President's Pen
by John Nichols

Congratulations! You made it another year under your belt. I hope you have excellent plans for summer vacation. I plan to read books. Fiction!

By now you should have your assignments for next year, your Salary Agreement, and you have completed your APPR. Many of you have signed up for summer workshops, including Covey Training in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Having participated last year, I highly recommend it. In political news, as of this writing we still have no state
budget.

What new disaster will befall schools once we have a budget remains to be seen.
NYSUT is lobbying constantly, and I hope you are making your thoughts known to your elected officials. One easy way to do it is through the NYSUT website. http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xc hg/nysut/hs.xsl/legislation.htm There have been a lot of questions regarding the Retirement Incentive and 55/25. The origninal 55/25 legislation is now in the courts. Because it targeted NYSUT members, a case was brought to allow other unions to also retire under the plan. We do not know how long it will take to settle.

The second set of legislation requires local districts to vote to accept it. If a district feels they can achieve enough savings, their board of education would hold a vote. As of this writing our district is waiting for information from the state about what the costs to ESM would be. This is the same in every district, the figures come out soon. If a district accepts the incentive before July 1, 2010, then those people would have the summer to decide to retire. We will keep you posted, but honestly, if this affects you, please call our District Office. Don’t miss an opportunity!

This coming year we will have to make some changes to our APPR, as outlined in last month’s FOCUS. Local presidents and representatives in NYSUT ED 7 will be getting together to work out some guidelines, questions, and possible language this summer and early fall. This is a mandatory subject of bargaining, so we will be getting our band of negotiators together again.

With the year winding down, I know you are all at celebrations for retirees and luncheons recognizing your colleagues. We had an excellent District Wide Celebration at the Double Tree on June 8. Thanks to all who helped put that together! Believe me, this was a huge group effort. Congratulations to our Retirees and those with 30 years plus service!

ESM United Teachers gave out several scholarships and the “thank you” notes have been rolling in. Congratulations to our outgoing Senior Class!

Remember to stop by the NYSUT booth at the State Fair on August 30th and say hello to your fellow ESM faculty and staff. Have a great summer!

John