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United Educators of San Francisco Local 61 Records

dgolodner — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:06:08 -0400

The United Educators of San Francisco formed in 1989 after a merger of the local American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association chapters. The Union represents teachers and paraprofessionals in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Prior to the merger, membership was split between the two unions - AFT Local 61 San Francisco Federation of Teachers, and the NEA affiliated San Francisco Classroom Teachers Association - and a large number of teachers opted out of membership altogether. Neither union had the numbers to establish a stable leadership position. Once the Rodda Act granted bargaining rights in California, the SFFT and SFCTA fought for control of SFUSD collective bargaining for teachers, alternately winning elections. This divisiveness hurt the unions’ bargaining position with the school board. For many years, beginning with SFFT President James Ballard in the 1970s, the two unions held discussions on a potential merger. It wasn’t until 1989 under SFFT president Joan Marie Shelley and SFCTA President Judy Dellamonica that the two San Francisco unions finally reached an agreement, which the membership approved by vote.

Part I of this collection contains material from the San Francisco Federation of Teachers, including minutes of the Executive Boards (1951-52, 1956-68) and general membership meeting minutes (1956-68); clippings, bulletins, memos, and photos concerning the 1968 strike and negotiations; clippings from the 1971 strike; reports and correspondence of the Bargaining Committee and various other committees; and newsletters.

Part II consist of records created before, during, and after the merger of the SFFT and SFCTA. Included are correspondence, chronological files, minutes, newsletters, news releases, leaflets and flyers, membership and dues ledgers, grievance files, salary schedules, contracts, constitutions and bylaws, chronological files, and photographs.

AFT Educational Issues Department Records

scaloia — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 17:20:16 -0400

The American Federation of Teachers is a labor union representing primary and secondary school teachers, paraprofessionals, higher education faculty and professional staff, and nurses and other health care professionals. The AFT Educational Issues Department, originally the Task Force on Educational Issues, is the research and development arm of the union. The department tracks education policies from local, state and national bodies, conducts research and analysis on those policies, produces briefs and reports, conducts workshops, and assists local AFT affiliates on educational issues. A major initiative of the department is the Education Research & Dissemination program (ER&D). The program began in 1981 with a grant from the National Institute of Education. It is focused on professional development through the collection of a body of research on education issues and translation of that material to classroom applications. Teachers are able to access research and apply new techniques in their classrooms. The ER&D program explores topics such as instruction methods, critical thinking, behavior management, and student motivation. Projects include the Visiting Practitioner program and Thinking Mathematics. The Educational Issues Department also organizes the bi-annual QuEST (Quality Educational Standards in Teaching) Conference.

The AFT Education Issues Department Records contain correspondence and chronological files, meeting minutes, reports, manuscripts and drafts, annotated articles, reports, conference packets, press releases, newsletters, fliers, photographs, negatives, and VHS and audiocassette tapes. The records contain communications with and publications from many education-related organizations as well as granting institutions.

Sachs Waldman: Detroit Federation of Teachers Records

dgolodner — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 12:05:16 -0400

The law firm Sachs Waldman, Professional Corporation started in
October 13, 1922 by Nicholas J. Rothe, considered by many as the first
union labor lawyer in Michigan grew to represent the best interest of
unions and workers. In 1951 Theodore Sachs joined the firm and was
considered one of the best appellate attorneys in the country, under his
leadership the firm grew in clientele and personnel. In 1965, the law
firm began to specialize in public sector labor and began to represent
those unions that had just gained the right to bargain collectively,
notably with the Detroit Federation of Teachers and the Detroit
Fire Fighters Association. The Detroit Federation of Teachers was
founded in February 24, 1931 and remained a small but determined
organization that fought basic bread and butter issues for teachers in
Detroit. In 1964, the DFT became sole bargaining agent for Detroit
classroom teachers and by 1965 the DFT secured a comprehensive
contract. The DFT has remained the sole bargaining agent for Detroit
teachers since then and expanded their bargaining power to incorporate
various education reform issues. These records document the various
stages of collective bargaining for teachers in the 1970s-1990s in
Detroit that mirrors those issues faced by other teacher unions in large
cities.

Schools of the 21st Century Records

dgolodner — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:51:00 -0400

The Schools of the 21st Century Corporation governed The Detroit Annenberg Challenge. The Annenberg Challenge provided $500 million in grants to organizations across the United States for the improvement of public schools. Schools for the 21st Century received a $20 million grant and set out to address the goals of increased student achievement, community and parent involvement, and collaboration with outside organizations. The Initiative's mission was to “Institutionalize bold, comprehensive and systemic reform at the local school level, to ensure high levels of student performance and healthy growth and development for all students.” The plan focused on 42 schools divided into 10 clusters, which used various school reform models in their approaches.

Materials in the collection include reports on the phases of the plan, individual clusters, outside vendor reports, external reviews, Board of Directors meeting minutes, and newsletters and other promotional material.

Tom Mooney Papers

dgolodner — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 10:33:53 -0400

Tom Mooney was born September 12, 1954 in Albany, New York. Mooney attended Guardian Angel’s Catholic School and McNicholas High School in Cincinnati and then Antioch College from 1970-1973 focusing on political science and teaching. In high school, Mooney became involved in the United Farm Workers boycott committee in Cincinnati, becoming one of the lead volunteers. This exposed him to social justice and radical political ideas. At Antioch he set up a boycott office and surrounded himself in radical political thought, especially with Marxist-Leninist ideologies.
During the mid to late 1970s Mooney was involved in Marxist-Leninist organizations, especially with the New American Movement and the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center. After the OCIC folded in 1981, Mooney aligned himself with the Democratic Party.
Mooney was hired as a full time teacher at Bloom Junior High in late 1974 early 1975. He immediately joined the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers Local 1520 (CFT) and was elected as building representative for the school. He was then transferred to Crest Hill Middle School. Mr. Mooney then was elected as the Area 6 coordinator in 1977-1978. Mooney was elected president of the CFT in 1979 at the age of 24.
As president of the CFT, he led the local into the national spotlight by bargaining education reform programs. Under his leadership the local negotiated the 2nd Peer Assistance and Evaluation Program in the country and the 1985 contract secured more control for teachers over grading and promotion standards. With the next round of bargaining in 1988 the CFT and board of education used a “win-win” style of negotiations in which they achieved unique career ladder system called Career in Teaching Program. In 1991 Mooney helped negotiate a new student discipline code that brought more order to the classroom, protecting teachers and students. Mooney became president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers in 2000.
Mooney began attending AFT conventions siding with the more radical fringes of the AFT political arena, which was the United Action Caucus but by 1981 joined the Progressive Caucus. In 1988, the AFT asked Tom to be apart of the a labor delegation to go to Chile to be an observer of the Plebiscite in which he reflected that it was “one of the most moving experiences of my life.” In 1990 he was elected to the AFT executive council and sat on the human and community relations committee. In 1998 he was asked to serve on the AFT executive committee and chair the AFT K-12 Program and Policy Council. He later resigned the position of chair over the stance that the AFT took on No Child Left Behind.
Tom Mooney died of a heart attack on December 3, 2006 at his apartment in Columbus, Ohio.

(29150) Overcrowded Classrooms Split by Chalkboards

jhelpap — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:15:03 -0400

Teachers attempt to give individualized instruction under over crowded conditions. A portable chalkboard divides the classroom.