ESTA UPDATE

POST GRAD UNITS

If you’re one of the hundreds of returning ESTA members who have earned additional post-grad college units in the past year, be sure to provide official notice to the District before October 31. (Units must have been completed no later than August 31). If the deadlines are missed – no matter whose fault – you’ll have to wait another full year to get column movement across the salary schedule. Generally, “official notice” includes either direct mail contact from your college to HR, or your hand delivery of an unopened envelope that your college may have sent to you. Also, do not assume that the units you earned while completing your credential will automatically be recorded just because you have the credential recorded.

HEALTH BENEFITS CHANGES

This academic year opens with the District continuing to pay the costs of providing our medical benefits. If plan coverage had remained unchanged, the vendors’ cost increases for this year were going to have been in the 15% to 18% range, but after considering several variations a compromise reached between ESTA and the District was able to reduce that increase to a much more affordable level. The compromise makes uniform for all three medical plans a $5 office visit copay, and a $5 (generic)/$10 (brand name) prescription drug copay.

The agreement reduces the increases in the District’s medical benefits costs this year by some $600,000.

About half of ESTA members are enrolled in the Kaiser HMO program. About a quarter of us are enrolled in the Blue Cross HMO, and the remainder of us have opted for the self-funded indemnity plan administered by UAS. The uniformity in copay costs may actually make shifting between plans during the open enrollment period more attractive to ESTA members, as it makes the plans more alike in user costs than ever before. Each plan has its share of assets and liabilities: availability and selection of physicians and other medical service providers, location of facilities, office visit scheduling flexibility, and so forth.

GREEN SHEETS

These first few days of school are the opportune time for teachers to distribute their “green sheets” to classes in such a way as to maximize the chances that the papers are delivered to homes for parental inspection.

Do you have a set of policies (grading, attendance, makeup work, class participation, extra credit) that need to be made clear to students? Do your classroom policies differ from the normal school routine? The best way to avoid a “you never told me that” conflict later in the year is to produce a clearly-written handout covering the likely situations that might arise, and to make an effort to see that parents see it. If you don’t have a green sheet or haven’t reviewed the one you use recently, talk to a few colleagues to get some ideas.

CLASS SIZE and DISTRICT BUDGET

The school board did indeed pass a resolution invoking section 15.4 of the contract last spring, which would have allowed raising class sizes in all Article 15 classes by an unlimited amount. As previously reported, ESTA was able to execute a Side Letter to limit the increases to no more than three students, and even to exclude some courses from the increase. In doing so, we waived the right to file a grievance on the board’s claim of “exceptional circumstances”. This arrangement is for one year only.

It may be splitting hairs at this point, but it must be said that the decision to raise class sizes was made unilaterally by the school board, at the recommendation of the superintendent. ESTA was able to obtain an agreement to limit the increases to no more than three students in the affected classes.

The School Board wrestled with a set of wildly fluctuating budget claims for most of last year, and the Board does not have the luxury of making no decision when it comes to adopting a budget. So by the June 30 deadline, and faced with the information available to them at the time, the Board adopted a budget that called for balancing its budget for this year in part by increasing class sizes (thus reducing staffing costs by the salaries and benefits of several dozens of teachers), a reduction of counseling services, and also in part by shifting a sizeable portion of the Quimby land sales proceeds into the general fund.

One could argue that the couple of million saved by temporarily increasing class sizes is unnecessary. The trouble is, we won’t really know that until we see the final financial report for the 04/05 school year that’s due out in mid-September, and the Board had to make a decision by June 30. One could also argue that the couple of million could have been saved by doing something else other than raising class sizes. Like cutting benefits? A salary take-back? Complete elimination of counselors? advisors? librarians? the third site administrator? Name your poison.

So who benefits from larger class sizes? The simple answer is “No one.” The more complicated answer might be that increasing class sizes is one of the most ‘reversible’ actions that could have been taken to help produce a balanced district budget this year, and that any of the more draconian options that were available would have been worse. There was no shortage of opportunity for the public to make suggestions at the Budget Task Force meetings last spring.

Certainly, no one can be happy with larger classes. They are less effective, tiring, and arguably more dangerous. In the main, students will learn less and teachers will work harder.

ESTA will continue to push for compliance with all aspects of the contract, including the opening of new sections when the aggregate number of excess students exceeds the original class size limits from Article 15.

LESSONS FROM THE LAYOFF

The glaring irony of the obscene layoff of last spring is that the same District that issued layoff notices to ¾ of its teachers went out and, at last count, hired over 100 new teachers this year. Just as we suspected.

Will we ever go through another layoff? Who knows? It shouldn’t have happened last year and yet it did, so there is no way to tell what might happen next March. However, there are a few things we can do to minimize the trauma if the unthinkable should happen again:

■ Keep your home address current with the DO. Do not assume that your school will automatically notify the DO if you move. Any time your address or phone number changes, notify your principal’s secretary, the DO, and ESTA by email. Keep a dated copy.

■ Check your personnel file at the DO each winter. Be sure your date of first paid service is correct. (This is vital in establishing an accurate seniority list.) Your date of first paid service is not necessary the first day you walked into a classroom; if you attended a paid workshop before the opening of school, that establishes your seniority date. Be sure your correct credentialing is recorded. Check to see that your status (temporary, probationary, permanent) is correct.

■ If you are not credentialed yet, make every available effort to complete your credential as soon as possible, and then get the credential registered with CCTC, the County, and the District with all haste. This is especially true if you can complete your credential requirement before ¼ of the school year has elapsed.

■ Increase your attractiveness by registering multiple credentials, or finishing your CLAD/SDAIE/ELL certification, or seeking a supplementary authorization to teach in another subject. Get “Highly Qualified” in some core academic subject, or get certificated in SpEd.

TREASURER VACANCY

Once again, ESTA is without a duly elected Treasurer, following Tom Richardson’s resignation from the East Side in pursuit of employment elsewhere. Tom ably fulfilled his role as an ESTA officer, and was also a top-notch teacher. His leaving the district is yet another unfortunate outcome of the obscene layoff, and we are all diminished by his absence.

ESTA has no ability to permanently fill the vacancy, and so it will be necessary to hold a special election in the next month or so. In the meanwhile, former ESTA Treasurer and current Vice President Ralph Giannini has graciously agreed to serve as an interim Treasurer following a vote of the ESTA Assembly.

SICK LEAVE BANK

Several hundred ESTA members are now vested in the Sick Leave Bank, having voluntarily donated a day of their sick leave for two consecutive years. All other ESTA members, including new hires, are eligible to join the Bank (thus becoming eligible to apply for a withdrawal of sick days in an emergency) but must act to do so before the last day of September. The Bank has been in operation for three years now, and has been able to help a half dozen members in times of great need. Unless the balance in the Bank drops to below 50 days (current balance is around 350 days) volunteer donors need only give one sick day in two consecutive years to become vested.

Watch your school mailbox for more information in the next couple of weeks, but don’t put off deciding.

ESTA 2005 SAFETY SURVEY

Last spring’s layoff festivities played havoc with our ability to conduct our annual Safety Survey in March and April. However, by the June meeting of the school board I was finally able to make ESTA’s presentation and to recap the survey results. I have provided each ESTA Building President with a complete copy of the report, and I am certainly willing to provide any ESTA member with the same report. Call or email me.

In a nutshell, ESTA members were more concerned in the 2005 Survey about their safety than in the previous year, reversing a hopeful trend. Each school site had differing issues that were its main concerns, but there are similarities across all sites’ results. ESTA members remain concerned about classroom doors that cannot be locked from the inside, perceived increases in student violence, vandalism, and a lack of consistency in the handling of student disciplinary issues.

By law, each California school must create a Site Safety Plan, and then must review that plan no less frequently than annually. This review, also according to law, should not be done in a covert way but rather must involve elements of administration, parents, teachers, and classified staff. The result of that review must be signed off at the site and then received by the school board. District Safety Chief Ric Abeyta committed to the school board that his office would produce quarterly reviews for the board’s inspection that included the meeting dates, agendas, and list of members for each school’s Safety Plan Review Committee.

It has long been ESTA’s position that these local Committees should use the results of the most recent ESTA Safety Survey in formulating a portion of their objectives for the coming year.

BENEVOLENT ALLIANCE

Yet another way that ESTA members can rise to the aid of fellow district employees is by becoming a contributing member of BAESE, the Benevolent Alliance of East Side Employees. Most contributors give a modest $3 per month through payroll deduction for ten months. These contributions are tax deductible, and fall under the stewardship of an elected BAESE Board of Directors with proportional representation from all three district employee groups. Any district employee – whether a BAESE member or not – can apply in confidence for financial assistance, which takes the form of either zero-interest loans or outright grants. One can become a contributor by filling out a simple form. The forms for either becoming a contributor or requesting financial assistance can be obtained from me or the current President of the BAESE Board of Directors: Tom Gerin at Foothill <gerint@esuhsd.org>

WAIVERS

I usually print a long discussion of class size waivers in my first couple of Updates each year. I’ll shorten it this year to: I can think of very few legitimate reasons for teachers to allow even more students in their classes this year, and my recommendation is that teachers do not sign waivers. If you’re new to East Side, discuss the matter with your colleagues or department chair. They’ll tell you what you need to know.

In any event, waivers must be executed at the site no later than Sep 15, and then be countersigned by ESTA, to be valid.