Springfield Education Association

08/31/2026

Thoughts?

https://www.facebook.com/share/1EQCwxb18R/?mibextid=wwXIfr

As electronic bicycles, e-scooters, e-skateboards and motorbikes become more popular, some local school leaders are hitting the brakes.

At least four area school districts have told students to leave the motorized transports at home and banned the devices from campus.

Other districts have have imposed less stringent limits.

⬇️ Read more at the link in our comments.

📸 Laurie Skrivan

08/31/2026

Forced respect is false respect.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/184fa6hE6Z/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Nearly 200 teachers being questioned after walking out of Cobb County superintendent’s speech ⬇️

08/28/2026

If SpEd concerns won’t get remedied with the common sense approach, this may be the only way.

https://www.facebook.com/share/14m8i3pj2E8/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Seattle Public Schools teachers and staff voted to authorize a strike over pay, special education staffing levels, and instructional time, with a September 1 deadline for a new contract. The district is simultaneously working to close an estimated $87 million budget deficit, which puts the union's demands and the district's math on a direct collision course right as the school year is set to begin.

Special education staffing is worth pulling out specifically from that list of demands, because it's not really a pay fight dressed up in other language. Understaffed special education programs mean specific students with legally mandated services aren't getting the support their IEPs require, right now, in the current school year, regardless of how the broader contract negotiation resolves. That's a compliance issue sitting inside a labor dispute, and it's the piece most likely to have an immediate, direct impact on the students it affects if it isn't resolved before school starts.

An $87 million deficit is also not a small number to negotiate against. A district facing a shortfall that size has genuinely difficult choices to make about where money goes, and every dollar directed toward the union's demands has to come from somewhere else in an already-stretched budget. That doesn't make the union's demands illegitimate. It means the actual fight isn't really about whether special education staffing and fair pay matter. It's about which existing budget line loses funding to make room for them.

Teachers voting to authorize a strike this close to the first day of school is a serious signal, not a routine bargaining tactic. It means the gap between what the union is asking for and what the district says it can afford hasn't closed with normal negotiation, and a strike authorization is often what it takes to force real movement before a deadline.

Whatever happens by September 1, the underlying tension, real needs against a real budget shortfall, isn't going away once this specific contract gets settled.

It's also worth naming what happens if the strike deadline arrives without a deal. A delayed start to the school year has its own real cost for families and students, on top of whatever the underlying staffing and budget dispute eventually resolves to.

Has your district ever had to choose between special education staffing and other budget priorities in a fight like this?

08/27/2026

Thanks, in advance, to all of the great principals out there for their diligence, effort, thoughtfulness and for taking care of their teachers and staffs. This is the way students and schools all win.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19m52sJKyB/

“Principals who simply communicate with their teachers and show them that they’re there, that they have their backs, can have a positive impact on school climate.”
🗣️ Andrew Perry, Senior Lecturer at Ohio State University

Teachers have dealt with mounting hostility since returning to the classroom post-pandemic.

Now, new data reveals a link between an educator's desire to quit and whether they believe their administrators actually have their back.

🏫 Read more: https://bit.ly/4gtGRTh

08/25/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BWtzcywvk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

During the pandemic, many schools moved away from textbooks, worksheets and workbooks and toward using devices such as laptops and tablets. Around 88% of schools now provide every student with their own dedicated electronic device.

Some local educators and parents are pushing for boundaries to ensure technology enhances, not undermines, their children's education.

Article link in comments.

08/25/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1DSPPAQ9WS/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Public school districts across Missouri are preparing for a major shift in state oversight as the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education works to implement a new A-through-F accountability grading framework.

08/23/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1DYHPhsDvV/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the New York City Council violated collective bargaining law, setting up a high-profile battle between him and a public sector union. “We will not allow the political process to replace the collective bargaining table,” said Matt Rauschenbach, the mayor's spokesman. “The city is filing a lawsuit to protect the right of every union to negotiate on behalf of its members, to fight for the workplace they deserve and ensure that workers — not politicians — determine their own futures.” Read more: https://nyti.ms/4ztQABR

08/22/2026

Great idea!!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1bWH4VN6zZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

El Paso ISD central office administrators are heading back to the classroom this school year under a new plan the district says could save millions while also reconnecting decision-makers with the campuses they serve. https://bit.ly/4imRF8f

08/21/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DvL4aKTuq/?mibextid=wwXIfr

08/20/2026

Flight control to passengers…

"Jaedun, would you like to come up and fly it?" — Dana R.

TRUEWIND REGIONAL AIRLINES — Flight 214 sat motionless at the gate for nine minutes Tuesday while Captain Ms. Renley, a sixth grade teacher for eleven years before entering aviation, addressed passenger Jaedun, 34, who was standing during taxi, rifling through a stranger's overhead bin, and pressing his call button "to see what it did." Her opening announcement, that she could sit on that tarmac all day because she gets paid either way, had already silenced rows 2 through 31.

Jaedun declined the invitation to fly the aircraft and returned to his seat, at which point Ms. Renley thanked the passengers who were showing her they were ready. A man in 22B who laughed was informed the plane would now also be waiting on him.

The flight landed 11 minutes early after Ms. Renley clarified that beverage service depended entirely on the choices this cabin made. As of press time, Jaedun had been reseated in 1A where she can see him, and his emergency contact had been called, reached, and briefed.