ACE Newsletter: 01/29/2025

CTA Educator Grant Opportunity

Calling all Clovis Unified ACE/CTA Members!

If you, or you and your colleagues, have an idea of how you would like to advance public education and promote the common good of our students and communities, then you will want to read this. CTA is seeking grant proposals that are innovative, creative, practical, action-oriented, and student-centered. To date, CTA members’ voluntary dues contributions have funded 643 grant projects totaling more than $7.6 million.

The Institute for Teaching offers three different grants. During the application period (December 1, 2024 – March 31, 2025), you can only apply for an Educator grant, an Impact grant or the Environmental Education Cohort. Impact grants require a team of two or more members (3 team members are recommended) and all team members must be active CTA members. Environmental Education Cohort grants are designed to support projects centered on environmental education. Environmental Education Cohort grantees will participate in a virtual cohort-based Community of Practice and an in-person convening.

Some of the recent 24-25 grantees include:

Empowering Elementary Minds Through Programming  $20,000 | Amanda Howard  Saugus Teachers Association  Through this project, we aim to empower students with the skills and confidence to become tomorrow’s innovators. Our project intends to establish a comprehensive computer programming plan for all TK-6th-grade students at James Foster Elementary. By providing access to physical computing tools (robots), we will enhance and build upon students’ understanding of coding, preparing them for success in the everchanging digital age. This project will promote hands-on learning experiences through teamwork, collaboration, and problem-solving skills essential for their future endeavors. Opportunities for parent and stakeholder engagement will be integrated throughout the year, extending collaboration beyond the classroom.

Designing Our Future  $20,000 | Alice Johnson  San Joaquin County Educators Association  The world is evolving quickly, and this project will empower students to become leaders and change makers. High school students will use the design-thinking process to create new or improved solutions to difficulties that they see in society. They will use maker resources such as 3D printers, basic electronics, and sewing machines to make prototypes of their solutions. After going through the design thinking process themselves, the high school students will guide the TK-8th grade students through the same process. The high school students will host a school-wide invention convention, where students of grades TK-12 will showcase prototypes of their inventions and solutions. This will be a community event where students, parents, teachers, and friends will join together to celebrate the accomplishments of the students. Going through this experience is about more than creating a specific prototype; this type of activity can help students understand that they are capable of solving problems in their lives and help them expand their future possibilities.

Little Farmers’ Oasis: Growing, Learning,  and Clucking Together  $10,075.22 | Mary VanDyke  Newman-Crows Landing Teachers  Association  Our second-grade students are embarking on an exciting and educational journey that combines science, economics, and hands-on learning. Through the integration of hydroponics, succulent gardens, and chicken hatching, our young farmers will cultivate a thriving micro-farm right within the walls of their classrooms. Our second-graders will then sell the harvests from their gardens and handmade crafts to the students and staff at our school at our “Little Farmers’ Oasis” Farmers’ Market. At the market, our student customers will select a river rock to decorate and place in our school rock garden. This will provide a sense of community and a handson educational experience with economics that will impact our entire school.

Capital Region Engineering Science  Technology (CREST) Project  $16,742 | Michael Juba  Elk Grove Education Association  The Capital Region Engineering Science Technology (CREST) project will provide students with hands-on experiences to build their interest and knowledge in science, engineering, math, and technology. Students will meet with designated advisors on a weekly basis to explore a variety of STEM activities and concepts. In addition, they will be given the opportunity to showcase their knowledge and acquired skills at two regional events. At these events, students will work in teams to tackle a variety of science, math, and engineering challenges and get an opportunity to share their passion for STEM with students from around the Capital region. The students will participate in a variety of activities such as building and launching water bottle rockets, identifying minerals, building wind turbines, and investigating STEM or scientific concepts such as force and motion, properties of matter, and steps of the engineering design process.

Remote Control 1/4 Scale Mars  Perseverance Rover Models  $5,000 | Nic (Nicholas) Giannandrea  Central Unified Teachers Association  Our project aims to inspire and educate students across various age groups by building, programming, and deploying three 1/4 scale remote-controlled models of the Mars Perseverance Rover. This interdisciplinary initiative will involve students from Digital 3D Design classes in creating and 3D printing parts, while those in Robotics and Electronics courses will handle assembly, wiring, and programming. The project’s core objective is to foster practical STEM skills among high school students and to promote STEM education by showcasing these models at district elementary and middle schools. By combining hands-on learning with real-world applications, we aim to spark curiosity and enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The initiative not only provides a unique educational opportunity for students to work on a collaborative and technologically advanced project but also aims to inspire the next generation of innovators and explorers by bringing the excitement of space exploration closer to home. Through this project, we seek to create a tangible connection between students and the forefront of scientific exploration, highlighting the importance and excitement of STEM fields.

Click Here to learn more about CTA’s Institute for Teaching’s mission to enhance, support, and sustain high-quality teaching and high-quality public schools for all California students and the various grant opportunities that exist and how to apply.

ASL Interpreter Bargaining Update

During negotiations with the district, we were given a presentation by Carrie Carter, who is admin over Special Education, which focused on the steps the district has taken to resolve our current staffing shortages. The main takeaways were:

• According to the district numbers, we are short the hours of 6 signing staff members to cover student needs.
  • The district believes there is a difference in the job description of an IA III and an Educational Interpreter II (even though we are there for the same purpose).
  • They believe we are short 4 IA IIIs and 2 Interpreter IIs
• They have contracted with a VRI company to virtually provide two interpreters for our students.
  • If an interpreter or IA III becomes available in person, they will provide the VRI company with 30 days notice, and replace them with an in person interpreter.
  • This issue is subject to negotiations, and we intend to bargain over it.
• According to the district, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teachers told them that if we are fully staffed the district will not need to find sub interpreters to cover the positions of the 4 bargaining team members while we are away at negotiations.
  • The district has not attempted to find outside subs for us while they work on the long term staffing issue.
  • We intend to push for the district to provide full coverage for us while we are away at bargaining.
• They reached out to DHHSC, Fox, and Sorenson for possible staffing support
  • According to the district, they didn’t know about DHHSC, Fox, or Sorenson until we met with them on 1/9/25 and suggested they reach out to them for sub coverage.
    • The bargaining team knows this is not the case. Admin has been told about DHHSC on multiple occasions in the past as an option for sub coverage.
  • DHHSC and Fox would only have occasional coverage but could not provide a long term solution
    • It is our understanding that the district has not provided either agency with our pre-scheduled bargaining dates (1/29 and 1/30) to request sub coverage for our four bargaining team members.
  • Sorenson would only provide information if the district signed a service agreement
    • The district would not sign a service agreement without knowing costs beforehand
• The district has contracted with Soliant, a staffing agency
  • Soliant is also experiencing interpreter/signing IA staffing issues
  • The district has had interviews with candidates from Soliant with little success.
  • They did have more interviews arranged by Soliant today, we do not know the results of those interviews yet.
• The Bargaining Team is requesting information on the cost of all contracts relating to ASL services.

After the presentation we were able to exchange some articles for consideration and discussion. We have tentative agreements (meaning we have agreed on them for now and once our whole contract is finished they will no longer be tentative, they will become a part of the contract) on three topics and are working towards agreement on five others.

Tentative Agreements:

• Bargaining Ground Rules
• Personnel Files
• Savings Clause

In Progress Articles:

• Agreement and Recognition
• Negotiation Procedures
• Association Rights
• Maintenance of Standards
• Safety

We have meetings scheduled for next week on Wednesday (1/29) and Thursday (1/30). We hope to make more of our in-progress agreements into tentative agreements, and to start working on some of the more pertinent articles like job titles and duties.
We will update again after next week’s meetings. Have a great weekend, everyone!