As LA T eachers Reach A D eal, Denver Authorizes A S trike And Oakland Schedules A V ote

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‘They’re striking for Denver students’

Teachers in Colorado’s biggest school district voted Tuesday to license a strike after more than a year of settlements. However the strike will not begin Monday, as planned. Here’s why. The district asked the Department of Labor and Work to action in and moderate. The intervention could hold-up a strike for up to 180 days. In a declaration, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association said they were “disappointed in the District’s choice to include a 3rd celebration to hold-up our strike rather than negotiating in excellent faith with teachers in Denver.” Educators and their supporters came out in numbers to a district board of education meeting on Thursday, shouting and marching outside prior to pleading with board members and the superintendent not to have the state intervene, as Colorado Public Radio’s Jenny Brundin reported.

The main concern is teacher pay. The union wants higher base salaries, more opportunities for raises, and less dependence on an reward system that benefits teachers who work in high-poverty schools or whose trainees score well on tests. The district states these rewards assistance attract and keep teachers in schools that are otherwise hard to personnel.

Until the strike can legally begin, instructors are anticipated to report to work as typical.

Los Angeles instructor: ‘Everybody got something’

A six-day strike by Los Angeles instructors ended this week after 81 percent of ballot union members authorized a deal with the city’s school district. The strike began on Jan. 14 after 2 years of settlements and over a year of working without a contract. The union pressed for minimized class sizes and more nurses, counselors, and curators in schools. The tentative agreement, approved on Tuesday, includes a lot of what instructors were asking for, however some believe the deal didn’t go far enough. Others were relieved to have reached a deal.

“Nobody got everything, however everyone got something,” Jennifer Liebe-Zelazny, a fourth-grade teacher at Alta Loma Elementary School, told NPR.

Oakland teachers set strike vote for Jan. 29

Meanwhile in Northern California, the Oakland Education Association called for a strike permission vote to start Jan. 29. Union members will have four days to vote. The union, which represents around 2,300 instructors throughout the Oakland Unified School District, has been without a agreement because July 2017.

The union desires smaller class sizes, more school nurses and counselors, and a 12 percent raise over the next three years. The district has actually provided a 5 percent raise.

A hearing by a state-appointed mediator is scheduled for Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. After the hearing, the union can lawfully strike.

This would be Oakland’s very first strike in about 8 years. Teachers walked out for one day in 2010, and for 26 days in 1996.

New charter CEO updates policies: ‘We constantly have to evolve.’

Students who pressed for modification at Chicago’s biggest charter network are commemorating this week after their new CEO did away with policies that some felt were unjust.

Noble Network of Charter School’s student handbook describes a gown code that permits hair to be colored “only in a natural human hair color” with no visible tattoos or body piercings. It likewise includes a policy that permits trainees in the corridor during class time only when they are accompanied by a personnel member.

Students 4 Modification, a group made up of students from throughout the 17- school network, spoke at board conferences and assisted arrange feedback sessions with moms and dads and administrators last fall.

In a letter to parents, the network’s brand-new CEO, Constance Jones, revealed a change that would enable trainees and staff to program tattoos, wear piercings, and pick their hairdos easily, as long as they did not promote drug use, violence, or indecency. The brand-new gown code went into effect this week. In uniformity with students and personnel, Jones checked out a number of of the network’s campuses Tuesday with her own hair colored purple.

She told NPR that beginning next fall, the student escort policy will be updated so that it no longer consists of trainee journeys to the bathroom. Students 4 Modification said escorts to the restroom were “unfair and unnecessary.”

Jones, who is Noble’s first African-American and woman CEO, states the modifications are part of an effort to more carefully line up the network’s policies with its values. Jones said that the network will constantly be “laser-focused” on its objective to empower students to prosper in college and in life. But when it comes to updating policies, “we constantly have to progress,” she informed NPR.

The Noble network, which began in 1999, serves 12,000 trainees throughout Chicago. Practically 98 percent of students are of color.

Kevin Durant steps into the after school arena

A new, after school facility opened in Prince George’s County, Md., this week. And the Durant Center bears the name of a Maryland native: Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant. So far, the center has 69 students and prepares to offer academic and financial help, social-emotional services, and college and profession advice.

The Durant Center is a partnership with College Track, an organization that uses a 10- year plan to assistance teenagers through grade school and college. Durant has already pledged $10 million to College Track.