Welcome to the New Team New Dream Blog. Here you will find information pertaining to Ernie Fisher's leadership team.

This May an election will be held that will determine what direction the JTEA will take. We can continue on the current path or take a new road which can lead to a brighter future for all members of the JTEA .

The Fisher team consists of hard working individuals who, if elected, will insure that the interests of all JTEA members will be considered.

Over the next several weeks the Fisher team will be distributing literature that will discuss goals and objectives. The New Team New Dream leadership team will also be visiting every school in the Jefferson community.

Several Internet links are provided on the left side of the web page. Please take a look at some information that you may feel valuable.

The blog will be updated periodically with new links and posts. Please feel free to check in.

Thank You for your time and consideration.

Ernie Fisher- Presidential Candidate

Patricia Davey- Vice Presidential Candidate

Laura Ajaj- Candidate for Secretary

Ginger Latham- Candidate for Treasurer

Candidate Bios

Candidate Bios
Hello,
I’m Ernie Fisher
Candidate For President

Educational Experience:
Bachelor of Science Economics
Teacher of Mathematics - Montclair State University—alternate route certificate
Masters in the Art of Teaching

Teaching Experience:
12 years teaching experience
Teacher—10 years at JTHS

Interesting background:
Professional Baseball Player
Former Head Baseball Coach - JTHS

Association Advocate Experience:
Member of the JTEA Action Team

My personal qualities of dedication, commitment to teamwork, training to excellence & a personal belief that all members should be treated fairly are attributes I will bring to the office of President. Being in a leadership role requires a tremendous amount of time. At this point in my life professionally and personally I can devote the time and effort needed to be an effective and high functioning leader. I am eagerly looking forward to the challenge and responsibility. I look forward to “doing the right thing” for all colleagues.

“Out of circumstance comes leadership”


Hi,
I’m Patricia Davey
Candidate for Vice President

Bachelor of Arts English
Master of Arts Counseling
Certifications: English
Special Education
Student Personnel Svs.

Employment history:
Jefferson Twp. School District
Paterson School District
Roxbury Twp. School District
Elizabeth School District

Counselor, Jefferson Township Schools: 10 years at middle school, elementary & high school levels.

Association Advocate Experience:
Association Rep.- Paterson Schools
Liaison to Adm. - Elizabeth Schools
Action Team Member - JTEA


“It’s about Respect”


Greetings,
I’m Laura Ajaj
Candidate for Secretary

Bachelor of Arts Mathematics
Masters in the Art of Teaching

Jefferson Township resident:
Children enrolled in the
Jefferson Twp. Schools

Employment history:
Corporate Billing Supervisor
Teacher, Bergen County Vo-Tech & Academies 11 yrs.
Teacher, Jefferson Twp. Schools—10 yrs.

Association Advocate Experience:
Membership Chairperson
Member of Executive Board of
Officers– Bergen County

Assisted in the building of a
strong & unified membership

“Strong & Unified”


Hey There,
I’m Ginger Latham
Candidate for Treasurer

BA in Business Education:
Accounting - Stenography
Social & General Business
Masters - Special Education

Association Advocacy Experience:
Current P/T NJEA Consultant: Professional Development & Communications Divisions
Jefferson School District:
HS Transition Coordinator
19 years K-12 instructional staff member
Total years teaching - 30 years
Former JTEA President 2003-5
Former JTEA Grievance Chair
Former Assoc. Bldg. Rep.
Former Treasurer of the Parsippany Troy Hills E.A.
Once an Advocate always an Advocate

“Integrity Matters”

A message from Ernie Fisher

Wednesday, April 14, 2010
A Message from Ernie Fisher

Ernie Fisher, Candidate for President



Dear JTEA members:

A New Direction

These are certainly challenging times for all employed in public schools of New Jersey. In times of strife and trouble, we always look toward our professional association leadership for direction and guidance. We are struggling to safeguard our employment and retirement benefits so that we can enter retirement with security and dignity. We are seeking to maintain a level of professionalism that is on par with other professionals.

I am very concerned with the direction of the JTEA. I believe our association should be on a different path; a path that respects and protects all members. Contract bargaining comes and goes, but it's the defending and upholding of that contract that's critical to our wellbeing as a professional association. We have been weakened by lack of action; follow through and, above all, the lack of professional enthusiasm. With that being said, Patricia Davey, Ginger Latham, Laura Ajaj and myself have committed ourselves to improving our association by providing a more supportive, professional and transparent organization where everyone's voice will be heard. This new team of candidates has the desire and ability to stand up and create a JTEA that will be viewed with respect once again.

Thirteen years ago I began teaching at JHS. During that year I attained my teaching certification though the state’s alternate route program and I was thrilled to be a professional educator. For the most part, I found my work environment friendly and professional with a strong sense of community. As all first year teachers, I was naïve, nervous and insecure but, thankfully, I found my department and administration to be very helpful. I felt a “people first” approach which promoted a feeling of trust throughout the faculty. I left Jefferson for a brief three year period and when I returned I found policy and personnel changes, but the essence of Jefferson was still there - a great workplace.

Over the last few years, the environment has changed drastically with a “top down" approach which has created low morale. I ask this question "Is a faculty that feels respected better for the students in Jefferson Township?" One consequence was the loss of autonomy in the classrooms. Teachers no longer practice creativity and individuality. We are mandated to instruct in a cookbook style method demonstrating the district is more concerned with their “checklists” than engaging learning for students. This was another reason why I want to be involved as an advocate and officer of the JTEA. My desire to change the status quo, led me to join the action team for the current contract negotiations. During our action team meetings, I had opportunities to work and talk with Pat Davey on numerous professional subjects. My respect for her grew as we shared our ideas for member advocacy and soon ideas for a healthier association began to formulate. After two action committee meetings, our suggested ideas for actions were dismissed and not pursued by JTEA leadership. We were told there was “no need for actions because we were so close to settling” and "we don't want to upset them." We heard this theme over and over again as contract attainment slipped further and further away. We were also told "the economy is getting better" and there was no rush. Really? Pat and I found the lack of action and solidarity very disheartening and decided it wasn't good enough. Our conversations began to include Ginger Latham, former JTEA president and NJEA consultant and Laura Ajaj, HS math teacher who shared our sentiments.

The resolution to our frustration and displeasure was to run as a team for the JTEA officer positions. We were frustrated by our voices being ignored, our employment contract not being defended and watching coworkers struggle. We believe the JTEA and the students of Jefferson deserve much better. I have the desire to do the right thing for our members as do my running mates. There is a wealth of intelligence, experience and professional characteristics among our team. It is our goal to return respect to our members, create an environment where members enjoy working, protect the negotiated contract that defines our working conditions and to guarantee a duty of fair representation for all. If you believe Jefferson schools can be a better place to work and that there's HOPE for a better day, cast your vote for change. Collectively we will work to make a healthier association possible and a work place which is second to none.

Please visit our blog http://newteamnewdream.blogspot.com/ for further information.

Sincerely,


Ernie Fisher
Candidate for JTEA President

N.J. teachers union files suit challenging health benefit contributions

Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerBarbara Keshishian, president of the New Jersey Education Association, addresses members of the Senate Budget Committee during public hearings in regard to Gov. Chris Christie's budget cuts, in this March file photo. NJEA filed a lawsuit today against the new law requiring state employees to contribute at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health benefits.
TRENTON -- New Jersey's largest teachers' union filed suit today against a new state law requiring all public employees to contribute at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health benefits.
In the suit, filed in Mercer County Superior Court, the union claims the law violates teachers’ rights to negotiate their salaries and benefits at the local level.

"We are asking the court to see this for what it is: a tax imposed selectively on public employees only," said New Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian, whose union represents 200,000 teachers and other school employees.
The law was part of a package of pension reforms passed overwhelmingly by both houses of the Legislature and signed into law last month by Gov. Chris Christie. It is scheduled to take effect on May 21, or when current labor contracts expire. Lawmakers project it will save local governments $314 million this year.
The suit claims the new contributions will cause "significant financial hardship" on teachers and school employees "who have provided long-standing, honorable and essential service to the public school students in the state of New Jersey."
The NJEA lawsuit comes less than a week after the state’s police and firefighters unions challenged the 1.5 percent law, plus the two other pension reform bills, on similar grounds.
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said the governor expects to prevail in court.
"The NJEA is an organization that doesn’t know the meaning of the words fair, reasonable or compromise," he said. "It’s time for change, and everyone but the NJEA seems to recognize that."
Earlier today, when asked about the police and fire lawsuits, Christie said he was confident the pension laws he signed were constitutional and urged the court to allow the changes to go into effect.
"I don't think it'll change reform going forward because, candidly, anybody can file a lawsuit," he said. "Anybody in the world can file a lawsuit, and as a lawyer I know that. So just because a lawsuit's been filed doesn't mean that there's any merit to it. And candidly, I think that it would be better spent time for the unions to be sitting down and trying to figure out how they're going to be part of the shared sacrifice moving forward."

The laws passed last month largely affect future hires but require current workers to put in at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health care costs, something state workers already contribute. The payments would not carry into retirement for those already eligible for free health benefits when they leave government service. New proposals discussed by the governor, but not yet detailed, would extend many of the same changes to current employees, though they would have to be approved by the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

"I'm confident that there is a will in the Legislature -- I can tell you there's a will in this governor's office -- to continue to examine all kinds of reforms that will bring the public sector back into line with the private sector during these really difficult economic times," Christie said. "I have confidence that we'll prevail in court. We'll move on from there to discuss a lot of other reforms, pension-related and non-pension related, that need to be done between now and the end of the legislative session on June 30."
By Matt Friedman and Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau

What the NJEA is doing to fight Christie

What NJEA has been doing to fight Chris Christie’s attacks on public education:


Research-based plan of action
• January tracking poll
• February Focus groups
• February Statewide message poll
• April member poll
• April statewide voter poll

Internal Communication – what we’re doing with our members
• Campaign: Keep the Promise
• NJEA.org – separate page just on the Keep the Promise campaign
• Detailed summary analysis of the pension and benefit bills
• Detailed Q&A on the bills to answer every possible question
• Chart with the history of pension funding
• 3-minute “Keep the Promise” video that explains how the state failed to maintain their end of the agreement.
• We continue to inform our members via their Field Reps, njea.org, NJEA News Service, and by email of what NJEA is doing to fight back.
• NJEA Review magazine has an April cover story, “What happens in Trenton doesn’t stay in Trenton: the impact of politics in your classroom” that details the issues and NJEA’s talking points. The Review also has included editorials and “Presidents Message” pieces detailing Christie’s attacks on public education and NJEA.
• NJEA Reporter has been at the forefront of our effort to communicate Christie’s game plan with our members and detail our responses, including editorials, data, local association reactions, talking points and tracking legislation.
• Local Leader email blasts – “A Message from the President” has included information monthly since the crisis began on the crisis and what NJEA members need to know.
• Preparing an “I am NJEA” billboard campaign for use in locals and with governor and legislators.
• Leader Connection page on njea.org is updated daily since its inception.
• Communications staff has updated the “What NJEA is doing” piece at least four times since March 2010.



External Communication – what we’re saying/doing with the public
NJEA News Service
• Email updates to reporters, legislators, opinion leaders, the business community, local officials, etc.
• Since the start of the crisis, we have sent 13 news launches to all New Jersey press and other targeted recipients (business leaders, legislators, local officials, etc.)
o Jan. 21 – a story reaffirming the high quality of NJ public schools
o Feb. 8 – a hard-hitting response to Sen. Sweeney’s pension proposals
o Feb. 11 – Barbara’s strong response to Gov. Christie’s emergency budget address announcing $475 million in school spending cuts for this FY.
o Feb. 18 – a story demanding that the Governor and Legislature stop the deception about why the pension system is underfunded
o Mar. 1 – a story about the op-ed authored by NJ Teacher of the Year Maryann Woods-Murphy
o Mar. 3 – a story about the Governor’s desire to grant $1 billion in tax cuts to the state’s wealthiest taxpayers while proposing more than a billion dollars in education cuts.
o Mar. 11 – a story on our first TV ad attacking Gov. Christie’s proposed education cuts.
o Mar. 15 – a story on the second TV ad urging Gov. Christie to help students, not millionaires.
o Mar. 15 – NJEA’s statement on the Governor’s disastrous budget for education.
o Mar. 16 – NJEA President Keshishian fights back against Christie’s attacks and deceptions.
o Mar. 23 – a story on the Governor’s misplaced priorities.
o Mar. 30 – a story on Christie’s choice to protect millionaires, not kids.
o Apr. 9 – NJEA apologizes to Gov. Christie for offensive statement.
o Apr. 12 – Christie takes another swipe at school funding.
o Apr. 13 – Schundler’s figures don’t add up.
o Apr. 15 – NJEA warns about Christie’s “catastrophic” pension proposals.
o Apr. 20 – NJEA demands Christie apologize for calling students “drug mules”
o Apr. 21 – State report shows Christie’s pay freeze claims are false.
o Apr. 26 – Christie and Schundler continue to mislead the public on “freeze”


Paid Media
• Two 60-second radio spots that aired for two weeks in February on stations statewide
• Feb. 28 – ran full page ads in 12 Sunday newspapers across the state, telling readers that Christie was threatening to cut school spending, pensions, and benefits while giving tax breaks to the rich.
• To date: Four weeks of TV flights featuring two TV spots using NJ Teacher of the Year Maryann Woods-Murphy taking on the governor’s proposals and funding priorities.
• NJEA’s “Report on Education” columns.
• “I am NJEA” billboards.
• In the works:
o Anti-Christie TV ad attacking his misinformation campaign with the public
o 2 Anti-Christie TV ads featuring NJEA President Barbara Keshishian
o Anti-Christie radio campaign
o Full-page print ads going after Christie’s attacks on public education and NJEA members
o Additional web advertising to drive supportive public and parents to the NJKids&Families website

Earned Media
• Literally hundreds of media interviews with print, radio, TV, and web-based outlets since the eruption of the crisis in January.
o Multiple opportunities to press our key messages:
 Pension/benefit changes are unnecessary and will not address real issues
 State needs to address funding in order to stabilize pensions
 Christie’s budget cuts are harmful to schools and students
 Christie’s priorities are wrong; don’t cut taxes for millionaires while cutting funding for schools
 Christie is not being truthful in the information he spreads about NJEA
• We have successfully pitched all three NJEA officers and Teacher of the Year Maryann Woods-Murphy for media interviews on TV, radio, and print
• Numerous appearances by our spokespersons with our message on MSNBC, CBS 3/WB57 (Phila), Fox 29 (Phila), News 12NJ, WNBC (NY), WOR, NJN, FIOS 1, NBC Nightly News, and many more.

Online/Social Networking
• Created a new website -- www.NJKidsandFamilies.org -- for the purpose of identifying and organizing supportive parents and public. We placed extensive web ads on Facebook, Google, and targeted websites; when people clicked through to the site, they were invited to:
o Sign a Petition (and provide their email address)
o Take action – contact legislators
o Take action email blasts at those who sign the petition
o Results: More than 70,000 emails gathered, and thousands of emails to legislators and the Governor. We had a request to stop sending so many at once since it was affecting government work. We now batch our emails so as to have a strong – but not overwhelming – presence every day.
• Facebook – NJ Kids and Families page, using our NJEA and New Jersey Education Association pages, and providing support to pages that have been built by NJEA members such as New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie’s Pay Freeze, which currently has more than 70,000 members
• Paid ads on Facebook driving readers to our various websites with pro-education, pro-NJEA messages and the truth about Chris Christie’s priorities and actions as governor.

Local Association Crisis Assistance
• NJEA continues to provide Communications support to local associations. We have produced:
o 7,500 color posters that expose Christie’s lies to our members
o Speeches, websites, parent brochures, talking points, letters to the editor, coffee klatch training materials, newspaper advertisements, etc.
• Privatization battles have skyrocketed. NJEA Communications is assisting numerous locals fight privatization with speeches, media assistance, and other communications materials.
• Communications assistance with county-organized rallies in Morris, Passaic, Bergen, Atlantic, Gloucester, Essex, and Camden counties.
• At the same time, we continue to provide local associations Communications support with their bargaining crises.

School Budget Election
• NJEA continued to advocate for local school budgets, by:
o Sending a statewide school budget election mailing to all NEA members;
o Sending an all-member email reminding NJEA members to vote in school budget elections;
o Sending all retirees an email asking them to support our school budgets;
o Local assistance to associations working to pass their budgets including: website creation and support, speeches, brochures, coffee klatch training, talking points, signs, member materials, and pass the budget training.
• We wrote a sample letter for county presidents to use to encourage their members to support their local school budgets.
• We provide support to county school budget campaigns including writing and designing copy for yard signs, billboards, bus ads, TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, stickers, etc.

Government Relations Support
• NJEA Communications has drafted testimony for numerous hearings regarding pensions and school funding.
o Feb. 17 – Assembly Budget Committee
o Feb. 18 – Senate Appropriations Committee
o Mar. 18 – Assembly Appropriations Committee
o April – Privatization hearings (statewide)
• Assisting in the publication of regular Cyberlobbees – e-newsletter to more than 60,000 members who regularly lobby the Governor, Congress, and the Legislature.