ESTA UPDATE

East Side Teachers Association/CTA/NEA 888 So. Capitol Ave San Jose, Ca 95127 September 17, 2002 Don McKell, President Julie Pratico, Vice Pres Carla Holtzclaw, Secretary Ralph Giannini, Treasurer mckelld@esuhsd.org fax: (408) 272-7569 voice: (408) 272-0601 website: www.EastSideTA.org

ESTA AT THE BOARD MEETING

What does it take to get 300 or more ESTA members to go to a school board meeting? That's exactly what we had on the night of September 12, when a large contingent of teachers arrived to show support for our Bargaining Team in its efforts to achieve a contract settlement we can live with. Although every site was represented, the majority of those in attendance were from Independence, Andrew Hill, and Santa Teresa. A number of speakers, myself included, addressed the district's need to come to that table with a salary and benefits package more respectful of the needs of the most critical group of district employees. We can all hope that the school board listened. Thanks to all ESTA members for your continued support and solidarity.

WORK TO RULE??

On September 11, ESTA's Rep Assembly heard a report from our Negotiations Team that painted a bleak picture of the progress in bargaining a new contract, even on the heels of a promising beginning. Among the remaining issues still to reach closure: Zero/zero COLA/raise, or draconian caps on fringe benefits, ‚ no movement in Special Education, ƒ no progress in counselor, nurse, and other special duty assignment compensation and work rules, more. (In what shouldn't be a setting for brinkmanship, mere minutes before the meeting, word had reached me that the district was perhaps ready to deal more seriously with our needs. Talk is cheap, but we'll enter this week with cautious optimism.) At the Assembly meeting, amid calls for a wildcat walkout or other show of anger, reason prevailed. In the end, we determined to let out a little more rope and see what develops in Bargaining set for Tuesday, Sep 17. The Assembly overwhelmingly passed a motion that will institute Work To Rule beginning Monday, Sep 23, unless we get word that significant progress is made at the bargaining table this week. What exactly is Work to Rule? In a nutshell, it is an organizing activity to attract attention to our needs by determining to exactly follow the contract. We would determine to work to exactly follow the rules, doing no more than is minimally required. Among some of the characteristics of the activity: � arrive for work no sooner than is required. ‚ leave from work as soon as able ƒ take your prep in an unusual place; be hard to find. „ volunteer for nothing … do not take work home † attend no meetings other than those ESTA calls ‡ ignore pages for individuals over the PA ˆ act only upon receipt of written admin directives The final determination of whether it is necessary to take our behavior to this level will be made by Thursday of this week. Watch your mailbox.

WHOSE JOB IS IT?

As I write this, I am also preparing for what may be a critical meeting of the ESTA Assembly tomorrow. On the agenda: Contract negotiations are essen-tially at a standstill; the latest district benefits and compensation offer is worse than unacceptable. ‚ What is to be the degree and manner of our participation in the campaign to pass the Parcel Tax? Should we endorse other candidates in the race for a school board seat? If so, who? What will be our reaction if the district once again fails to make every effort to adhere to the Article 15 Class Size language? These are each major issues. The discussion should include all points of view. The outcomes could affect every one of us. Yet, sadly, there will be some empty chairs in the meeting room - some voices unheard. At least five of our sites do not have a full representational slate, as provided in our Bylaws, for attendance at Assembly meetings. To be honest, two of these sites had their vacancies arise recently due to transfers or retirement, and will probably move to fill them soon. But two of the other three have spent years relying on the efforts of others to do their jobs. I in no way mean to dump on the folks from these sites that have been attending, but I feel compelled to ask once again that all sites send full contingencies of representatives to every meeting. Where are the "holes"? AHHS (1), FHHS (1), JLHS (2), OGHS (1), PHHS (2). Speak to your Building President for details. These diligent and dedicated servants are: AH: Wendy Stegeman; FH: Manny Nascimento; JL: Mike Gatenby; OG: Kim Schaupp; PH: Marilyn Cox.

PHYSICIAN REQUEST FORM

If you are injured on the job, you'll likely have a claim for treatment under the auspices of Worker's Compensation. Up until the time you are injured, you have some ability to select which doctor you can go to for treatment. If you have not gone through the steps of selecting a physician, the district will pick a doctor for you. If you are OK with that, do nothing. Otherwise, go to your principal's secretary or call Kasandra York at 347-5033 and obtain a Personal Physician Request Form. Fill it out, get your doc to do the same, and get it back to Personnel right away.

FLU SHOT CLINICS

District Risk Manager Corinne Kelsch has announced tentative dates for an employee flu shot clinic, similar to that put on last year at the district office which dispensed 400 doses. I don't have all of the details yet, but the planned two-day event would allow for one south-district day and one north-district day, probably on October 14 and 15. Watch your box and daily bulletin for more details.

ASSEMBLY ENDORSES SHIRAKAWA

The ESTA Assembly voted on September 11 to endorse the candidacy of George Shirakawa, Jr. for election to the East Side Board of Trustees. Thus, Shirakawa becomes the third candidate to be endorsed by the Assembly for the three seats up for election on November 5. Previously, the Assembly had voted to endorse incumbents Manuel Herrera and Patricia Martinez-Roach. Shirakawa was one of three candidates who were interviewed by a committee of ESTA members last week, emerging as the favorite.

SEVEN PERIOD DAY

For a variety of reasons, an increasing number of schools have adopted bell schedules that provide for seven period days. Student populations too large to accommodate in the traditional six periods is certainly one explanation, as are local attempts to allow for increased student learning through the use of various block schedule schemes. One aspect of stretching the school day that has the potential for providing some friction is the scheduling of faculty meetings. If Teacher A works periods 1 - 6 and Teacher B works periods 2 - 7, how can mandatory-attendance faculty meetings be held? The most obvious answer is to hold them after 7th period. But ESTA believes that doing so treats Teacher A differently than Teacher B, in that A will have a longer workday than B, which is fundamentally wrong. Now, if A voluntarily remains on campus for the hour or so that 7th period takes, we see no problem. But mandatory? No. So what are other options? Don't have faculty meetings. Dispense information in written form. ‚ Bank minutes, and shorten the student day on faculty meeting days so the meetings can occur within the 7½ hour contractual workday. ƒ Hold two faculty meetings. This latter suggestion isn't outlandish (although it draws guffaws from some site administrators). After all, I am informed that teachers are occasionally called upon to present the same lesson to multiple gatherings of students in a single day. We call these "classes". Whichever solution is chosen, ESTA feels that the selection process should be under the auspices of the local site-based decision team: the 18.4 Committee.

DID YOU KNOW?

There is no provision in our contract calling for teachers to sign in or sign out when arriving or leaving the jobsite. If you're being told differently at your school, it's not true. Refuse to participate.

ARE YOU PERMANENT?

The Ed Code recognizes four categories of teachers: Substitute, Temporary, Probationary, and Permanent. We don't represent substitute teachers; anyone else who can be placed in charge of students is either an administrator or one of our bargaining unit members, and must hold a credential or emergency permit. Generally, once one obtains a preliminary or clear credential and teaches in one's credential area, one should be a Probationary Teacher. By law, a person who teaches a single day in a district beyond the second Probationary year becomes a Permanent employee. Sometimes the district is slow to acknowledge this fact.

YOUR CTA DUES CTA

Treasurer David Sanchez has distributed a copy of the adopted 2002/2003 CTA budget, which divides the nearly $140 million worth of planned expenditures into categories. Member input is already solicited in planning for the 2003/2004 budget. Contact me or one of ESTA's three elected delegates to the CTA State Council (Theresa Flores [ST], Julie Pratico [AH], Don Dawson [SC]) with comments. Ref Item Budgeted Amount (2002/03) Member Dues Amount Pct of Dues 1 Governance $ 6,400,400 $ 21.87 4.5% 2 Governmental Relations $ 5,112,078 $ 17.48 3.6% 3 Ass'n for Better Citizenship $ 4,033,621 $ 15.86 3.3% 4 Legal Services $ 4,363,539 $ 14.91 3.1% 5 Regional Services $ 56,432,837 $ 192.93 39.8% 6 Community Outreach $ 1,156,734 $ 3.93 0.8% 7 Training, Info and Dev't $ 2,973,874 $ 10.15 2.1% 8 Communications $ 5,067,603 $ 17.31 3.6% 9 Human Rights $ 2,291,435 $ 7.83 1.6% 10 Instruction and Prof Dev't $ 1,852,685 $ 6.34 1.3% 11 Negotiations and Organ'l Dev't $ 5,200,502 $ 17.77 3.7% 12 Research & Finance $ 1,742,604 $ 5.96 1.2% 13 Service Departments $ 20,231,618 $ 69.12 14.3% 14 Occupancy $ 5,555,120 $ 18.97 3.9% 15 Capital Expenditures $ 2,805,000 $ 9.57 2.0% 16 Crisis Assistance $ 873,000 $ 3.00 0.6% 17 Media Advertising Fund $ 4,036,000 $ 16.00 3.3% 18 Initiative Fund $ 9,756,000 $ 36.00 7.4% Total $139,884,650 $ 485.00 100.0% Brief Explanations of Categories 1. Includes direct membership involvement in control and operation of CTA 2. CTA's impact on state and federal legislation and retirement issues. 3. Bipartisan funding of educational issues and endorsed candidates. 4. Comprehensive legal protection for members. 5. CTA staff salaries at county and UniServ levels. 6. Newsletters, brochures, promotion. 7. Support for CTA staff training, schools accountability support. 8. CTA Educator magazine, promotion of local communications endeavors 9. Rights conferences, workshops, equity projects. 10. Teaching conferences, training workshops. 11. Bargaining support and training, data tracking. 12. Polling, research into salary and benefits info 13. Accounting, HR, Management 14. Rent, mortgage, taxes, utilities 15. Equipment, furniture, capital improvements. 16. Support to local chapters in crisis situations. 17. Outreach to public via mass communications. 18. Promotion of friendly, defeat of destructive ballot initiatives CTA has approximately 300,000 active members in K-14 schools across the state.