Add your voice to those of hundreds of other school employees working for quality education and improved pay and benefits.

In a stunning reversal of an Appropriations Committee decision, the House of Representatives on Thursday voted 43 to 41 to amend the state budget and include a $1,000, one-time salary supplement for Louisiana’s paraprofessionals and school related personnel.

May 8- United Teachers of New Orleans is very concerned about certain bills currently before the Louisiana Legislature. This previous week saw bills pass House and Senate committees that would provide for vouchers and allow for-profit providers to run schools in the RSD.

On Tuesday, May 6 at 4:30 PM, a public meeting will be held at Frederick Douglass High School with RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas on the future of the school. Students, parents, teachers and community members have expressed outrage at RSD plans to phase out Douglass, move students to a modular campus in the Lower 9th Ward and create a “criminal justice academy” with a new student population.

May 2- United Teachers of New Orleans is very concerned about a number of bills currently in the Louisiana legislature. Bills that will be decided by the legislature in the current session include proposals to use public funds for private school tuition vouchers and bills to extend the length of time that the RSD maintains management over public schools.

May 2- At the April 30 membership meeting nominations were taken for all offices in the union except Building Representatives. Sixteen candidates were nominated to run for nine positions: President, Vice-President, RSD Vice President and six Member At-Large positions. Three offices were filled when the candidates for those positions were unopposed: NOPS Vice-President, filled by Terrie Willard, Secretary-Treasurer, filled by current Secretary-Treasurer Leoance Williams, and NOPS PSRP Representative, filled by Linda LaGarde. There were no nominees for the office of Recording Secretary.

This week, lawmakers will consider two voucher schemes. Both would funnel millions of dollars to private and religious schools in New Orleans at the same time that public education is being cut by $38 million around the state.

Please click here to tell lawmakers: Just say NO to vouchers!

“Governor, I’m not in your budget!”

Governor Bobby Jindal’s budget includes a $1,019 pay raise for teachers, but nothing for other important members of the education family. To correct that error, LFT is asking paraprofessionals and school related personnel to send a message to Baton Rouge. Click on the link above to learn more and download a letter you can send to Baton Rouge.

On Thursday, March 27, educators at McDonogh 35 High School were tired of their voices not being heard and decided to take matters into their own hands by staging a one-day sickout.  These educators were understandably upset about a number of issues, including excessive meetings with inadequate notice that impacted planning and personal time, both during and after the school day.

April 7- The Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop, an exciting writing and professional development retreat in rural Massachussets, is currently accepting applications.  The program is designed to help educators develop their talents as writers, create curricula, and initiate exciting interdisciplinary projects in their classrooms, schools and communities.  There are currently ten spaces reserved for teachers from New Orleans in the workshop, which will take place July 6-19. 

March 25- On Wednesday, March 19 more than seventy-five charter school employees packed the Wisdom Hall on St. Bernard Avenue for UTNO’s first charter school social.  Teachers, para-educators and clerical workers from charters schools around the city came down to eat, drink, dance, and meet with teachers from other charter schools.

March 19- Today United Teachers of New Orleans announced Clark High School Special Education Teachers Jasper Baena and Bernadette Henderson as winners of our Bridging the Gap Classroom Makeover Contest.

“While we had many good applications, one in particular stood out to all the judges as exceptional,” said UTNO Community Organizer Katrena Ndang at the presentation of the winners, which took place in Clark’s library.

What did teachers and school employees have to say about salaries and benefits, discipline, school infrastructure and other important issues?

What are LFT's recommendations to answer their concerns?

Find out here. The "6 Weeks, 6 Questions" campaign is over, and complete results are now available!

More than 20,000 paraprofessionals and school-related personnel represented by the Oregon School Employees Association have voted to affiliate with the AFT, marking the largest affiliation of an independent union in AFT history.

President Bush on Nov. 13 vetoed the spending bill passed by Congress last week for education, labor and health programs for fiscal year 2008 and asked that Congress support his fiscal year spending request.

June 28- A lawsuit has been filed against the Orleans Parish School Board, claiming that the School Board’s termination of over 7,000 permanent, tenured employees following Katrina violated Louisiana tenure laws and school board policies.

The Federation's weekly report on legislative issues important to teachers, school employees and college faculty.