Notes from MC

This blog is posted by Mary Cathryn Ricker, President of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, Local 28, which serves to offer notes and thoughts of interest to the members and friends of SPFT about unions, great public schools and public school teachers. Issues of greater good for all of our students, reflections on teacher leadership, being a teacher, union leader, and community activist will also be included.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Educational Assistant Bargaining Issues

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Today the work of the Educational Assistant Bargaining Team, from the training in January-the surveying this spring-and the planning and res...

Friday, June 26, 2009

Vallay Varro for St. Paul School Board

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The Committee On Political Education screened candidates for the 2 year school board seat being vacated by Tom Conlon. The COPE found 3 cand...

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

SPFT School Board Endorsement

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I would like to take this opportunity to thank the COPE Committee for their time, both in February and this week, as they seriously delibera...

Saturday, May 2, 2009

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

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There is an unprecedented opportunity to invest in the quality and the future of St. Paul Public Schools because of the American Recovery an...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Membership budget ideas

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Members have been spending time at each membership meeting since January working to address the budget dilemma that faces our school distric...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

What would teachers do?

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We have a lot of decisions to make in St. Paul Public Schools. There is a serious budget crisis to deal with, stimulus package money to spen...

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

SPFT Budget Brainstorming

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At our January membership meeting, the members present began a thoughtful discussion about the state of the SPPS budget for 2009-10. At that...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Rally at the School Board meeting

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I am going to ask for the comments made by our members at the rally this past Tuesday so I can publish them here for all members to see. The...

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Long time, no see--Sorry. I was just in the back of the class.

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Nothing like a new year to, albeit belatedly, get back into the swing of things. I was alerted to an interesting posting in the Superintende...

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Sunday, December 7, 2008

David Brooks' Reform School

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For someone with national credentials, columnist David Brooks’ education policy naivety is staggering. In a recent column Mr. Brooks started...

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About Me

Mary Cathryn: I have been president of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, the union representing the teachers and educational assistants of St. Paul Public Schools since 2005. I have taught middle school English for 13 years in St. Cloud, Minnesota; Camas, Washington, Seoul, South Korea; and St. Paul, earning my National Board Certification in Early Adolescent/English-Language Arts in 2004. I grew up in a family of teachers on Minnesota's Iron Range so I recognize the power of labor unions to improve peoples' lives as well as the power of good teaching and strong public schools.

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