TEACHER ORDERING and End of Year Update 2012

Each staff member will again receive a budget of $500, except for specialists.  You are being provided today with the vendor contract information for the Hunterdon County Educational Services Bidding.

You may go online at www.hcesc.com.  If you registered last year, use your email to login.  Click on “competitive bidding”.  If you forgot your password, try “elysian1” or “elysian2”.  If that does not work, click on “forgot my password”.  If you have not registered, click on “register”.

Click on the bid name (Office Supplies, School Supplies, Science Supplies, etc).  Click on the items you want and select quantity.  When you are done go to view cart and then you can submit the order and we will process it.

If you wish to use a non-contracted vendor that accepts public school purchase orders or you prefer to work on paper rather than online please fill out the requisition form.  Paper catalogs are available in the office.

Staples no longer contracts with HCES but they have a state contract.  Pick out what you want online and enter it on the paper requisition form.

Your final June paycheck will be direct deposited on June 29.  New health deductions begin July 15. I will be sending you the amounts shortly.  There will be no summer pension deductions or flexible spending account deductions for teachers.  New Flex participation forms for next year are in your mailbox.  Please fill it out and sign it even if you do not wish to participate, we need proof that it was offered to everyone.  Please return via Tracey’s mailbox by June 15, 2012.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Tracey and Kathy

Proposed IRS Charter School Pension Rules

Here's a link to the Education Week article. Within it are links to comment to the IRS. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2012/02/hill_lawmakers_concerned_about.html?print=

The Board has enlisted Professor Charles Auffant of Rutgers University Law School to do a pro-bono review of the bylaws. The revised bylaws will be voted upon at the Annual Meeting. They are posted on the school website for your review. http://www.ecsnj.org/board/board.aspx
The most significant changes are:
1. To formalize the voting rights of part time employees
2. To formalize the fact that employees on leave do not vote
3. To update the bylaws to include electronic notifications
4. To substitute "Finance Committee Chair" for Treasurer as per recent changes in State Law
5. To clarify requirements that no candidates may have a business/financial relationship with the school
6. To clarify that board candidates may run for public office but must withdraw/resign if their campaign is successful
7. To clarify election rules in case of tie
8. To clarify requirements for calling a Special Meeting

Wednesday January 10, 2012 Staff Meeting

Harry has asked me to address the staff meeting so I am also putting the information I will give you Wednesday in writing for your reference and for those unable to attend.

Please note: due to problems with our bank, you will receive a paper check Friday. Direct Deposit should resume for the Jan 30 check. We apologize for this inconvenience.

1.Charter School Advocacy: last Wednesday night parents from all 3 Hoboken charter schools attended our PTSO meeting to learn how we can fight for more funds for charter schools. Our budgets are frozen (new charters are receiving even less money) and we need funds to be able to keep up with rising costs.

Three lobbyists spoke:
Jay Wright from the NJ Charter School Association
Derrell Bradford executive director, B4kidsNJ
Kathleen Nugent, executive director, NJ Democrats for Education Reform
They encouraged us to write and call our legislators.
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

State Senator Brian Stack 5801 Palisade Ave., West New York, NJ 07093
Phone: (201) 861-5091
301 45th St., 1st Floor, Union City, NJ 07087 Phone: (201) 558-7926

State Assemblyman Ruben Ramos 70 Hudson St., 7th Floor, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Phone: (201) 714-4960

The above website has names and contact information for your legislator. Please call, email or write and ask for more funding for charter schools. Ask them to vote for new Legislation proposing a new charter school funding formula. Tell them:
All students deserve a quality education
Charters should receive equal funding
Charters should receive facilities funding
Charters should receive autonomy in exchange for accountability

2. Health
We have made some budget adjustments to allow us to maintain health care contributions at the current rate temporarily. However, rates will increase in the fall and increase yet again next January.

We have solicited proposals from private health insurance companies. Several companies were unable to submit a quote lower than our current State Plan. Several companies submitted Private High Deductible Plan quotes lower than our current plan. A committee has been established to review the proposals. Susan Gilbertson, Diane DeSombre, and John Rutledge are currently members, other staff are welcome to join.

The main advantage to joining a private plan is the lower price. The school takes the risk of absorbing the higher deductible for the employee, gambling that most employees will never reach it.

Disadvantages are:
1. Private plans offer only 1 insurer by law. State plan offers 3. This will mean that 2 out of the 3 insurers will be dropped, forcing employees to switch doctors.
2. Private plans offer lesser benefits, such as paying only half of emergency room, hospitalization, scans, X-rays, mammograms etc. Staff would need to be willing to risk higher out of pocket costs in return for lower premiums.
3. Small group plans are known for coming in low and rising astronomically in future years. (Ethical went up 50% in the second year).

For these reasons the committee will be considering alternatives to our current health plan very carefully. The results of the recent staff health survey are also being compiled for the committee's use.

We also can control costs by making a change in how much the school pays toward health benefits of employees on maternity leave. The school has been paying 100% of the health costs up to 9 months, which runs up to $13,000. If that is reduced to cover only disability and family leave, which lasts 4.5 months, the cost would be half. If the employee wished to stay out longer, they would pick up the entire health cost of $1700 per month. This is the policy in other charters and NJ school districts.

The committee will also consider moving out of Direct 10 into Direct 15, which is slightly cheaper.

By working together as a group to understand our financial options we can make decisions together in the best long term interest of the school, rather than having decisions imposed on us. We are all in this together!

Health Benefits Mobile Phone Applications

State Health Benefits Program and
School Employees' Health Benefits Program

HEALTH BENEFITS MOBILE PHONE APPLICATIONS
Personalized information in the palm of your hand

Aetna, CIGNA, and Horizon have developed applications for the iPhone, smartphones, and other web-enabled mobile devices to provide State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) or School Employees’ Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) members with plan information "on the go."

Medco Health Solutions, Inc. has also developed the Medco Pharmacy mobile app for its Prescription Plan, now available at no cost on BlackBerry® and Android™ smartphones using the Verizon Wireless network.

Reminders

Dear Teachers and Staff:

As you know, a new law has been passed to fund the New Jersey pension system. Although we will have to contribute an additional 1% beginning in October, it also means the state will be required to make contributions to the pensions, which had not been happening in the past. The state requires us to make pension deductions on a 10 month basis. PLEASE NOTE: Some of you have divided up your salary so that you will get more during the year and not have bigger summer paychecks. Please feel free to see me to make those arrangements.

Also please note that President Obama is increasing our Social Security payments back to 7.65% in January 2012.

Health Insurance: The new law also required increased contributions by employees to their premiums, but Elysian employees are already paying a sufficient amount to meet the new rules. We are hoping that there will be no increase in health premiums in January due to the new options being offered in the School Employees Health Benefits Plan.

Dropbox.com and Google.com Documents: Dropbox is a free storage website where you may upload and save documents. Google documents is the same. This may be an efficient way for students to maintain their documents rather than on a flash drive, which is often lost. Open Office.com is a good source of free word processing and spreadsheet software. Tutorials on all of these websites show you how to use them.

Note from our Stevens Work Study Student, Matt Witowski:
"Google Tools is an excellent replacement for computers missing Microsoft Office. It has everything that Microsoft Office has, but in a lighter form. This means that it will run a lot faster, becaus it has some features that are not needed, such as macros. When you save documents you have the option of saving them to your google account so they can be accessed and downloaded from anywhere. You can also upload any Microsoft Office documents and save them to your google account. Google Tools also allows you to edit any uploaded files. You have to have a gmail account, and it is recommended to use the Google Chrome browser. In my opinion Google Chrome should be used over any other internet browser just because it is much faster. "

Microsoft Office Equivalents:

Google docs = Microsoft Word
Google presentation = Microsoft Power Point
Google spreadsheet = Microsoft Excel

Nutshell
PROS
Faster than all Microsoft Office software
Documents stored online automatically
Documents can easily be uploaded and downloaded
No problem with documents on lost flash drives
Free!

CONS
You need a gmail account
You need internet access
Google chrome recommended
Some advanced features not available

Thanks Matt for your analysis. Gaby Khoury is also assisting us from Stevens with IT work. And Damian Pizzo is on call as our IT professional. Dont forget to fill out a form and give it to Mike if you need help. That's how the IT people get their to-do list. They are also available for computer tutorials.

Website forms: Additional forms and information for parents are now posted on the school website, www.ecsnj.org, along with other documents and forms for staff. Please send me anything you would like parents to be able to access online. And don't forget to submit class trip forms promptly so they can be posted on payschools for payment.

END OF YEAR NEWS

Dear Staff:

JUNE 30 PAYCHECK: As per your request, the June 30 check will be issued on June 30 rather than the last day of school. It will be direct deposited. Your attendance will be emailed to you for report cards later this month. All unused personal days will disappear June 22, sick days carry over.

HEALTH & PENSION: NJ School Boards Association published a comparison of the two different bills being proposed in the legislature: http://www.njsba.org/sb_notes/20110329/pension.html
We will have to wait for the final outcome, but it does seem likely that some changes in our pensions and state health benefits plan will be enacted. We will keep you posted. We will have an employee committee on health benefits to study the changes and make recommendations to the staff regarding the possibility of switching health plans.

ORDERING: You all received printouts of the School Specialty and Staples catalogs. You may order from these and other contracts online at www.hcesc.com. Click on Cooperative Pricing to order; register first (don't forget your password, or just use "elysian2"). Classroom teachers get $500 to order from any vendor you wish (If the vendor is not on www.hcesc.com just fill out a paper requisition, which was attached to your package.) You may still use paper if you prefer it to online. Please submit orders to me by the end of June.

PROTECT YOUR CAREER: It came to my attention at the NJASBO conference that teachers should have their own private professional liability insurance. The school carries insurance to protect you but teachers in district schools also have their own policy provided by the union. There is a group called Association of American Educators that offers such a policy to many charter school teachers across the country for a membership fee of $15 per month. Please let me know if you would like to sign up; I recommend it.

GOOD NEWS: The Governor has made a temporary adjustment to next year's budget which will allow us to restore our emergency fund to avoid future layoffs. This is not a permanent increase but will add to our financial stability. We will select a staff representative to join the long-term financial planning group for the school, including the salary scale. The salary scale is frozen as long as the budget is frozen; there will be no moves up to higher steps or increases in the step amounts until there is a change in funding. The Board is exploring how to increase teacher pay.

PHONES: A new phone system will be installed this summer, since we discovered we can rent new phones for the same rental amount as the old ones.

PARTITION of ART/SPECIAL ED ROOM: The City approved our architectural drawing and the work will begin after school closes. Carmen will also rip up carpet and refinish floors in some rooms.

Proposed Changes in Elysian Bylaws

Dear Staff:

On January 28 at the Chili Dinner, the Board of Trustees has called a Special Member Meeting to vote on 2 changes to the Bylaws:
1. To increase the term limits of Board members from 2 to 3 terms (terms remain at 2 years)
2. To allow nonparent Board members to vote in Board member elections

At our staff meeting the changes were discussed.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Why can't this wait until the regularly scheduled March meeting?
Because we need to know who will be eligible to run before the meeting so the ballot can be prepared.
2. Will this result in the Board members becoming entrenched?
The community retains the right to reject this proposal and to vote against individual board candidates. The tradeoff of keeping more experienced, better informed and more knowledgeable Board members is balanced by the benefits in trustee knowledge gained over 6 years versus 4. This is a relatively minor increase in Board member longevity. We are not talking about unlimited terms. (By the way, many NJ charter schools have appointed, not elected, Board members with unlimited terms. Often this longevity and depth of experience results in successful facilities aquisition.) There are many discussions of the pros and cons of term limits for trustees of nonprofits online if you care to research it in the next three weeks.
3. What is the issue of nonparent Board members voting?Pam Cushing, as a retired and not a current staff member or parent, was not eligible to vote in the last board election. The board agrees that Pam or any other nonparent Board members should be eligible to cast her vote in the elections given her dedication to the school.
4. Why is the Special Members meeting being held at the Chili Dinner?
Since it can be difficult to obtain enough attendees for a quorum it seemed an opportune time, since the Chili Dinner is expected to be well attended.

If anyone has other thoughts and comments, please feel free to submit them and I will post them on the blog so that they may be shared with your colleagues.

Kathy Mone