On 2/13/18, the School Board will be voting on updating a policy regarding the access of associations in our schools. I previously wrote about my concerns on this topic and would like to reiterate them along with posting the actually policy document that will be up for a vote tomorrow. Here is my previous post: IS THE SCHOOL BOARD LIMITING EDUCATION ASSOCIATION ACCESS TO ONLY THE UNION?: For decades the VBEA (Va Beach Education Assoc) has had access in our schools such as a bulletin board in every school, ability to put mail in teacher mailboxes, make announcements on the school PA system, a mailbox in the School Administration building, participation on School Board committees and more. The VBEA is a subsidiary of the NEA (the national teacher's union). Since Virginia is a Right to Work state and does not allow unions to mandate employee participation, the VBEA is not technically called a union but it has the same agenda as the NEA and VEA. I do not oppose allowing the VBEA access to our schools (I have friends who are members), as long as the political part of their organization and agenda is not a part of their efforts in our schools. Most of my colleagues on the VB School Board just proposed a policy change that severely limits the access of certain education associations. The definition they just created will essentially eliminate any existing Education Associations except the VBEA. It should be noted that 3 School Board members are current VBEA members. The new policy definition states that the only associations that shall have the above mentioned access to our schools will be those organizations created BY ONLY employees or retirees of VB Schools. So, any Education Association that is created by parents or students along with teachers, will not have the same access as the VBEA. It is interesting that this policy change came just a couple of months after the new SPARK Education Association (www.vbspark.org) became public. It's also interesting that the School Board recently blocked the nomination of a highly qualified SPARK Board member to a School Board Advisory Committee. It is very important for the School Board to be open to all community members and not favor one group over another. Comments are closed.
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