duty to do so. In this regard, the Education Code

is also quite clear. Education Code section 44916 requires that at the time of initial employment,

and annually thereafter, the employee must receive a written statement of employment

status:

The classification shall be made at the time of employment and thereafter in the

month of July of each school year. At the time of initial employment during each

academic year, each new certificated employee of the school district shall receive a

written statement indicating his employment status and the salary that he is to be paid. If

a school district hires a certificated person as a temporary employee, the written

statement shall clearly indicate the temporary nature of the employment and the

length of time for which the person is being employed. If a written statement does

not indicate the temporary nature of the employment, the certificated employee

shall be deemed to be a probationary employee of the school district, unless

employed with permanent status. (Section 44916, emphasis added)

     It appears that this year the District did not provide a written statement of classification to

many, if not all, adult school teachers. ASTU requests that the District promptly come into

compliance with section 44916.

     In prior years, ASTU understands that letters of assignment were usually explicit as to the

contingent nature of the assignment: a minimum number of students was required. Previously,

such assignment letters explained that if that minimum class enrollment could not be sustained,

the class could be closed and the District could not guarantee employment for the teacher within

that semester (nor, implicitly, at any future time.)

      The District Adult Education catalogue continues to be explicit that there are class size

minimums below which a class will be cancelled.

     In order for the District to comply with the law, not only must these letters be issued but

they should be clear about the various contingencies (attendance minimums, funding, program

changes) that might lead to the abrupt termination of the teacher’s services.

IV. District’s Failure to Properly Credit and Apply Sick Leave for Adult School Employees

     Finally, there is the issue of sick leave credit. In accordance with Education Code section

44978, adult education teachers are entitled to and do earn Sick Leave. Section 44978 provides as

follows:

Every certificated employee employed five days a week by a school district shall be

entitled to 10 days' leave of absence for illness or injury and additional days in addition

thereto as the governing board may allow for illness or injury, exclusive of all days he or

she is not required to render service to the district, with full pay for a school year of

service. A certificated employee employed for less than five schooldays a week shall be

entitled, for a school year of service, to that proportion of 10 days' leave of absence for

illness or injury as the number of days he or she is employed per week bears to five and is

entitled to additional days in addition thereto as the governing board may allow for

illness or injury to certificated employees employed for less than five schooldays a week.

Pay for any day of this absence shall be the same as the pay that would have been

received had the employee served during the day. Credit for leave of absence need not be

accrued prior to taking the leave by the employee and the leave of absence may be taken

at any time during the school year. If the employee does not take the full amount of leave

allowed in any school year under this section the amount not taken shall be accumulated

from year to year with additional days as the governing board may allow.

The governing board of each school district shall adopt rules and regulations requiring

and prescribing the manner of proof of illness or injury for the purposes of this section.

The rules and regulations shall not discriminate against evidence of treatment and the

need therefor by the practice of the religion of any well-recognized church or

denomination. (Section 44978, emphasis added)

     Despite this section, the District has advised many adult school teachers that they do not

earn, or have no accumulated sick leave, even though such sick leave has been accumulating for

years, as guaranteed by the Education Code. The accumulated hours of faculty should be printed

on some portion of every paycheck. The District has apparently failed to provide an on-going

and easily accessible accounting of sick leave for many many years, in violation of Education

Code section 44978.

     Board policy has historically specified that an adult education teacher accumulated 1 hour

of sick leave for every 17 hours worked. Yet the Adult School Administration has informed

teachers this year that they are not entitled to Sick Leave benefits. The comment, “Subs don’t

get sick leave” has been directed at regular temporary and permanent adult education teachers.

     Veteran teachers have many hours of sick leave accumulated, time which is credited to

their STRS accounts when they choose to retire. Any attempt to deprive them (or any teacher)

of previously accumulated hours is a serious violation of the law. It amounts to a form of wage

theft. Despite these oral statements by the Adult Education administration attempting to deny

eligibility for or accumulation of Sick Leave, there has been no formal notification, explanation

nor policy change in this matter, and no such change could deprive Adult School employees of

their rights to sick leave benefits. Because of the relationship of this leave to their retirement

benefits, it is critical that the District promptly rectify the problem.

V. Conclusion

     Adult school teachers are concerned about the situation described above. Therefore, on

their behalf, I respectfully request that the District review these matters and inform the the

undersigned in regard to what steps it will take to rectify the problems identified in this letter.

     Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or wish to discuss these matters.

                                                                                                  Sincerely,

                                                                                                  Robert J. Bezemek

                                                                                                  Counsel for ASTU

cc: ASTU

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