ESTA UPDATE

East Side Teachers Association/CTA/NEA 888 So. Capitol Ave San Jose, Ca 95127 December 16, 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

SCHOOL BOARD OFFICERS

The December 4 meeting of the East Side School Board was unusual in several ways. First, it was held on a Wednesday, very early in the month; most meetings are held on the second Thursday. Second, there were only four board members; George Shira-kawa is prohibited by law from serving in two elected positions simultaneously, and means to finish out his term on the San Jose City Council through the middle of this month before being sworn in as the fifth East Side Board member. Third, the four-member Board initially deadlocked on its choice for President for the 2003 year, and eventually chose Manuel Herrera to serve as its President for a second consecutive year. Juanita Ramirez, who was the Clerk of the Board in 2002, was elected to be Vice President and Patricia Martinez-Roach was elected Clerk. Shirakawa will be sworn in prior to the January meeting to round out the normal five-member Board. Herrera announced that in the wake of the impending retirement of Joe Coto, a far-reaching search will soon begin to identify possible successors to Coto.

SICK LEAVE BANK

In a previous Update, I made the statement that it would be necessary to donate at least two days of ones sick leave in order to be eligible for the SLB to begin operation. I was in error. The facts are that as soon as the SLB has a balance of at least 100 days, it can begin carrying out its mission. If 100 or more unit members notify the district before Dec 20 of their intention to participate, then the SLB will be able to begin operations right away. Once again, any ESTA Member who wishes to be a member of the five-person SLB Committee should contact me. ESTA’s Bylaws allow the President to appoint members to all Committees (with the exception of the Bargaining Team), so make me aware if you want to be on this important body.

PERSONAL NECESSITY LEAVE

With the 16-day Christmas vacation looming, it might be a good time for me to bring up the issue of Personal Necessity Leave (PNL). Why? Because there always seems to be someone who needs 17 days, or 18.

Our new contract actually provides for an increase of annual PNL days from six to seven, an overdue alignment with state law. However, some restrictions to the use of PNL may need to be explained. Some of these restrictions are simply passed along from the old contract to the new one, and a couple are new.

PNL is always charged against your accumulated sick leave. If you’re out of sick leave, you can’t take PNL.

Of course, sick leave should only be used when you are ill. If an unavoidable circumstance arises that presents you with a situation which you cannot reason-ably be expected to disregard, you may use PNL to attend to it. Going on vacation is probably not such a circumstance. In the new contract, up to two of the seven possible PNL days each year do not need prior administrative approval, but those days cannot fall before a holiday or vacation period.

This really isn’t a new restriction: we’ve never been able to use PNL to extend a vacation. Do not call in to the sub service attempting to use PNL to cover an absence on either Friday, Dec 20 or Monday, Jan 6 unless you have the prior authorization of your boss. If you do, you will not be paid for that day. Precise language relating to both sick leave and PNL can be found in Article 6 of the contract.

ESTA WEBSITE NEEDS HELP

I must finally admit that I can’t keep up with the tasks of the ESTA Presidency and also the tasks of maintaining the ESTA Website, so I am looking for someone who will agree to share the duties of the latter. ESTA’s website has the potential of making available lots of background information while also keeping members current on breaking news. I will be happy to work with one of our members with some skill at website maintenance in both writing and layout. If you’d like to help out, give me a call or email me.

STATE BUDGET CUTS

Towards the end of the first week of this month, newspapers were full of the news that Governor Davis has identified over $10 billion in cuts from the current state budget. Surrounding that announcement was even bleaker news: the state budget deficit is now predicted to be almost twice this amount, leading to speculation that even more drastic cuts may be looming on the horizon. At this time, I have seen little in terms of specifics as to how any budget cuts will affect our school district. News reports are using the phrase "4% cut to education" fairly regularly, without identifying exact targets. CTA is currently studying the details of the governor’s plan, and I will pass along to our members any information that results.

My own opinion is that we are in for some pretty tough times, perhaps as depressing as the post-Prop 13 era in the late 1970’s. In a labor-intensive endeavor such as education, any real cost-cutting will likely have to take the form of reductions in staff. We remain hopeful that the district’s reserves are sufficient to get us through the remainder of this year. Ideally, financial reductions will be made as far away from the classroom as possible, and should staff reductions be necessary we can hope that such can be managed through the "normal" year-end attrition of retirement and resignation. We do not believe that a rollback of COLA is a viable option.

If necessary, one message we should all be ready to deliver is that if some program is not fully funded, we won’t do it. The insidious encroachment into teacher time of a wide range of initiatives – site, district, and state – is only too well known to ESTA members. In the event that funding cuts are made at any level, let us be willing to stand up and say, "enough is enough" if we are pressured to continue to perform the same job.

There can be no doubt that California is in the throes of a financial crisis. With such a large potion of our economy dependent upon the high-tech industry, we’re going to keep on reeling until either that industry recovers or it is replaced by something less volatile. There is no doubt that we could all do with less greed.

We all know that the ways to work oneself out of a financial crisis is either to borrow, spend less or earn more. Borrowing seems short-sighted, since it saddles the next generation with our debts. Spending less is attractive, but not when it results in a skewing of priorities. Example: chopping education, while pro-ceeding with a $3 billion prison construction project. Earning more, for the state, means tax increases. That’s a topic about which discussion needs to be had.

STUDENTS OUT OF CLASS

In all but a very few instances, students on campus are required by law to be under the personal supervision of a person with a proper credential or certificate. This is a major responsibility, and one that should not be ignored. Some of the ramifications of this requirement are that a teacher may generally not: � allow students either alone or in groups inside of a classroom unless the teacher is present, nor ‚  deny students access to the classroom during class, nor ƒ exclude an enrolled student from the classroom. Generally, an adult aide is not authorized to supervise students without the teacher present.

I know a teacher who occasionally disciplines an unruly student by placing that student in a desk outside of the classroom. I know another teacher who allows students to eat lunch in her classroom whether she is in the room or not. I also know teachers who lock their classroom doors after the bell rings in an attempt to discourage tardiness. Any of these situations opens the teachers to disciplinary action, and there is not much ESTA could do to ward it off. If a student were to be injured during such a situation, there would likely be some major league litigation to follow.

The Ed Code (§ 48910) gives a teacher the authority to suspend a student from the teacher’s class, under certain circumstances, for the remainder of the period and the entire next meeting of the class. The Ed Code specifies certain requirements that such a teacher must carry out, which include immediate notification of the principal and clear instructions to the student as to where to report.

ESTA MEMBER DIRECTORY

The ESTA Assembly has authorized the production of an ESTA Member Directory for this school year. The last time we put out a Directory was in the 1999/2000 school year. Early in January, we will contact all current members to get confirmation of addresses, phone numbers, and home email addresses. Please return the data verification papers by the due date to assure that we have accurate information for you.

You will also be given an opportunity to indicate whether you want your home address or telephone number omitted from the Directory. In addition, you’ll be able to tell us what format you’d like to get your Directory in when it is distributed, or to tell us that you don’t want one at all. We hope to allow the traditional paper-style booklet, but also plan to distribute the new Directory on either 3½ inch floppy disk or CD ROM.