Teacher’s Union Files Lawsuit Over Merit Pay
September 15, 2011
The statewide teacher’s union filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida on Wednesday, saying the new teacher merit pay law violates the state constitution.
A lawsuit filed in circuit court in Leon County by the Florida Education Association says the merit pay law that ties the salaries of teachers and other school employees to student performance on tests is unlawful because it violates a right to collectively bargain for wages, contracts and promotions that is guaranteed in the state constitution.
“This sweeping change totally changed the teaching profession in Florida,” said FEA President Andy Ford during a press conference Wednesday. “And the Legislature did it while ignoring repeated calls by the FEA and others for a more collaborative approach that sought buy-in from educators and a sincere effort at compromise.”
The lawsuit provoked an immediate response from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Foundation for Florida’s Future, two groups that are big supporters of teacher merit pay.
“It is unfortunate that the labor union claiming to represent teachers has resisted every meaningful education reform for more than a decade,” said Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson in a statement. “Now they are going to spend money fighting one of the most important education reforms this country has ever seen.” Wilson said the law will restore respect for teachers and “opens the door for higher salaries.”
The lawsuit sets the stage for yet another legal battle for the powerful teacher’s union with the Republican-controlled Legislature and conservative Gov. Rick Scott, both of whom were big supporters of not only the teacher merit pay law, but championed other laws that were opposed by unions and public employees.
The FEA and other unions have been in the legislative cross hairs in recent years – one proposed law would have made taking union dues out of a paycheck illegal. That’s because unions are generally supportive of Democrats and are seen as one of the biggest political threats to Republicans.
“The Legislature would love to get rid of the Florida Education Association because we are the only ones that seem to stand up to them on a regular basis,” Ford said. “If they can get rid of us, they can have free reign over government, which is a scary concept.”
The Florida Education Association has already spearheaded two other lawsuits related to new laws passed this year by the Legislature. The first was a lawsuit opposing the new requirement that public employees contribute 3 percent of their salaries toward a retirement plan and the second was a suit over a proposed constitutional amendment that could pave the way for public dollars to be spent on private religious schools.
Ford said efforts by the Legislature to weaken unions have been unsuccessful.
“Last year, we recruited more members to this organization than any period in our history,” Ford said. The FEA has recruited 6,000 more members since Scott became Governor, bringing total membership to about 142,000, he said.
The 15-page lawsuit filed Wednesday over merit pay will be closely watched by teachers throughout the state.
The new law eliminated the use of long-term contracts for teachers, putting new teachers on annual contracts. It also sets up a new system for evaluating teacher performance. The crux of the system would require schools to rate teachers on four performance levels from unsatisfactory to highly effective, using student test scores to determine 50 percent of that rating and an in-person evaluation of the teacher for the other half.
The FEA said the new law was passed despite strong opposition from teachers, and it removes the longtime practice of allowing school districts to negotiate locally with unions on teacher pay, contracts and other benefits.
By prescribing how school districts must evaluate and pay teachers, it removes the ability of teachers to collectively bargain, said FEA attorney Ron Meyer.
“I’m reminded of what is attributed to Henry Ford when he rolled out the Model T,” Meyer said. “It can be any color as long as it’s black. That is what we are telling public employees in this state. You can bargain anything you want as long as it looks like this. That is not effective collective bargaining.”
Meyer said this case gets “right to the heart of the collective bargaining process,” and he predicted the final judgment would be determined by the Florida Supreme Court.
Ford said the teacher’s union doesn’t oppose merit pay, just the way it was established in Florida.
The teacher’s union signed off on some parts of the federal Race to The Top Grant, which contained some of the same elements of the teacher merit pay law. But Ford said that doesn’t equal support for legislative changes.
“What the Legislature decided to do last year was to overstep Race to the Top and put it into state law and make it mandatory for everybody in the state to do it, whether it was a good idea or not,” Ford said.
He also objected to the quick passage of the bill without input from teachers. It was the first bill passed by the Legislature this year and no amendments by Democrats were approved from the House and Senate floors.
A similar bill passed the Legislature last year, but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
One Democrat, Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, cheered the FEA’s decision to file a lawsuit.
“While teachers, school officials and Democrats throughout the state were unable to stop Republican leaders from cramming this legislation into law, I remain hopeful that the courts will give it a fitting funeral,” Bullard said.
The lawsuit was technically filed by five teachers and one school speech therapist from across Florida, but the Florida Education Association will be paying for the attorneys to fight the case.
Beth Weatherstone is one of those teachers that joined the lawsuit. The 8th grade algebra teacher in Indian River County said she is concerned about the influence of student test scores on her evaluation. Though the merit pay system may not apply to her salary because she is an existing teacher, it could influence how she is rated.
“I am a good teacher, I have been teaching for 32 years,” Weatherstone said. “I have good results with my students and they don’t always show up on FCAT scores.” That’s because she teaches algebra and FCAT tests on other math concepts, such as geometry, she said. Because students now also take algebra end-of-course exams that are required for promotion to the next grade level, she prefers to focus on that test over the FCAT.
But it’s the FCAT, she believes, that will impact how she is rated.
The FEA indicated its willingness to fight merit pay every step of the way. Meyer said the union is also mulling a lawsuit over the details of the merit pay system itself, in addition to this suit on collective bargaining.
“We are looking at other aspects of this law and in particular, the validity of using the testing, the value-added formulas,” Meyer said. He called the formula “voodoo” and said there hasn’t been enough testing of the concept.
By Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida
Want To Learn Extreme Couponing?
September 15, 2011
The Molino Park Elementary School PTA Will present an coupon class tonight.
The class will be taught by Molino Park teacher Becky Hatch. The class will follow a 6 p.m. Title I meeting at the school.
Thursday is also the last day to pre-order PTA hoodies, zip-up jackets and sweatpants. Membership in the Molino Park PTA is $5 for individuals, $8 for families (including two adults), $4 for grandparents, and $25 for corporate sponsors.
Panel Lays Brunt Of Oil Spill Blame On BP
September 15, 2011
BP took the brunt of the blame for the April 20, 2010, explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, but a federal panel charged with reviewing the disaster said Wednesday there was ample criticism to spread around for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
A 212-page report found BP, Haliburton and Transocean all partially to blame for the Macondo well spill that sent five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the 87-day ordeal. Faulty materials, inadequate training and lack of oversight were among the major causes for the spill.
In a statement BP accepted the conclusions of the report. “BP agrees with the report’s core conclusion consistent with every other official investigation that the Deepwater Horizon accident was the result of multiple causes, involving multiple parties, including Transocean and Halliburton.”
By The News Service of Florida
Smoother Parking At Byrneville Community Center
September 15, 2011
Parking will be much smoother in the future at one local community center. Wednesday, crews began paving the parking lot at the Byrneville Community Center at Byrneville Road and West Highway 4. The county owned facility previously had a loose gravel parking lot. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Federal Judge Bars Enforcement Of Doctor Gun Question Law
September 15, 2011
A new state law prohibiting health care providers from asking patients about guns cannot be enforced while the merits of the new law are being litigated, a federal judge in Miami ruled Wednesday in a temporary victory for physicians in the battle between the First and Second Amendments.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke granted a temporary injunction to a group of physicians who filed suit over the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which was sponsored by Sen. Greg Evers, passed by lawmakers in May and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott.
In a 22-page ruling, Cooke dismissed the argument that allowing health care providers to query their patients on gun ownership violated the patient’s Second Amendment right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution.
“A practitioner who counsels a patient on firearm safety, even when entirely irrelevant to medical care or safety, does not affect nor interfere with the patient’s right to continue to own or use firearms,” Cooke wrote.
The lawsuit was filed in June on behalf of a group of physicians who argued their First Amendment right of free speech was being violated if they could not speak freely with their patients about guns. Health care providers sometimes ask patients, especially those with young children, if they own guns and how those weapons are stored.
Witnesses testified during legislative debate that the queries were part of a battery of questions often given to patients to address potential health hazards in the home such as the storage of poisons or whether the patient owns a pool.
“It is hard to imagine that even legislators who voted for this bill thought that the state could legislate the doctor-patient relationship – in this case by imposing a gag order on doctors prohibiting them from asking about firearms and ammunition,” said Howard Simon of the ACLU of Florida, which opposed the law, following the ruling Wednesday.
The measure (HB 155) was backed heavily by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups.
Cooke said the law doesn’t just infringe on doctors’ speech rights, it restricts the right of patients to receive information about safety issues.
Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, said he stood by the intent of the bill, which he said was to protect the privacy of gun owners. “Direct questions about firearm ownership when it has nothing to do with medical care is simply pushing a political agenda, which doesn’t belong in exam rooms,” Brodeur said. “If physicians are worried about safety then I encourage them to give the safety talk to all patients. It is important to note that firearm safety talks are not prohibited at all.”
That is a reference to the fact that bill was watered down considerably from its original language, allowing for doctors to discuss some safety issues if they believe someone might be in danger because of the presence of a gun. In some discussions of the legislation this year, the example of a suicidal patient who says he plans to use a gun to kill himself was used. A doctor might be justified in that case in asking if the patient actually has a gun.
Brodeur said he thought that if doctors were discussing gun safety with all patients, instead of only with those patients who they know have guns, it would likely make the state even more safe because more people would have that talk with a physician.
Marion Hammer, former NRA national president and executive director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida who lobbied extensively in favor of HB 155 didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But through the debate over the measure, Hammer said the difference between discussion by doctors of guns as a potential safety issue and things like poisons or swimming pools is the constitutional protection afforded by the constitution to the keeping of guns.
By granting the injunction Cooke ruled that the physicians in the case have a substantial likelihood of success in their pending challenge and that granting the injunction would not harm the public interest.
“The state’s interest in assuring the privacy of this piece of information from practitioners does not appear to be a compelling one,” wrote Cooke, noting that states and the federal government already heavily regulate firearms ownership and sales. “Information regarding gun ownership is not sacrosanct.”
By Michael Peltier
The News Service of Florida
Yet Another Wreck Involving A School Bus In North Escambia Area
September 15, 2011
There was yet another wreck involving a school bus in the North Escambia area on Wednesday. None of the accidents have been the fault of the bus driver, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The FHP says 18-year old Alexander Groshong of Pensacola caused the accident on Kingsfield Road at North Palafox about 3:15 p.m. A 2000 Ford Mustang driven by Andrew Prevatte, 16, and a 2004 school bus driven by Marilyn Brooks, 63, of Cantonment were stopped at a railroad crossing when Groshong slammed into the rear of the Mustang, pushing it into the school bus.
There were eight passengers on schools bus. None of the persons involved in the wreck were injured.
Groshong was charged with careless driving, according to the FHP.
There have been three other wrecks involving schools buses this school year in North Escambia:
On September 12, a 16-year old was charged after pulling into the path of a bus near Northview High School. On September 2, an Atmore man was charged after sideswiping a bus on South Highway 99 near Walnut Hill. And the night of September 8, a driver suffering a medical condition slammed into an empty bus parked at a private residence on Highway 4 in Bratt.
Read more and see photos:
Driver Charged After Walnut Hill School Bus Wreck
One Injured After Slamming Into Parked School Bus
No Injuries In Morning School Bus Wreck
Pictured: One person was injured after sideswiping this bus on Highway 99 near Walnut Hill on September 2. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Marion Elizabeth Subotich Hiatt
September 15, 2011
Marion Elizabeth Subotich Hiatt went to be with the Lord on Wednesday, September 14, 2011.
She was born in the Bronx, New York, on April 7, 1933, to Elsie Thiede Subotich and Philip James Subotich. She graduated from nursing school in New York in 1954. She moved to Pensacola in 1967 and after 22 years with Escambia County Health Department — 17 of those years at the Molino Clinic — she retired in 1996.
She is preceded in death by her husband, Frederick Hiatt Jr. and her parents. She is survived by her children she so deeply loved, Elsie Marie Hiatt and Philip Farrell Hiatt (Misty) and her loving grandchildren, Daniel Hiatt, Cody Nellums, Madison, Morgan, Mackenzie and Jackson Hiatt. She is also survived by her stepdaughter, Teresa Hiatt McQuade (George) and family.
Funeral Services will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, September 16, 2011, at Faith Chapel Funeral Home South. Interment will follow at Barrancas National Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Thursday, September 15, 2011, from 5-6 p.m.
School Bus Driver Finds Toddler Wandering Alone In Highway
September 14, 2011
An Escambia County School District bus driver found a two-year old child wandering alone in the middle of a highway this morning in Walnut Hill. The child was not harmed.
Bus driver Tonia Allen found the child “on the yellow line” near the intersection of South Highway 99 and Morgan Road about 8:20 a.m.
“She was there in the middle road with two dogs,” Allen said. “I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, that’s a baby’.”
Allen alerted the school district’s bus dispatch and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. She kept the child on the bus until deputies arrived, and they determined that the toddler had wandered out of a residence in the 1500 block of South Highway 99 — which is where she was found.
Allen said she sounded the bus horn multiple times in an attempt to get the attention of the people inside the house with no response.
“Anything could have happened in that highway,” she said. “I was scared. I just have a heart for babies.”
After law enforcement knocked at the door of the residence about an hour later, the mother retrieved the child from the bus and said she did not know how her front door became unlocked.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has referred the case to the Department of Children and Families for investigation.
Pictured top: Bus driver Tonia Allen found this little girl wandering alone in South Highway 99 near Walnut Hill Wednesday morning. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Escambia Man Indicted On First Degree Murder Charge
September 14, 2011
An Escambia County man has been indicted in connection with an August murder.
A grand jury returned a first degree indictment charging 18-year old Sergio Depree Moorer with first degree murder for the death of John Daniel Hall. Hall was found on August 21 in a wooded area near the Marcus Pointe apartment complex. Last seen alive the day before, Hall had been beaten and burned beyond recognition.
Hall’s vehicle was located four days later by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office in the Oakstead Mobile Home Park on Massachusetts Avenue. Moorer was inside the vehicle and fled on foot as deputies arrived. After a short foot chase, he was taken into custody.
Moorer remains jailed without bond and is scheduled for an arraignment hearing on Thursday.
Lambert Bridge Road Closed; New Weight Limit For Hanks Road Bridge
September 14, 2011
A bridge on Lambert Bridge Road near Walnut Hill will be closed today, and the weight limit on a bridge on Hanks Road in Bratt has been dramatically decreased.
For more about the state of wooden bridges in Escambia County, click here.
Lambert Bridge Road
The bridge on Lambert Bridge Road near Walnut Hill will be closed beginning today from Velor Road to North Pine Barren Road.
“An inspection today revealed decay in two of the supporting piles with a third pile showing evidence of advanced decay,” Sonya Daniel, public information officer for Escambia County, said Monday.
The detour is Highway 164 and North Pine Barren Road. Bridge closure signs will be placed at Lambert Bridge Road and Velor Road, and barricades will be placed at the bridge. Repairs make take up to six weeks to complete.
The bridge on Lambert Bridge Road over Little Pine Barren Creek was constructed in 1968.
Hanks Road
The Hanks Road bridge over Breastworks Creek had a posted weight limit of 20 tons about a week ago; now that weight limit is just three tons, preventing most traffic except for passenger cars and trucks from passing over it. Due to the weight limit, the bridge is now off limits to many vehicles, including school buses, fire trucks and farm equipment.
“At the last inspection, it is was determined that the weight limit be lowered and it will be inspected again in six months,” said Daniel. “It is ’safe’ at this weight limit. We are working on a timetable so repairs can be made and it can return to the original weight limits.”
Daniel said additional signage will be posted on Hanks Road to warn of the weight restricted bridge before drivers approach the structure.
The Hanks Road bridge, located just west of North Pine Barren Road, was constructed in 1968. The average daily traffic on the bridge, according to the Florida Department of Transportation, is 80 vehicles per day. The last inspection on the bridge prior to this month was September 22, 2010.
Pictured top: The bridge on Lambert Bridge Road will be closed up to six weeks for repair. Pictured inset: The weight limit on this bridge on Hanks Road was lowered from 20 to just 3 tons. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.