ITA President Message

The Way I See It
 
With all the talk about the success of public schools, one would want to know whom the academic leader is of the neighborhood school. It's not the teachers.

A good principal wears a lot of leadership hats. One is finance, which we hear a lot about, but also disciplinarian, community liaison, visionary, supervisor and evaluator. So what's most important?
 
A good principal has to be strong in the area of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. He/she is responsible for fully supporting teachers in doing what the state, school board and school district require. If they are really good, all the teachers under their leadership are performing up to state standards with students. Yes, all teachers under their leadership. It's a huge responsibility.

Good principals have years of successful experience in the classroom. They are supported by teachers, and they support good teaching. They are kind, not competetive. It's a symbiotic relationship, the measure of which should show up in student performance.

So, when the public wonders why some schools produce strong results, among other things, it is likely that the relationship between the teachers and the principal is healthy.
--

Tim Jamison, ITA President

Survey Monkey

There is a fine line between a survey and a member vote. To "survey" means to "inspect" or "research", and a vote is a determination or declaration. When ITA has an election, we use ballots. The votes make the decision. In using Survey Monkey data, we are reviewing information to use in the decision making process.

This all seems elementary, until someone takes a survey (like the one for the school calendars). "Didn't we vote to take a week off for Thanksgiving?" or "I don't know anyone who voted for that!" makes it seem like there is confusion about how the decisions are made for our calendar.

By contract, our calendar is negotiated. Other employee groups in IUSD negotiate the calendar also. All the information from the surveys and the committee's gets weighed against the instructional implications as well as the political fallout and implementation success. School for students, for example cannot end on a Monday or Tuesday in June. We also cannot have an imbalance in the number of instructional days in the first and second half of the year. The year round calendar and the traditional calendar have to work together, and our clerks and custodians have to be working when school is in session.

These are the calendar issues that are currently being sorted out by all groups involved. When the process is ready to come to the negotiations table, the final decision for ITA members gets made. That decision is followed by a joint announcement.

This is a round-a-bout way of saying thank you for helping ITA in the decision making process. We use the information we collect to bargain a calendar that is as close as possible to member choice. By mid January, 2012, we should all know how the next two school years will look. If you participated in the survey, you made a difference.

Benefits All

ITA leadership has committed to do what we can to inform our members on ways to reduce the rate of the increase in costs of our health benefits plan.  Being informed consumers helps us all manage the cost of our insurance plan. 

So how do we keep costs down both for ourselves and the district?  Below are a few ideas.

  • Use health care providers who are covered by our plan
  • Avoid using the Emergency Room whenever possible
  • Purchase name brand medications through the mail
  • Purchase generic medications through Costco
  • Read the benefits updates that come email from IUSD
  • If you have a question, call the number on the back of your health card

Each of us can make a difference in our overall health benefits costs.  And … since we experience compensation as a combination of salary and benefits, less funding toward benefits means we have a greater opportunity to increase salary! 

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