Unions say Minnesota’s new labor board is ‘superior in every way,’ but its future remains uncertain

June 9, 2021 by

As negotiations over a new, two-year budget come down to the wire, Minnesota lawmakers this month will determine the fate of a newly opened state agency dedicated to keeping public-sector labor disputes out of court.

Public-sector workers and their unions are pushing lawmakers to fully fund the Public Employment Relations Board, which began accepting unfair-labor-practice complaints from employers, unions and employees in July 2020.

Previously, those complaints would land in district court, where they might languish for a year or longer as parties on both sides racked up legal fees.

In a press conference today, union leaders and DFL legislators called the PERB a faster, more cost effective and accessible way to settle charges of unfair labor practices in the public sector.

“It is superior in every way to having to litigate a dispute about whether the district violated (labor law) in court,” St. Paul Federation of Educators President Nick Faber said, noting that the district’s legal fees take “resources out of the classroom.”

When they established the PERB in 2014, state lawmakers modeled it after the National Labor Relations Board, charged with upholding federal labor law in the private sector. Rather than going to court, private-sector workers and employers file any charges of unfair labor practices with the NLRB.

Delores Flynn, a home care worker from Roseville, said members of her union filed a complaint with the PERB last year, after growing frustrated with a lack of clarity from state agencies over how a temporary pay increase related to the pandemic would be administered. Workers’ complaint received a hearing last month.

“Whatever the ruling is, there was a fair process for both sides – the union and the state agencies – to make our legal arguments and be heard,” said Flynn, a member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. “That is how it should be – not just for us in home care but for all public-sector workers.”

But like most issues that unions pushed lawmakers to prioritize this year, funding for the PERB is caught in a standoff between the DFL-controlled House and the Republican Senate.

In their omnibus jobs bill, House DFLers signed off on the agency’s funding request of roughly $1 million over the next two years. But Republicans’ version of the bill would defund the PERB and explicitly direct public-sector complaints back into district court until July 1, 2023.

In today’s press conference, House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler Winkler slammed Republicans for “being held hostage to an ideological agenda that opposes organized labor.”

Rep. Mohamud Noor, lead author of the House bill, said Republicans refuse to acknowledge the efficiencies the PERB offers both for public-sector workers and for the cities, counties, school districts and state agencies that employ them.

“This is truly a more innovative process,” Noor said.

Lawmakers are set to return for a special session next week. They must pass 14 budget bills into law by June 30 to avoid risking a state government shutdown.

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Wait for vaccines to reopen schools, St. Paul educators say

January 18, 2021 by

Hamza Dirie, 9, shows support for teachers’ safety during a car rally staged by the St. Paul Federation of Educators.

St. Paul educators, parents and community members wary of the district’s plan to resume in-person learning staged a car rally Jan. 12, calling on administrators to hold off on reopening buildings until COVID-19 vaccines are available to school staff.

St. Paul Public Schools plans to begin a phased-in reopening of elementary schools and some other programs Feb. 1, with new guidelines, protocols and facilities upgrades in place to prevent the virus’ spread among students and staff.

Those measures drew skepticism from rally-goers like Brittany Livaccar, an emergency-room nurse at United Hospital who drove to the rally with her family of five. She said district leaders should reconsider their timeline now that restaurants, bars and gyms are open, and a more contagious strain of the virus is spreading.

“Our hospitals are going to be overwhelmed soon, so it’s really important we keep our students and teachers safe,” said Livaccar, a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association. “I know it’s difficult, but we can’t go backwards now, when our COVID numbers are still high and we don’t have a vaccine for everyone.”

The SPPS plan for reopening received a vote of no confidence from members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators Executive Board, the union’s president told supporters at the car rally.

“We want to keep our community safe, we want to keep our students safe and we want to keep our members safe,” SPFE President Nick Faber said. “That’s why we are here tonight.”

Union members and supporters will be back in the streets tomorrow, Jan. 19, rallying outside Central high school from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The district’s Board of Education is scheduled to meet later that evening.

Vaccines are coming

After across-the-board shutdowns last spring, Minnesota school districts have navigated COVID-19 differently during the 2020-21 school year. But none of the myriad local learning models has managed to avoid disruptions and frustrations resulting from the outbreak.

To create more certainty for the state’s youngest learners, Gov. Tim Walz in December eased guidelines for opening elementary schools, allowing districts to reopen classrooms even if community spread of the virus is higher than previously allowed.

But educators warn that, regardless of guidelines, community spread will impact schools’ ability to remain open – at least until their frontline workers are vaccinated.

SPFE President Nick Faber speaks at the rally, which was livestreamed on Facebook and Zoom for supporters in their cars.
United Hospital nurse Brittany Livaccar and her family join the SPFE rally.
SPFE members Mandi Jung (L) and Peggy Cobbins

“One of the hard lessons we’ve all learned from this pandemic is that you can’t operate schools when the virus is spreading too fast through the community because too many educators get sick or go into quarantine,” Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said. “Wearing masks, washing hands, keeping your distance – these are the choices that will decide when our school buildings reopen and stay open.”

Educators got some good news Jan. 18, when Walz’s administration unveiled a pilot program to prioritize vaccination of school staff and child care workers. But officials emphasized that the state’s allotment of vaccine doses from the federal government remains limited.

“While we do not have enough doses for everyone who wants a vaccine to receive one right away, we are building the system and structure so that once we receive those additional doses from the federal government, we can move quickly to support our school staff and bring even more students back into our classrooms,” Deputy Education Commissioner Heather Mueller said.

A plea for patience

At the rally in St. Paul last week, union members and parents urged district leaders to hold off on in-person learning until it’s clear students and educators returning to the classroom are there to stay.

“We are so close to finally feeling comfortable returning to our classrooms,” Bridge View elementary teacher Christin Fleming said. “Being vaccinated would be an absolute game changer.”

Reopening before it’s safe, SPFE leaders warned, will cost the district qualified educators at a time when they are in short supply.

Results of an Education Minnesota survey released last fall showed a majority of members who responded said teaching during the pandemic has left them stressed, anxious and overwhelmed. Nearly three in 10 were thinking about quitting or retiring, and applications for pension benefits were on the rise.

A post on SPFE’s social-media account in the days following the car rally reported that two kindergarten teachers assigned to in-person learning at one elementary school in the district already have resigned.

Janet Nelson has seen the attrition firsthand while working in the district’s child-care program for essential workers’ families. The SPFE member said staff turnover is a “constant challenge” for the program. Among staff assigned to the site when the school year began in September, Nelson said, she’s the only one still working there.

Faber and other union leaders pledged to keep pressure on SPPS to alter its course, urging supporters to sign an online petition to Superintendent Joe Gothard and contact members of the school board individually.

“It is not too late to turn this around,” Faber said.

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As new school year draws near, unions push districts for answers

August 24, 2020 by

Members of the White Bear Lake Area Educators rally before a school board meeting, urging the district to delay its plan to return to in-person classes.

As school districts across Minnesota prepare for a school year unlike any other, the union members who work in public education are pushing for a voice in decisions impacting their health – and the health of their communities.

State guidelines announced by Gov. Tim Walz in July set the ground rules for reopening public school buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic, but allow districts leeway to craft their own protocols.

What should not be optional, unions say, is collaboration and communication with their employees. But in several districts across the metro, union members are calling out administrators for looking past workers’ concerns as they push forward with plans to reopen.

“The communication that is received by staff and families is vague at best and non-existent at worst,” said Karin Hogan, an educator in the White Bear Lake Area Schools, where union members rallied before the school board tonight.

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“Educators are feeling extremely wary, scared and nervous about going back to school because of all of our unanswered questions surrounding safety, consistency, and educational quality,” Hogan said.

Until they get specific answers to those questions, union members want administrators to pump the brakes on in-person learning, set to begin Sept. 8 with a hybrid approach that combines in-person and at-home learning. In a survey of union members, 74% said they prefer distance learning to start the year.

“Our union is appreciative of the cooperation that the administration is currently showing with our negotiations committee. It is more than many other districts,” Hogan said. “However, it is not enough to address and alay our concerns.”

Unions representing school employees initially praised the governor’s reopening guidelines as data-driven and based in science.

But Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, stressed that readying school buildings would take a “tremendous amount of work,” and she cautioned local districts against settling for “safe enough” to meet arbitrary deadlines for starting classes.

“We know we have a lot of work to do before school can start this fall,” Kelly Gibbons, president of SEIU Local 284, added. “We are committed to doing everything in our power to make sure every district in the state, no matter what their plan may be, is putting the health and safety of students, staff and our communities before everything else.”

Already, local unions are reporting problems.

A White Bear Lake school board member listens as one of the district’s educators explains her concerns about plans to reopen school buildings.

Under Walz’s executive order, districts are required to accommodate staff members with health conditions that put them at elevated risk to COVID-19.

But Specht has said she is “deeply troubled” that educators’ requests for accommodation haven’t always been taken seriously. In a public statement, she listed several examples of complaints – some “plainly illegal” – Education Minnesota has heard from its members.

“We can and must do better,” Specht said. “Education Minnesota calls on school districts in this state to be model employers.”

The American Federation of Teachers has authorized educators to go on “safety strikes” during the pandemic as a last resort in efforts to secure certain protections on the job. But some metro districts are doing better by their employees without large-scale worker mobilizations.

In St. Paul, where the coronavirus cut short a contentious educator strike in March, administrators not only invited members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators to join work groups charged with planning for the fall semester, but took their input seriously, SPFE President Nick Faber said.

“Most of the discussion was around hybrid and returning to classrooms, what it would look like to go back,” Faber said. “It seemed like every time we answered a question or concern, it just opened up 50 more. It was just not logistically possible to do it safely.”

Tiffany Dittrich, president of the White Bear Lake Area Educators, speaks at the rally.

The St. Paul Public Schools will begin the school year with remote learning for all students, a move Faber characterized as the least-bad option on the table for SPFE members.

“Our members aren’t crazy about having to go back to teaching over a computer screen, often while their own kids are in the house somewhere,” he said. “But they know this is the safest way.”

Other metro-area school districts, including Roseville and Bloomington, have recently come to similar conclusions, postponing their initial plans for in-person classes due to safety concerns.

Tiffany Dittrich, president of the White Bear Lake educators union, hopes her district will do the same. Two weeks ago, she presented administrators with a list of over 100 questions about the safety and quality of instruction under the district’s back-to-school plan. Most remain unanswered, Dittrich said.

“I’m proud of the tireless work of our district leaders and teacher leaders throughout the entire summer to set the stage for our return this fall,” she said. “Yet there is much work that must still be done … and time is running far too short.”

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Nick Faber: Strike, contract campaign led to real gains for St. Paul schools

April 1, 2020 by

SPFE President Nick Faber (R) spoke at a union rally outside district headquarters.

– Nick Faber is president of the St. Paul Federation of Educators. He wrote this column for the April 2020 edition of The St. Paul Union Advocate newspaper.

No one should doubt St. Paul educators’ unwavering commitment to our students. We care so much about what our children need, we were willing to strike for them.  

And the short-term sacrifices we made during the three-day strike were worth the long-term gains made for our students and families and the collective power we built as educators.  

Our strike was about getting our students the resources they deserve and breaking down racial disparities in our schools, so all students, no matter what they look like or where they are from, can thrive and succeed.   

The contract ratified March 20 by members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators puts the St. Paul Public Schools on the path to building the schools our students deserve. 

The new contract guarantees the district will spend an additional $5 million to hire more counselors, social workers, intervention specialists, nurses, psychologists and bilingual educational assistants next school year to give students the mental health and multilingual support they need. 

Educators understand how important these supports are to the health and well-being of our students and families. In the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey, 19 percent of eighth-grade girls in St. Paul Public Schools said they seriously considered suicide in the last year. And 40 percent of fifth-graders agreed with the statement, “I worry a lot.” We need more staff to tend to these increasing mental-health needs. 

Hiring more staff who speak different languages also is critical so all families feel welcome and supported at their school. Families in St. Paul schools speak 129 different languages, but many don’t have access to multilingual staff to help them feel welcome and fully participate in their school community. SPPS only has 13 full-time Spanish interpreter positions working in 63 schools and nine Somali interpreters in 45 schools that need them.  

This isn’t just important for our families, but our multilingual staff as well. Many are people of color, some immigrants themselves, who are being pulled away from their primary duties working with students to interpret because there just isn’t enough staff. 

Educators also won on another important issue – expanding restorative practices across the district to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative practices are one way to build community and a positive school climate without pushing students of color out of school.  

We knew the community had our backs in the days leading up to the strike. St. Paul has long valued public education – our schools are always at the heart of our community. But once we went on strike, the support was truly overwhelming. Students came out in droves – some even whipped up pancakes from the back of minivans. Parents brought their babies, future SPPS students, sporting SPFEonesies and buttons to rallies. St. Paul businesses fed educators on the picket lines. I could go on and on. 

The strike empowered St. Paul educators. But we’re not done yet. We’re not done advocating for our students – this is just the beginning.  

Educators across the nation are frustrated. Policymakers need to start listening to the experts – educators and parents – when decisions are made about our public schools.  

Closing our state’s racial and economic disparities requires real investments – a multi-billion-dollar increase in state funding for public schools – so we can provide every student with the resources they need. No exceptions. 

And St. Paul educators will demand to be heard at the local level. Budgets reflect priorities. We are with our students every day and know we need to focus first on hiring more adults who work directly with our children.  

Elected officials at all levels should be on notice. Educators are willing to take mass action to get the schools our students deserve. 

 

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Strike ends, but educators vow to fight on for public schools

March 13, 2020 by

Striking SPFE members lead a march through downtown St. Paul Wednesday.

St. Paul educators set out last May to bargain a contract in the public good.

When they went on strike this week, the public was right there standing with them.

On the picket line and social media, at union rallies and in the streets, public support poured in for the 3,600 members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators, who went on strike Tuesday morning to demand the district take action on their student-centered contract proposals.

The strike ended today, after negotiators for SPFE and the district reached an early-morning tentative agreement on new two-year contracts that will begin to address union members’ concerns.

The agreement would commit the district to hiring more staff to support students’ mental health needs and assist multilingual families. It would expand the district’s restorative approach to discipline, create more manageable workloads for special-ed teachers and raise SPFE members’ wages.

Nick Faber, the union’s president, refused to discuss how much money the district committed to the new agreement until it had been shared with members. But Faber did say educators would have pushed for more were it not for the coronavirus pandemic — and the district’s willingness to use potential school closures as leverage to force a settlement.

“Our teachers were ready to stay out … to get all of the supports our students need,” Faber said. “Had it not been for the coronavirus, we would have been able to do better.”

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Schools will reopen Monday, but union members reported to their buildings for work this afternoon, bringing an end to a historic week of activism and solidarity in the capital city, which saw its first teacher strike in 74 years.

Each morning from Tuesday to Thursday, SPFE members put up picket lines outside their school buildings, drawing a steady chorus of honks from passing vehicles. Each day after picket lines came down, educators came together for an afternoon rally and march through the streets.

Their ranks swelled with parents, students, elected officials, labor leaders and other community members inspired by SPFE’s campaign “for the schools St. Paul students deserve.” Together, they turned parts of the city into a sea of red, marking the latest stop in the nationwide #RedForEd fight to fund public education.

Kera Peterson, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, speaks at a rally in Rice Park.

It’s what happens, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson said, when you bargain for the common good.

“We know what you guys are fighting for, and we’re with you every step of the way,” Peterson, whose organization represents 100-plus local unions with over 50,000 members, told educators during a massive rally in Rice Park Wednesday.

With school cancelled, students flocked to union events as an opportunity, Harding junior Paris Smoot said, “to show student voices are also very powerful.” Her classmate Ashanti Williams said it’s inspiring to see students and educators joining together “to make a change and create a better environment for people.”

Many students carried signs supporting the union’s efforts to funnel more resources into mental-health supports for themselves and their schoolmates. Smoot, who attended the rally Wednesday, said she experienced depression and suicidal thoughts last school year.

“I didn’t even know Harding had a therapist,” Smoot said.

Harding juniors Ashanti Williams (L) and Paris Smoot join their teachers at a strike rally.

Faber acknowledged the new contract, if ratified by members, won’t fix every problem they set out to address. But educators are going back to work “ready to keep fighting for their students,” he said.

“That energy, we’ve heard from our members already this morning, they’re not putting it away,” Faber added. “It’s not going back in their pockets.”

More, union leaders hope the strike — and the public support union members received — delivered a message to board members and administrators that they won’t get away with ignoring educators’ concerns.

“People were out in the rain for this,” bargaining team member and science teacher Todd Marder said. “The power of that was just heartwarming and touching. Thank you.”

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St. Paul educators to district: ‘We’re here for our students’

January 23, 2020 by

Union members rally outside the St. Paul Public Schools district offices.

 

The parking lot outside St. Paul Public Schools’ district offices was a sea of red – #RedForEd – before Tuesday night’s school board meeting, as staff frustrated by contract negotiations rallied behind their unions’ student-centered demands.

The public demonstration brought together members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators and Teamsters Local 320, as well as parents, elected officials and supporters from the labor community.

After 30 minutes of speeches, chants and music in the parking lot, union members filed into the building and packed the school board’s chambers. Several took the microphone during a public-comment period to reinforce their bargaining proposals.

SPFE member Rachel Stohlmann, a special-ed teacher at Benjamin E. Mays school, told board members her union’s demands reflect the urgent needs educators see in their schools each day.

“Instead of urgency at the bargaining table, we are being met with platitudes about how our proposals sound great, but there’s just no money in the budget,” Stohlmann said. “If you want SPPS to achieve, you need to use your power as a school board to adjust the budget to meet more than just the basic needs of your students and your educators.”

Educators dressed in #RedForEd pack the St. Paul school board meeting Jan. 21.

Fighting for students

Negotiations between SPFE and the district began last May. After nine public sessions, during which union members offered 31 proposals, the two sides agreed in November to move talks behind closed doors and enlist the help of a state mediator.

But the bargaining teams remained far apart after their latest mediated session Jan. 16, according to educators, who said SPPS had not yet responded to most of their proposals. “They have refused to discuss any proposals that will cost money,” SPFE’s bargaining team said in a statement.

The nature of some union proposals, educators say, has rankled district officials.

Instead of focusing exclusively on wages and benefits, SPFE members in recent years have approached bargaining as their window of opportunity to influence how the district serves its students and families.

SPFE calls it “bargaining for the schools St. Paul children deserve,” and the strategy – gathering member and community input, identifying areas of need and proposing student-centered solutions – has compelled the district to take action on class sizes, professional staffing, restorative conflict-resolution practices and more.

But this is the first round of contract negotiations since the district installed a five-year strategic plan, “SPPS Achieves.” Nick Faber, SPFE’s president, accused district negotiators of using the plan as a shield to deflect union members’ proposals.

“Classroom teachers were not significantly involved in the strategic planning process, and now the district is acting very surprised that we are demanding these things we’ve brought to the table,” Faber said.

Urgent needs

Educators’ top priority at the bargaining table this year is improving mental-health supports for their students. SPFE wants the district to hire more social workers, provide teachers with relevant training and install a “mental-health team” in every school building.

Union members like Sarah Kaufenberg, who teaches kindergarten at Benjamin E. Mays, say their students’ mental-health needs often go unmet, creating barriers to learning that spread throughout the classroom.

“We have students whose parents are incarcerated or in medical facilities, who have been through a lot of trauma in their lives, and they have nobody to talk to but the teachers in their classrooms,” Kaufenberg said. “They’re in survival mode, and without support, we just are not able to provide them with what they need.”

Lindsay Walker, an art teacher in the same building, said the school’s lone counselor too often is forced to “triage” the needs of students, tending only to those most visibly distressed.

“A student who is hungry or a student experiencing homelessness, their needs should be met just as much as somebody who is having a behavior crisis,” Walker said. “Right now our staff is being pulled in too many directions at once.”

Additionally, educators have proposed “weighted caseloads” for special-ed teachers. Rather than assigning the same number of students to each teacher, they want caseloads to reflect the severity of students’ needs.

“Our special-ed teachers are burning out left and right,” Stohlmann said. “Other districts are taking this approach, and teachers see it working. So we have teachers leaving all the time.”

And education assistants represented by SPFE have spearheaded the union’s proposal to bolster support systems for multilingual students and families.

“How can students be successful if we have a lack of communication?” SPFE member Yasmin Muridi, recently named the state’s Education Support Professional of the Year, asked at the rally. “Frustrations on this issue are building slowly, and one day our parents will burst like a volcano and leave the district. And I don’t want that.”

SPFE President Nick Faber (R) hands the mic to Teamsters Local 320 member Dallas Robertson, a teaching assistant in the St. Paul Schools.

Teamsters fight for training

Teamsters Local 320, meanwhile, co-sponsored the rally with SPFE. The union represents teaching assistants who are also in contract bargaining with the St. Paul Public Schools.

Teaching assistants’ top priority, Local 320 member Dallas Robertson said, is making the district’s training programs more accessible.

“Even though we work with students all day, every school day, we don’t have any days in our contract set aside for us to further our learning with other educators,” said Robertson, a TA at American Indian Magnet School. “We want to learn how to serve our students better, but the current system of requiring TA’s to pursue professional development on our own time … is not working for our members – not when these opportunities are offered when many of our TA’s are working second or third jobs.”

The district, Robertson added, has told TA’s any new funds for training will have to come out of union members’ wage increases, even though TA’s make just $16,000 per year to start in the district.

‘Open your eyes’

So what does the district want to achieve in bargaining new contracts with educators?

Faber said administrators have proposed making it easier to put teachers on performance-improvement plans, increasing the waiting period before new hires are eligible for benefits and limiting employees’ access to union leave.

“The message is clear,” Faber told members at the rally. “Our district wants to take stuff away. And for educators who are with students every day, they want you to sit down, shut up, take what you’ve been given and do what you’re told. And they also want you to take the blame.”

Still, classroom teachers like Kaufenberg are holding out hope administrators – or their bosses on the school board – can be persuaded to take educators’ demands seriously.

“Maybe they need to join us in our classrooms,” she said. “Spend a couple hours with us, spend a day with us, spend a week with us, and you’ll see it. And if you don’t see it, then you have to open your eyes.”

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St. Paul educators to Chicago educators: ‘Your fight is our fight’

October 25, 2019 by

Union educators in St. Paul are standing in solidarity with the 35,000 teachers and school service workers on strike in Chicago this week.

Yesterday the St. Paul Federation of Educators sent a letter, signed by SPFE President Nick Faber, to two unions representing the striking workers. Faber’s message was simple: Your fight is our fight.

“Your fight for Chicago students – capping class size, a nurse in every school, and adequate mental health and special education supports – is our fight for Saint Paul students,” the letter said. “Your commitment to use your collective power to speak out for the common good in Chicago – creating safe and healthy communities, seeking a moratorium on charter schools, and expanding affordable housing – is our commitment in Saint Paul.”

Click here to view the full letter.

SPFE, Local 28 of the American Federation of Teachers, represents about 3,500 employees in the St. Paul Public Schools. The local has a history of activism, staging the nation’s first teacher strike in 1946.

More recently, educators in St. Paul have modeled a “common-good” approach to bargaining. Before negotiations begin, the union welcomes community members to help develop its contract proposals, a process that results in talks that transcend the usual back and forth over wages and benefits.

In its last round of negotiations, SPFE nearly went on strike over its demands for more school nurses, librarians and social workers, smaller class sizes and expanded preschool and family-engagement programs. And to achieve fully funded schools, the union called on the district to join its members in pressuring tax-exempt large nonprofits and corporate tax dodgers to pay their fair share.

Many of those demands are being echoed in Chicago by thousands of members of the Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees International Union Local 73 on the picket line this week.

Additionally, striking educators are pushing the Chicago Public Schools to boost funding for bilingual education, and take steps to make affordable housing more accessible to educators and their students, over 16,000 of whom are homeless.

The district is pleading poverty, but Chicago educators aren’t buying it.

“Messages of austerity and scarcity are twin myths used to justify TIF projects and tax breaks for wealthy corporations and normalize the theft of dollars – not only from our public schools, but also from our communities,” Faber wrote in SPFE’s letter.

He added, “We support you, stand by you, and are proud to call you our union family.”

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To stop cycle of cuts, St. Paul educators back levy referendum

October 25, 2018 by

spps-levy-logoJust months after emerging from a fractious round of contract negotiations, St. Paul educators, board members and administrators are pulling in the same direction this fall, urging voters to approve an operating levy worth an additional $18.6 million in annual school funding for the district.

The new funds would help the St. Paul Public Schools address revenue shortfalls that have forced over $50 million in programming, staff and other budget cuts over the last three years. This school year, the district shaved an additional $17.2 million from its budget.

A number of factors outside the district’s control have contributed to the budget woes, but the biggest factor, district leaders say, is the state government’s per-pupil funding formula hasn’t kept pace with rising education costs. Mandated special education services, for example, cost the district $42 million more annually than the funding it receives to provide those services.

With so much uncertainty, SPPS Superintendent Joe Gothard said the levy increase would provide the district with greater budget stability, freeing schools and educators to focus less on where to cut and more on the students they serve.

“We have great work happening every day in our schools, but it is a challenge to sustain our efforts,” Gothard said. “We see this levy as a investment in making sure St. Paul continues to be a great place to live, work and learn.”

Members of the St. Paul educators’ union began mobilizing in support of the levy as the new school year began, pursuing an ambitious plan to knock the door of every educator living in the district. Beth Swanberg, a music teacher at Highland Park Middle School, said her conversations at the doors have been positive.

“People in St. Paul are supportive of public schools,” Swanberg said. “There is a history of quality education here, and people have told me they want to continue that.”

A game of ‘what if?’

Indeed, the stakes are high for students, parents and educators. Long gone are the days when districts like St. Paul went to voters with levy requests to fund the extras that might enrich their schools’ programming.

“Now we’re trying to do a levy referendum to make up for the cuts that have come down from our state Legislature,” union president Nick Faber said.

Last month the North Star Policy Institute unveiled a new report, “Minnesota Backslide,” that charts the decline in state funding to local school districts. Researchers found 93 percent of school districts statewide are receiving less aid today, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than in 2003, when state lawmakers overhauled the school funding system. In half of districts statewide, state funding has dropped by more than 10 percent.

The state’s failure to keep school funding steady has forced most school districts to seek property-tax levies to bridge the gap.

St. Paul is no exception. If state funding had kept up with inflation over the past 15 years, SPPS would have received nearly $620 more per student this year. That’s a total of $21.6 million in lost funds – a number that leaves a lot of educators wondering “what if?”

“If we could actually start to recoup the funding that we’ve lost over the last 20 years and have that referendum on top of it, imagine the things that we could do,” Faber said. “With the knowledge that our educators have here in St. Paul, with their willingness to tackle racial equity head on, we could accomplish so much with that kind of funding.”

“I often wonder what I would request for my students if we had more funds, and it’s hard to even imagine because I’m so used to not having any extras,” Highland Park Middle School teacher Leah VanDassor said. “It’s been so many years of cuts, cuts, cuts at every level.”

VanDassor, Swanberg and other St. Paul educators aren’t just talking with voters about the levy. They are also trying to paint the bigger picture, urging support for labor-endorsed candidates at the top of the ballot who will reinvest in public schools. That includes Tim Walz, the labor-endorsed candidate for governor.

But VanDassor acknowledged “any fundamental change will not be fast,” and the immediate needs of her students are great.

Trusting the voters

The levy campaign has broad support from the community. The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation has endorsed it, and so has St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who called SPPS the “lifeblood” of his community.

Only a year removed from campaigning citywide for the mayor’s office, Carter said he has faith people living in the school district will join him in voting “yes.” The investment, Carter added, goes hand in hand with his administration’s work to realign city programming to meet the needs of St. Paul’s changing population – and include more voices.

“We’re not just going to say we can do more for our children,” he said. “We’re actually going to do more for our children.

“I’m confident the city will step forward.”

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SPFT, district reach agreement, pledge to take on funding shortfalls together

February 12, 2018 by

SPFT President Nick Faber speaks at a press conference in the library at Galtier Community School, where he did his student teaching 31 years ago.

Members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers will not strike tomorrow, but they aren’t walking away from the fight for fully funded, racially equitable schools.

After 13 hours of mediated talks that began Sunday, union and district negotiators reached tentative agreements on three contracts covering SPFT’s 3,700 members early this morning, averting a strike. Details of the agreements are not yet public.

During a press conference at Galtier Community School this afternoon, union and district leaders said collaboration was key to reaching common ground at the bargaining table – and will remain critical as the two sides carry forward their work to tackle funding shortfalls facing the St. Paul Public Schools.

“We are dedicated to working with our district and whoever else it takes to increase that funding so our kids can have the schools that they deserve,” SPFT President Nick Faber said. “SPFT is extremely excited about that work going forward, and we know we can work in the (spirit of) collaboration that we ended negotiations in … this morning.”

“We are so strong together,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said, adding that whatever approach the district takes to raising revenue, leaders know “we will not be able to do this alone.”

Collaboration could involve lobbying together at the Legislature or partnering in efforts to recruit new students, Gothard and Faber said. It might also mean working jointly on a levy referendum or other potential revenue sources.

The mutual commitment to raising revenue – whatever approach it takes – is a victory for SPFT, which refused to allow scarcity to dictate contract negotiations despite the district’s projected budget shortfall.

Instead, union proposals took aim at creating fully funded schools staffed with nurses, librarians and social workers, with smaller class sizes and expanded preschool and family-engagement programs. To realize its vision, SPFT called on the district to join its members in pressuring tax-exempt large nonprofits and corporate tax dodgers to pay their fair share.

The groundbreaking approach drew national attention and sparked public debate likely to outlive the next bargaining agreement. “We consider that a win,” Faber said.

“This contract campaign was centered around the myth of scarcity, but our corporate campaign continues on,” he added. “There is a lot of money in this state, we’re just making political decisions not to put it into our classrooms, particularly our classrooms with kids of color in them.”

SPFT’s bargaining team, meanwhile, said the proposed contracts for school and community service professionals, educational assistants and teachers make progress on several of union members’ top priorities.

“We won supports for our students, especially our English Learners and our students who receive Special Education services,” a post on the union’s website read. “We defended our class size language and strengthened the commitment to Restorative Practices.”

Although both sides struck a conciliatory tone at the press conference today, negotiations between SPFT and the district were the most heated in years, with union members voting overwhelmingly Jan. 31 in favor of authorizing a strike. Faber called the strike authorization “an awesome responsibility and an awesome piece of strength” in negotiations.

“Teachers go into this profession to be in a classroom, not out of it,” he said. “So when people are so passionate that they’re willing to walk, that’s an incredible feeling. It did offer us a great deal of leverage and sense of purpose going into those final conversations to make sure we delivered for our members.”

SPFT will hold informational meetings with members about the contract Thursday, and the union expects to hold a ratification vote early next week.

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Workers, parents show unity with St. Paul teachers after strike vote

February 1, 2018 by

A solidarity rally outside the SPFT strike vote drew parents and supporters from other unions. (photo credit: MN Workers United)

Members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers yesterday delivered a powerful message of unity in their drive for a contract that delivers the fully funded, racially equitable schools St. Paul students deserve.

Parents and working people in the district, meanwhile, delivered a message of their own: It’s time for the school district to start listening to educators.

Several unions representing thousands of working people in St. Paul offered up statements of solidarity with SPFT members.

They included Teamsters Local 320, which represents more than 100 Nutrition Services workers in the St. Paul Public Schools. In a letter to the school board and administrators, Secretary-Treasurer Brian Aldes noted that teachers stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Local 320 member fighting for a $15 wage floor last fall.

“It’s time for the District to support its employees and drop the adversarial approach to negotiations,” Aldes wrote. “If the St. Paul Teachers go on strike against the District, please know that they will have the full support of Teamsters Local 320 and its 11,500 strong membership.”

Presidents of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, the Minnesota Nurses Association and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees weighed in with letters to the district as well. Together, the labor groups represent more than 80,000 union members.

“These are moments when leaders need to step up and lead,” MNA President Mary Turner wrote. “And I am urging you to do just that.”

Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member St. Paul RLF, called the district’s approach to negotiations “incredibly disappointing.”

“Our schools work best when educators are valued and their concerns are heard,” Kasper wrote. “Today’s strike vote is a clear indication that isn’t happening… We hope today’s vote serves as a wake-up call to district leaders that it’s time to get serious about negotiations.”

SPFT held its strike-authorization vote at a downtown hotel yesterday, drawing participation from about two-thirds of it 3,700 members. The union represents three bargaining units in negotiations: community service professionals, educational assistants and teachers and licensed staff. All three overwhelmingly backed strike authorization, with over 80 percent support.

The union planned to file notice of members’ intent to strike today, and a work stoppage could begin as early as mid-February.

The two sides have scheduled a return to mediated talks tomorrow. Teachers said they will continue to push for smaller class sizes, restorative practices, support for English language learners, more nurses and librarians and other measures aimed at improving student outcomes and tackling racial disparities.

Support for language programs is among SPFT’s core bargaining proposals.

“Our members are ready to tackle the racial disparities that exist in our schools and in our community, but they need the resources in order to get that done,” SPFT President Nick Faber told hundreds of people gathered for a rally downtown St. Paul Monday. “But our district has refused to talk to us about many of these issues.”

Teachers also aren’t giving up on efforts to build new partnerships with corporations like Ecolab and U.S. Bank that avoid paying property taxes in St. Paul, as well as large nonprofits like Allina Health and Macalester that benefit from property-tax exemptions.

Parents like Kirinda Anderson, whose daughter attends Wellstone Elementary, want the district to team up with teachers and get serious about holding corporate tax-dodgers accountable for draining resources from public schools.

“Instead of going to our schools, our money is going to tax breaks for companies like Ecolab and U.S. Bank,” Anderson said at Monday’s rally. “When they don’t pay their fair share of taxes, they’re depriving our children – kids like my daughter – the education that all children need to be successful… I’m going to call it what it is, and that’s systemic racism.”

“Nobody wants a strike,” Faber added. “None of our members wants to walk away from our students, but sometimes it is the only way workers have to get management to listen.”

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