East Side Teachers Association/CTA/NEA 888 So. Capitol Ave San Jose, Ca 95127 September 12, 2003

Don McKell, President Julie Pratico, Vice Pres Carla Holtzclaw, Secretary Ralph Giannini, Treasurer

mckelld@esuhsd.org fax: (408) 272-7569 voice: (408) 272-0601 x213 website: www.EastSideTA.org

When the California State Legislature finally got around to passing a state budget this past summer, we saw the biggest one-year decline in state spending in the history of the state. That decline was not applied "across the board", and K-14 public education took a proportionately smaller hit than did most other organs of public work. Still, the budget cuts to education are significant, and amount to a reduction of a little less than 2% to districts like ours.

ESTA has contract language defining "COLA" and stating that all increases to COLA will be passed through to our salary schedule and other pay scales. With the reduction of dollars flowing to the district this year from the slimmed-down state budget, there simply is no increase in COLA to be passed along. Thus, for the first time since the 1991/92 school year, East Side teachers will receive no salary raise this year other than the step and column motion attributed to length of district service and post-BA college credit. Of course, returning employees’ salary schedule step and column increments will still be awarded, and each employee with health benefits will cost the district more this year as a result of increases in the contract amounts with medical insurance carriers. East Side is one of a dwindling number of districts with fully-paid employee medical benefits.

The school board has commissioned an outside contractor to conduct a series of district office departmental and process audits. To date, the contracted firm has produced audits of Special Education, Management, and the Budget Process. Reportedly in the works is an audit of the budget and practices in Management Information Services (MIS).

Typically, after the audit firm brings forth its report, it is generally distributed, after which the specifics of the report are dealt with at a subsequent school board meeting. A special meeting of the board was held on September 4 to hear the response of the Business office to the findings in the audit of their handling of the budget process. It was largely a dry meeting, and fell short of my expectations that actual changes might be forthcoming in the currently-adopted budget. (One hoped-for change that certainly did not occur was the restoration of the so-called Herrera money for the reimbursement of teachers’ personal funds expended on instructional supplies).

Additional board time will no doubt be scheduled to deal with the recommendations of the auditor. Each of the three audits conducted to date has cost the district something over $50,000. Like the hugely expensive KPMG and SchoolMatch audits of several years ago, we are still curious as to when we may all begin reaping the rewards in any meaningful way.

Certificated employee evaluation is a necessary part of our professional lives. As our contract is currently written, evaluation must be performed by identified members of administration (that is, teachers cannot be formally evaluated by other teachers, or department chairs, or mentors, or SACs). The Ed Code states that we each must be evaluated no less frequently than every two years.

Permanent ("Tenured") teachers, who make up the bulk (74%) of the teaching ranks in East Side, are generally alternated each year between "off track" and "on track" for evaluation at their sites. There is no automatic violation of the contract if a tenured teacher is evaluated every year, but to do so as a matter of course would likely put a tremendous strain on administrative ranks. Probationary teachers, according to the terms in our contract, must be evaluated every year; in fact, their formal evaluation must be completed by the end of the first semester. Temporary teachers hired during the first part of the year must be evaluated prior to the end of the school year. (It is possible that a temporary teacher hired during second semester might never be evaluated).

How do you know whether you’re Temporary, Probationary, or Permanent? If you have to ask, then you’re probably not Permanent. It generally takes two years as a Probationary employee to attain Permanent status, and historically this district does not start an individual on the two-year Probationary pathway until that individual has at least a preliminary credential. Thus, a non-credentialed teacher might spend a long time as a Temporary before entering the ranks of Probationaries. A full discussion of the intricacies of certificated employees’ category placement, including CTA’s interpretation of the law, is beyond the scope of this edition of the Update.

However, a far-reaching decision of a California court last year caused many schools districts, including our own, to reclassify many Temporary teachers as Probationary (year 0) due to certain irregularities in their original employment paperwork. With so many folks thrust into Prob-0 status so suddenly, the district has approached ESTA with a proposal to relax the contractual requirements for formal evaluation of all Probationary teachers during first semester. In a spirit of cooperation, we have agreed. Our MOU on the matter contains a stimulus to site administration to get out and observe classrooms early and often, and disallows March 15 non-renewal of any Prob-0 teacher who does undergo a formal evaluation first semester.

The certificated staff in Campbell Union High School District (Blackford, Branham, Del Mar, Leigh, Prospect, and Westmont high schools) has worked without a contract for over two years. Campbell is one of the poorest-paid high school districts in the state, and certainly the poorest-paid high school district in this county. And that’s saying something.

ESTA’s counterpart in that district is the Campbell Educators Association (CEA). After years of patiently waiting for their school board to do the right thing, the members of CEA have finally authorized their leadership to call a strike against the district. CEA has been waiting for a fact-finding report from the state mediator before taking that drastic action. That report has been released, and by the time you read this we may all be reading in the papers about a teachers strike in Campbell.

The saddest part of the situation may be that, once a contract for 01/02 is finally agreed to, CEA will need to begin work anew on contracts for last year and then the current year. It sounds to me as if a change in the CUHSD school board is just what the doctor ordered.

At its September 10 regular meeting, the ESTA Assembly approved a motion calling for financial assistance to CEA of up to $5,000 in support of our sisters and brothers who engage in concerted action in Campbell. This was followed the next day by a similar act on the part of the Mt. Hamilton UniServ Council.

If you’re in your first three years of District service, you ought to know this about your Dental coverage. The plan we have is administered through Delta Dental, and calls for a sliding scale of coverage beginning at 70%, then rising to 80%, then 90%, and finally reaching 100% in your fourth year of participation. The "year" in this case is the calendar year, not the school year. So be sure you, your spouse, and your dependents with teeth visit a Delta dentist sometime in 2003 to receive some covered service. Doing so makes a difference, especially to our newest employees, who will thereby dispense with their 70% year in 2003, thus clearing the way for their 80% year for covered services in 2004. Call Christina Rivera at 347-5141 for additional details.

The ESTA Assembly overwhelmingly voted to appoint Marisa Vera to join ESTA’s Bargaining Team on September 10. Marisa is currently a mathematics teacher and ESTA Site President at EVHS. Prior to coming to East Side several years ago, she was active in the Evergreen Teachers Association. Marisa brings additional high energy and a commitment to the teaching profession to ESTA. She participated in a round of trainings for prospective ESTA negotiators last spring at Mt. Hamilton, and attended the week-long CTA Summer Institute strand for Bargaining this past summer at UCLA.

Marisa brings the number of the Bargaining Team to five members, joining Don Dawson (chair), Launa Carlson (secretary), Kim Schaupp, and Julie Pratico.

Both Patti Dixon and Cheryl Townsend retired from district service in Personnel on August 29. Together, those two ladies had a wealth of knowledge about credentialing and records, and they’ll be missed. Betty Ausborne has moved from her former spot in Payroll over to Personnel to take over the tasks previously performed by Patti and Cheryl. Continuing certificated employees who have acquired additional credentials in the past year should be sure to get them registered with both the County Office of Education and the District Office. It is especially important if you have been categorized as a Temporary teacher due to lack of a credential to move assertively towards getting your credential recorded. Also, whether you have earned a credential recently or not, make sure you also bring official evidence before October 31 of whatever college credit or advanced degrees you may have earned prior to August 31. Don’t assume that merely by having your master’s or doctoral degree recorded that the transcripts with the units will also be recorded, or vice versa. Give Betty Ausborne a call at 347-5257 for more details.

By the way, continuing employees who qualify for column moves will probably not see their salary increased on the September pay warrant, according to Doug Emerson in Personnel. At the beginning of each new school year, efforts in Personnel are normally focused on placing the newest employees correctly. Thus, continuing employees may expect to wait until October to see their sacrifices in earning an advanced degree or a threshold number of post-grad units reflected in their pay. Any delays will result in retroactive pay when the system is finally updated.

Bargaining unit members working over 60% this year will pay $93 per month in Association dues, for ten months. This amounts to a 4.4% increase over last year’s amount. The disbursal breaks down as follows:

Dues amounts for all three associations are arrived at through indexing formulas in the various association Bylaws. In ESTA’s case, our annual dues are established to be 0.7% of the first year teacher’s Column B salary from two years ago. CTA dues are indexed at the average of the past three years’ statewide teacher’s salary increases.

Watch your mailboxes for information about sessions scheduled at the DO for information about selecting a different medical benefits carrier. About the only time we can do this is during the open enrollment month of September. Future dates to remain aware of include:

Sep 17: Benefits Fair and Open Enrollment; 10 – 5

Sep 23: Open Enrollment, 3-5

Sep 30: Open Enrollment 3—5

All sessions are in the DO Lounge.