FIRST RRT MEETING OF THE NEW YEAR

Please pass this on to your members. We are looking for the RRT chairs to attend. There is safe parking available. If you have any further questions, contact Nancy Holmes, Region 3, at 856-782-1225. Details are below.

Thursday, January 6, 2011
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Camden Conference Center Theater
Camden County College
601 Cooper St.
Camden, NJ 08102

For more info contact:
Janice Rael
Vice-President
vice@dvau.org
856-881-1816
www.dvau.org

Americans United is the only national organization that devotes one-hundred percent of its time and resources to church/state separation. Through education and advocacy, Americans United works to preserve religious liberty, and freedom of conscience as guaranteed by our Constitution .

THE DELAWARE VALLEY CHAPTER OF
AMERICANS UNITED
FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Panel Discussion: "School Vouchers: Win, or Woe? What to Watch for With NJ's Tuition Tax Credit Bills"

With: Frank Corrado, Esq., President, ACLU-NJ; Dr Lauren Hill, Ed.D., Project Director, Education Law Center; Adrienne Sanders, Education Chair, NJ NAACP; Mr. Derrell Bradford, Excellent Education for Everyone; Dr Walter Farrell, University of North Carolina; and Dr. Ed Joyce, President, Delaware Valley Chapter, Americans United for Separation of Church and State

The South Jersey Committee of the Delaware Valley Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State will host a panel discussion about the pros and cons of school vouchers and NJ's tuition tax credit bills known as the "Opportunity Scholarship Act," NJ S1872/A2810. The panelists represent groups with differing views on school vouchers. Each panelist will make a brief statement, followed by audience participation, responding to questions about the voucher controversy.

This meeting is free and open to the public, and wheelchair-accessible. All are invited and encouraged to attend. Cookies, coffee and tea will be served.

Free, Secure Parking Available on Site.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
518 C Street, NE Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 466-3234 www.au.org americansunited@au.org

HOLIDAY REQUEST FROM USO

Bellmawr Education Association President, Regina Andrews-Collette, asked us to share this with you. During this holiday season, she asked if any of you or your members could spare time or spread a little good will. You may want to help her out with the following USO project. It is a gift wrapping fund raiser.

Each year, the Philadelphia Airport retail stores offer free gift wrapping on items purchased in the airport. USO volunteers do the actual gift wrapping. This program runs from December 1 - 24, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. This year, there will be two locations; the usual one in the B/C food court and the other at the D/E retail area. Although this is a substantial fundraiser for them, we are reaching out to outside groups for assistance. The gift wrapping shifts will run from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.; 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.; and 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.

If you or any of your members would like to help out, please contact Regina directly at reginaac@live.com.

PRIVATIZATION WORKSHOP

Organizing the Offense: Fighting Privatization

This workshop is designed to address the mounting trend to privatize the jobs of public school employees. Learn how your local can be trained and prepared to recognize the engaging threats of privatization. Identify the collective action steps to take when privatizing already exists in your school district. Bring and build your team of organizers to fight against the privatization of your members’ jobs.

Date: Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Time: 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Registration and light supper
4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Program

Place: CCCEA Office, 2 Sheppard Road, Ste. 700,
Voorhees 08043

RSVP: Your name and local association to Gale Quinn at gquinn@njea.org or call the Region 3 office at 856-782-1225 as soon as possible and no later than Wednesday, December 22.

URGENT MEETING REGARDING TENURE REFORM

We have just returned from NJEA headquarters, where all reps were called together. As you know, one of several bills before the legislature is a tenure reform bill. That bill is moving quickly, and the leaders of NJEA are feeling much pressure to respond to that piece of legislation. As such, NJEA headquarters has asked each regional office to reach out to presidents to explain the direction we are going with this reform.

We know that this is extremely short notice, but as the last series of bills showed, things have a way of moving quickly. The UniServ field reps would like all local presidents to attend an important meeting on Thursday, October 28, at the county office. The meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. and will last no more than one hour. If you are not able to attend this meeting, please send a dependable designee that you feel could report accurately back to you and your members on this most important issue. RSVP to Gale Quinn at gquinn@njea.org or call 856-782-1225. We look forward to seeing each of you and apologize for this short notice.

CONSTRUCTION NEAR CCCEA OFFICE

Please be aware that due to construction on Centennial Boulevard, between Cooper Road and Rt. 561, the road may be closed during business hours starting Tuesday, October 26, 2010 until an undetermined date. Please be prepared to detour using Evesham Road.

RALLY FOR LAWNSIDE EA- October 20

Lawnside EA needs your help. They have been working without a contract for nearly two years and are meeting with the Board on October 20. Please bring along your family and friends and rally for our members at Lawnside outside the Board office at 6 p.m. on October 20. Light refreshments will be available. RSVP to Roxanne Hawkins at rhawkins@njea.org with the number of people who will go to support our friends from Lawnside.

SAVE THE DATE!!!

Mark your calendars for November 30 for Camden County's Member Fair!

Details will be posted soon.

Update on RTTT Applications

As per the memo you received yesterday from NJEA President Barbara Keshishian, please send a letter to your superintendent notifying them that your association is withdrawing its support from the RTTT application. Let your superintendent know this comes as a result of the Governor’s failure to honor the Memorandum of Agreement struck between Commissioner Schundler and NJEA on Thursday. It is imperative that you copy this office so that we are able to track and record, in a formal manner, your positions on the RTTT application. Since applications were due today, please make sure these letters get out as soon as possible.

HOLD THE DATE!!!

Important message from Barbara Keshishian & Vince Giordano:

Hold the date!

Citizens Rally for a Just Budget
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Statehouse in Trenton

Times and other details to follow.

Please begin organizing your members to attend this rally.

CWA RALLY - APRIL 13

CWA is conducting town hall meetings with legislators and have requested our participation. As such, CWA is asking for our assistance in a showing of support for similar issues that are being felt by NJEA members. This event will take place outside of the location listed below. It is their form of legislative dinners. We realize that Region 3 local presidents will be meeting with their field reps, however, do what you can do to get your LAT Committees to attend. Just as a reminder, CWA members marched shoulder to shoulder with us during our Freeholder rally last spring. Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated. Contact Gale Quinn at gquinn@njea.org with names of members willing to attend this rally.

Here are the details of the scheduled town hall meeting with
legislators:

CHERRY HILL, APRIL 13, 6 p.m., Cherry Hill Holiday Inn, 2175 West Marlton
Pike, Cherry Hill

FAKE NJEA WEBSITE

On March 27, a website name was registered using a variant of our NJEA.org website name. On March 28, a hostile disinformation site went up using the “spoofed” website name. The purpose of this anti-NJEA website, which incorporates our name and trademarks, is to post radically anti-public education messages and falsehoods about NJEA and NEA. The site advertised itself on Google in order to draw traffic by pretending to be a pro-education, anti-Christie site. The purpose was obviously to draw unsuspecting members and supporters to see a negative message in order to drive a wedge between them and NJEA. It featured, among other things, a made-up set of talking points from an imaginary NJEA spokesman urging members to "use children" to advance their own cause.

The site was registered anonymously, in order to make it more difficult to track the site operator. Since yesterday morning, we have succeeded in forcing Google to stop others from using NJEA trademarked materials in advertisements. The site is still online, in a different format, and it is still using "NJEA" in its name. We continue to pursue all avenues to force the site operator to stop using NJEA’s name or any images which would mislead the public into believing that it is affiliated in any way with NJEA. We are pursuing available legal recourse against the site operator.

We are intentionally not providing a link to the site because we do not wish to drive any additional traffic or attention to it, which might grant it an appearance of legitimacy. However, we wanted to make you aware of it in case you get questions from members, or hear about it from other sources. It also serves as a warning to everyone who operates a website to be careful about what else is available online. If the opponents of public education are willing to stoop to this level of dishonesty, we should expect that there are likely to be more dirty tricks of this type. Be alert, and if you see anything suspicious online, please let NJEA know immediately.

POSSIBLE PERSONAL CALLS FROM THE GOVERNOR

As some of you may already know, we have received a report that a representative from the Governor’s office is calling local presidents DIRECTLY. These calls seem to be random. We are recommending the following response for you to say should you receive a call:

1. Thank you for your call.
2. Please tell the governor he may be surprised to know that my members
already pay towards their health coverage.
3. Even if we agree to freeze wages he has cut so much that layoffs are
unavoidable.
4. We have great schools here. I represent really terrific people and he has
demonized them beyond repair.
5. My local will consider your request very carefully.

We are sending this information quickly and have not had time to confirm the identity of the caller.

If you receive one of these phone calls, it would be helpful if you would kindly contact the UniServ office to let us know. This may help in identifying any pattern or assist us in identifying the caller.

As always, thank you so much for all that you do on behalf of your members.

STATEWIDE PRESIDENTS' MEETING - MARCH 18, 2010

As you know, an urgent meeting has been called for all local presidents Statewide on Thursday, March 18 at the East Brunswick Hilton. This meeting will begin promptly at 6:45 p.m. It is crucial that you make this your utmost priority.

Please RSVP to your UniServ office ASAP and no later than Friday, March 12, so that we can determine the number of buses that will be needed. Details will be sent to you early next week regarding transportation.

Additionally, we are asking every local president to do the following:

• Every local president calls to schedule a meeting with their legislators. No response? Then call again.
• Every local association put activities in place for members to call, write, fax, and email their legislators.
• Encourage members to sign up for the legislative dinner on March 25.

The message is simple. The issues before you, as a legislator, are important and deserve careful scrutiny and research. We are asking members of the assembly to support the principles of collective bargaining.

Consultants will be contacting each local president at the end of the week for a report as to what was done regarding the bulleted directives. Presidents who fail to respond to our consultants will receive a personal phone call from their UniServ office as to why an association would fail to carry out these directives.

Any president who needs assistance should contact their UniServ rep for additional help. We strongly urge you and your members to monitor njea.org to keep abreast of the issues. This site changes almost daily.

NEW JERSEY FOURTH LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT

Senator Fred Madden

Assemblyman Paul Moriarty

Dear Neighbor,

As you know, the global economic recession has had a devastating impact on taxpayers across the nation and here in New Jersey. People are losing their jobs. Families are losing their homes. Everyone must do more with less.

We must demand no less from our state government. As our working families are forced to watch every dollar they spend, they have every right to demand that their government in Trenton do the same. In fact, it should be held to the highest standards of commonsense spending, cost-efficiency, and accountability. Cutting the waste out of state government spending is the only way we are going to get New Jersey's unacceptably high tax rates under control.

Your input is critical to us as we consider steps to meet the budget emergency here in New Jersey. As your state representatives in the 4th District, we want to know how you think we should reduce spending, and which programs or services you believe should be cut. We also would encourage you to offer any innovative ideas or proposals, however outside-the-box they may seem. No one's opinions are more important than yours.

The governor is seeking $500 million in unilateral cuts in school aid, but we want to hear your perspective on this before spending on our schools and other essential services is reduced in the weeks and months ahead. We will read every comment, so please try to be as constructive as possible.

Everything is on the table. No one's opinion will be ignored. All ideas will be considered on their merit, without regard to whether they come from a Democrat, Republican, or an Independent.

You may reply to this message with your suggestions through email at info@njleg4.com. Please be as specific as possible. All ideas are welcome, regardless of how big or small they may seem, and whether they come from a large organization or small household. All of us can and should have a hand in finding workable solutions to the state's serious budget problems.

Currently, we have two district offices to serve the residents of the 4th District.

Our Gloucester County office is located at 129 Johnson Road, Suite 1, Turnersville, NJ 08012, telephone (856) 232-6700.

Please take note, our Camden County office has been relocated to 1031 Little Gloucester Road, Suite 3, Blackwood, NJ 08012, telephone (856) 401-3073.

To meet the needs of our constituents, we are now open six days a week, with office hours on Saturday mornings from 8:30am-12:00pm. Please feel free to visit us.

Thank you in advance for your comments and ideas. Together, we can make New Jersey a more affordable place to live and work.

Sincerely,

Fred Madden, State Senator

Paul Moriarty, State Assemblyman

Senator Fred Madden & Assemblyman Paul Moriarty

P.O. Box 8831

Turnersville, NJ 08012

LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!!!

Yesterday, the N. J. State Senate voted unanimously on a package of three bills aimed at reducing pensions and benefits (S2, S3, and S4) - each passed by a 36 - 0 vote (Sens. Baroni, Rice, and Turner did not vote; Sen. Allen was not present.) For information on these bills, go to njea.org. There was no deliberation or discussion of the impact of these bills that were introduced 14 days ago.

The battle now moves to the Assembly. The Assembly leadership committed to a more deliberative process, which will include public discussion.

NJEA is urging all members to immediately contact their Assembly members, and tell them to oppose these bills. We have planned additional lobby days for March 8, 11, and 15. If you or your members would like to attend, please contact the UniServ office, and we will notify our Government Relations contact. Locals may want to plan cyber lobby lunches or after-school activities around these issues.

In addition, members should contact members of the State Senate, and express their disappointment with their vote.

Please keep a watchful eye to njea.org for up to the minute information.