Dear Friends and Colleagues-

Years ago, many of you know that I worked in private industry before teaching. I worked for a Fortune 500 company that got its start making gunpowder, over 200 years ago. The making and storing of this material was so dangerous that whole factories could explode, taking the lives of all the employees and any neighbors living close by. To ensure the safety of these places, the company required its “Plant Managers” to live at the site, with their wives and children, in homes built right next to the factory wall, across the yard from the storage facilities. Sounds draconian, right? Guess what? Not a single one of them ever exploded, nor were there any other industrial accidents at these places, because these plant managers knew that they and their wives and kids went up in smoke if they did not keep them 100% safe. They kept them 100% safe. I am writing this story because right now we have a situation brewing in which the gunpowder is compliance with QEIA requirements. The explosion is what could happen in many teachers’ lives – the loss of their jobs,  if there is not absolute compliance with QEIA class-size and API growth requirements.

As most of you already know, waivers are already pending for innocent mistakes in compliance with QEIA class size requirements, made due to shifting of funds and resources due to the budget situation last year. LTA is strongly in support of those waivers, and has been advocating that they be granted all the way up to the state level, with CTA and the CDE.

We have just learned that, sadly, additional errors in class sizes have been made this year in the last few days, at 2 schools: Felton and LMS6. It was only in a few classes, only for a few days, but it has happened. These mistakes once again violate the QEIA class-size provisions. Attached is a letter to Dr. Navarro requesting a public meeting regarding these further errors in compliance with QEIA class-size requirements. So serious is this, that many teachers’ jobs could be lost long before the end of the 2014-2015 school year, when QEIA funding ends. Is it likely that more waivers might be granted next year, having already been warned with such strong consequences this year by the CDE, for mistakes made last year?

I will let you know of Dr. Navarro’s response as soon as possible.

Thanks!
Julie Smith – President
Lennox Teachers Association

Letter to Dr. Navarro