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Park Ridge Education Association

 

President's Message

10-27-14

The fall is proving to be a busy time of year both within District 64 and the State of Illinois. The nominating period has begun for candidates for the District 64 school board.  With one year remaining on our current contract, the newly-elected Board members will be responsible for negotiating the new contract with PREA.  A number of PREA members have been working to recruit candidates from the community and the District is running an “ABC’s of  School Board Service” coffee on Tuesday evening at 7:00 on Tuesday, October 28 which we are encouraging candidates to attend.

Additionally, Tony Belmonte is chairing the PREA Board Election Committee and is looking for interested members to join him.  This committee will help to inform the community about candidate backgrounds and make recommendations on supporting individual candidates.  Please contact Tony if you can help out on this important committee.

Also, as you know, the gubernatorial race is in full swing and IEA has been working hard to inform all members of its recommendation to vote against Bruce Rauner.  Without getting into all the details, Mr. Rauner has pledged to follow in the footsteps of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker.  Posted in the “Decision 2014” section to the left is a video that was forwarded to me by a PREA member in which Wisconsin teachers share stories on how the changes implemented by Governor Walker have affected them. Please check out all the election information from IEA.

On a brighter note, during each home Bears game, two teachers are recognized on the Soldier Field screen as Symetra Heroes in the Classroom.  Outstanding teachers can be nominated through the Heroes in the Classroom website (http://symetraheroes.com/index.php/team/chicago-bears).  It would be great to see a District 64 teacher recognized at a future game!

Finally, you may not know about Senate Bill 16, which is working its way through the Illinois Legislature.  The consequences of the passing of this bill could be severe for future contract negotiations.  The following is from a recent conversation I had with Dr. Heinz..: “District 64 is closely monitoring action in Springfield on an effort to shift funding from “wealthy” school districts to others with fewer local property tax resources.  District 64 is estimated to lose $2.3 million each year -- or 3/4 of our state funding.  Maine Township High School District 207 is projected to lose $6.5 million in state resources annually.  Senate Bill 16 passed the state senate in May 2014. All 39 school districts in northern Cook County would be stripped of more than $104 million overall in state funds each year, leaving local property taxpayers to fill the gap and/or local schools to slash programs and cut teachers. If enacted, SB 16 would have a real impact on District 64 schools. The bill is currently under review by the House of Representatives; a vote is expected after the November election.”

Thanks for reading, and I encourage all of you to involve yourselves in the local and state elections that affect our teaching careers!  

My best,  Andy

 

 

09-17-14

Hello Educators of District 64 and the Park Ridge/ Niles community.


I hope you have noticed the new look of the PREA website.  We would like PREAonline.com to become a more useful resource for all members and a good vehicle for us to communicate with the broader Park Ridge and Niles community.  I look forward to posting new President’s Messages frequently throughout the year updating you on PREA’s work.


Although 2014-15 is not a negotiations year, we still have a very busy calendar.  The PREA Executive Board meets frequently with Dr. Heinz and her administration to work collaboratively to better the product that District 64 delivers to the families of our community.  We are committed to facilitating communication between teachers and administrators of all that is occurring in the classrooms and the hallways of each of our buildings --to share our concerns as well as our successes.  Dr. Heinz and I have also partnered to ensure that, at least monthly, meaningful conversations occur between each building’s principal and the PREA building reps.  We believe that this is an important step in improving communication at each school.  The PREA Executive Board will work to make sure that conversations are relevant and that administration follows through on any concerns that require action. Thank you to all of our building reps who are a part of this communication process.  Please let me know how I can help to make those conversations more meaningful.


This spring, the District 64 School Board will have a majority of the seven board member positions open for re-election.  It is PREA’s obligation to participate in the process of this election by recruiting quality candidates and helping them through the sometimes-arduous process of registering and running a campaign.  Tony Belmonte of Franklin School has stepped up to lead our Board Elections committee.  We are now looking for members to join Tony in this important work.  Their first meeting will be on Monday, September 22 in room 135 of Franklin School at 4:00. Thank you in advance for contacting Tony (abelmonte@d64.org) if you are interested.


PREA and the District continue to move forward on establishing our joint PERA committee.  This mandated committee will begin the process of evaluating our current evaluation tool and determining how the student growth component will be implemented.  Tom Nasshan and Erin Breen are working closely with Dr. Lopez (formerly Hinton) on this task.  Updates will be made available as the work progresses.  


Also, as I mentioned previously, we will begin the process of negotiating a new contract with the Board during the 2015-16 school year.  In preparation, a whole new slate of six (plus the president) PREA negotiators will be elected this spring as set out in our recently updated by-laws (which will soon be available on this website).   Please consider running for one of these positions.  I can’t stress how important it is to have a variety of schools and teaching assignments represented in this group.


Finally, your friends at the IEA office are working diligently to spread the word about the state and local elections this November.  We hope you can join us for a Get Out the Vote rally at the Old Orchard Maggiano’s on Friday, September 26.  We are looking for at least ten PREA members to attend so please spread the word.


Thank you for considering becoming more active in your PREA.  Please join me in whatever capacity you can as we can continuing to improve the educational experience in District 64.


My best,  Andy Duerkop, PREA President

 

 


08-14

Hello PREA member and welcome back to another school year!

 The PREA is anticipating a busy but productive school year and I would like to take a few minutes to update you on recent activities and future opportunities. Thanks, in advance, for taking the time to read this update.

Last spring, PREA created the Public Outreach Committee, headed by Emerson teacher Cindy Davies, with the goal of making the District 64 teachers more visible within the community and establishing ourselves as an impactful organization in Park Ridge.  Cindy and the other committee members have done an outstanding job beginning with the creation of a new PREA logo which you can see below

 Outreach Committee members participated, this summer, at the Park Ridge Farmers' Market creating veggie prints, playing bags, reading books, painting faces, handing out frisbees, and most importantly, connecting with the community. Thank you to all of the members who took time out of their summer schedules to make this event a success. 

The Committee has another opportunity to connect with the community at the Park Ridge Farmer's Market on Saturday, September 6th from 9:00-12:00.  Please consider giving an hour of your time to participate in this outreach event.   If you are interested in volunteering please click here. Contact Caroline Schaab (cschaab@d64.org) with questions.  

 At the July Farmer's Market the committee also debuted our new PREA t-shirts with a fresh new logo.   To show our appreciation for each PREA Member (or "Educator of District 64") we have a t-shirt for each member!    Check out the pic below. 

Shirt

These new shirts will be distributed to each member outside of Emerson School before the opening day assembly on Monday, August 25th.  Feel free to wear your new shirt when you receive it.  ​Hopefully you can plan your "first day of school" outfit accordingly to accommodate your new shirt!​  Also, please join us in wearing your shirt on the first Friday of the month.    If you are interested in purchasing more gear with the PREA logo on it, click here to be taken to our Cafe Press shop.  

The Outreach Committee looks forward to planning regular events in the community and hopes that each member can try to attend at least one.  If you have any questions, comments, or you would like to participate in this committee, please reach out to one of our committee members. 

Also, as many of you know, school board elections will take place this spring.  To help PREA take a proactive role in the recruitment and election of new school board members, we have also established a new Board Member Recruitment committee, headed by teacher Tony Belmonte. We hope this committee will help recruit strong candidates, help them through the election process, educate the membership and make recommendations as we approach election time.  As we all know, our board members have a huge impact on what we do daily and as we begin negotiating a new contract next year, we want to be as hands-on as possible in recruiting and electing members who are going to serve our students and community best.

Thanks in advance for your support and participation of both of these great new committees.  Both offer great opportunities to become involved in PREA.  Of course another way to become involved is to become a PREA Building Rep.  Outside of monthly meetings, the time commitment is usually minimal and I am working with Dr. Heinz to make the position even more collaborative and influential with the school principals for the upcoming year.  We always welcome new Building Reps. 

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading.  I am looking forward to a great year.  

My best, 
Andy Duerkop
PREA President