January Letter to Delegates
Dear Delegates,
We hope you’ve been receiving our mailings at your schools and our leaflets at the monthly delegate meetings. Today, our goal is to point out a few differences between ours and other caucuses. We are confident our message stands above the others.
The S.E.A. approach is the most realistic. For example, while other groups are calling for an end to Renaissance 2010, we recognize this program has gained national attention by closing so called “failing” schools. The S.E.A. realizes that stopping this program, given the current political climate, could be close to impossible. We further understand that the Board of Education could re-open these schools under their “performance model” employing CTU teachers under the protection of the Chicago Teachers Union contract. The current situation allows union members in schools slated for closure to ultimately lose their jobs. The S.E.A. platform includes a specific proposal to protect these teachers’ jobs.
We would require CPS provide members time to obtain new certification whenever CPS changes the direction of a school’s program. The alternative has been organizing charter schools with another union. This measure does not protect our members, but effectively weakens the CTU by eating away at our membership.
The S.E.A. is the only group with a plan to bring members of all caucuses together on committees, as convention delegates, and full-time CTU staffers. No other caucus can claim this, and if they should, their past actions do not demonstrate a commitment to this approach.
The S.E.A. leadership believes the only way to confront a power like CPS is through a unified front. If elected, we will organize the first multi-caucused leadership able to run CTU operations from Day One. We must all help change the course our union has taken. However, our current choices include caucuses that suffer from appeals to emotion, personal agendas, and inexperience. And as we have stated before;
“A FAILED PAST CANNOT TRANSLATE INTO A PROMISING FUTURE”.
The members at your school deserve the best option. Look into the School Employee Alliance and you’ll find a group of school employees, diverse in age and background, with a vested interest in the next decade of Board/Union relations. Visit our website to see our officer candidates for the May, 2010 election! New videos from members will let you see who we are, and why the S.E.A. is the only alternative to the current elected leaders who promote divisive “business as usual”.
Finally, one of our co-founders, Pamela Touras-Andrikopoulos, (P.T.A.), Delegate for McPherson Elementary School has an opportunity to become the only member of the current Executive Board that is not also a member of Marilyn Stewart’s UPC! Thank you for supporting her at last month’s House of Delegates meeting, and we hope you’ll further support her in the runoff at this month’s meeting.
