Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/32596
Build your skills at CTA’s Summer Institute left: At the first general session of Summer Institute 2010, Bridget Holderman and Champ Clark of Garden Grove Education Association use texting to urge Congress to pass the education jobs bill. more knowledgeable about school finance and school district budgets, this session includes tracking the trends of budget pri- orities, calculating the cost of a bargaining proposal, determin- ing a district’s ability to pay, and developing comparability data to support bargaining objectives. Healthcare Benefits and Issues Center. This event offers a vari- ety of trainings designed to assist chapters in day-to-day representation, help teachers build leadership skills, and improve teaching and learning. C Negotiations and Organi- zational Development Strand — The NOD Strand of- fers five full-week tracks. Emerging Leaders — De- signed to arm members who are beginning their activism with the information, resources and skills needed to become effective orga- nizers and future leaders in their local chapter, this track includes the basic concepts of unionism and advocacy, union history and structure, and effective organiz- ing techniques. This track does not cover bargaining or grievance representation skills. Essential Bargaining Skills — In this highly interactive session, designed to guide participants in the use of a 10-step process to en- 26 California Educator | MAY 2011 TA’s Summer Institute 2011 will be held July 31 to Aug. 5 at UCLA’s Conference sure a successful bargaining ex- perience, participants will form bargaining teams, bargain an agreement, and work through extensive coaching and debrief- ing sessions to determine which strategies were successful. Partic- ipants must attend every session from Sunday afternoon to Friday morning. Advanced Bargaining Skills — This track will teach the skills needed to fully prepare for and implement successful bargaining programs. Topics include orga- nizing for power, developing infrastructures for support, infor- mation-gathering to engage members and their communities, leveraging data and power to your advantage, impasse media- tion and fact-finding. Partici- pants must have three years of experience on a local bargaining team, or have previously com- pleted the Essential Bargaining Skills track and one year of expe- rience on a local bargaining team. School Finance — Designed for leaders and bargaining team members who want to become for Active Members and Retirees — This track will focus on bar- gaining health benefits in order to increase the quality of care and re- duce costs, and will also inform members about current local, state and national medical health care reform measures, current activi- ties of CTA coalitions, and Medicare benefits for retirees. Par- ticipants should be prepared to discuss their Summary Plan De- scriptions, contract language and other information pertaining to their locally bargained medical benefits program. Legal Strand —The Legal De- partment offers two introductory half-week tracks. Participants may register for either or both. Track 1 (Sunday–Tuesday) — This track will focus on “group” labor and employment issues, in- cluding basic union and employ- ee rights under the Educational Employment Relations Act, the legal framework for bargaining, unfair practice issues, duty of fair representation issues, and Brown Act open meeting issues. Topics will include: the rights of mem- bers to union representation; du- ty of fair representation — best practices to protect your chapter from DFR liability; union activi- ties that are protected by labor laws; what actions by the district can be successfully challenged by filing an unfair practice charge; and how to use the Brown Act ef- fectively. Track 2 (Wednesday–Friday) — This track will focus on “indi- vidual” labor and employment is- sues, including the rights of union members under antidis- crimination laws, the rights of ed- ucational employees to a safe and healthy workplace, discipline and dismissal procedure under the Education Code, and cyberlaw is- sues. Topics will include: employ- ment discrimination and sexual harassment; disability discrimi- nation and reasonable accommo- dation; discipline and dismissal; leave of absence issues; school health and safety issues; and cyberlaw, texting, MySpace and Facebook — best practices in a hyperconnected world. Instruction and Profes- sional Development Strand — The full-week IPD Strand will focus on “Transition- ing to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics.” Teams of teachers, administrators, curricu- lum coordinators and other edu- cators will be offered up-to-date information and training on the transition from current state standards to the CCSS. Topics in- clude academic content stan- dards, performance assessment, framework adoption, textbook adoption, professional develop- ment, alignment with current standards, planning for the tran- sition, and developing a clear, purposeful vision for your school Photo by Bridget Lockhart, Garden Grove Education Association