East Side Teachers Association/CTA/NEA 888 So. Capitol Ave San Jose, Ca 95127 February 1, 2006

Don McKell, President Ralph Giannini, Vice President Jane Voss, Secretary Bernadette Salgarino, Treasurer

EstaPres@pacbell.net fax: (408) 272-7569 voice: (408) 272-0601 website: www.EastSideTA.org

Culminating nearly ten months of bargaining, negotiators for ESTA and the District tentatively agreed to a proposed settlement in contract talks on the afternoon of January 26. That action triggers the need for ESTA to hold a member-wide ratification election, which will be conducted at all sites on Wednesday, March 1.

The issue will be a simple one: "Shall the East Side Teachers Association ratify the proposed successor to the Collective Bargaining Agreement?" and will call for a "yes" or "no" vote from all eligible voters.

Ratification of the proposed settlement will require a simple majority of ESTA members casting votes in the election.

The ESTA Assembly will meet on February 1 to discuss the proposed settlement and, according to our Bylaws, make a recommendation to membership to either ratify or not ratify.

Flowing from that meeting will be a series of written reports describing the terms of the proposed settlement, and other information designed to be helpful to members wanting to make informed decisions on the ratification issue. As is often the case, the proposed agreement carries a large number of language changes for working conditions as well as matters pertaining to compensation and benefits.

At this writing, ESTA is planning two afternoon meetings for members to question and discuss the terms of the proposed settlement. The first of these meetings will be at Independence in the C-Commons beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 14. The second meeting will be two days later, on the afternoon of February 16 at Oak Grove, beginning at 3:45. Any bargaining unit member is welcome to attend either meeting. The meetings are open-ended, but for planning purposes you might assume that we’ll be winding each one down after about 90 minutes.

In early November, the San Francisco Superior Court determined that the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) did not have authority to issue Individualized Internship Certificate (IIC) teaching permits. The rationale offered by the court was that CTC had not first adopted regulations governing such permits. The judgment ends a lawsuit filed in September challenging the authority of CTC to issue IICs. The court ordered CTC to stop issuing IICs, to correct reports on the numbers of "Highly Qualified" teachers, and to replace IICs with temporary certificates that will keep teachers in the classroom.

I learned of this through a CTA Legal Advice Memo, one of the seemingly thousands of papers that comes my way every month. It is not clear to me how many ESTA members are affected by the ruling.

A lot of the email traffic I’ve received since word of the proposed settlement was announced has centered around requests for comparisons of the certificated salary schedules of other CTA chapters in Santa Clara Valley. Given below is a table showing the lowest salary, the salary of a 10-year teacher with 60 post grad units, the highest salary, and the number of district years to achieve highest salary. Since some chapters are in the process of bargaining, there may be some recent changes not reflected in the table.

Shaded rows are districts with high schools

The deadline for postmarks to submit applications for the ESTA Scholarships for Children and Grandchildren of Active Members is March 3, 2006. Application counts have increased in recent years, so the ESTA Scholarship Committee insists that all portions of each application must be postmarked on or before this date in order for the application as a whole to be considered.

The Santa Clara County Service Center Council of CTA has announced its annual Human Rights Scholarships for 2006. These four $2,000 awards are provided to students who are members of under represented groups and who plan to enter the teaching profession. Applicants must currently be attending a public secondary school or community college in Santa Clara County, and also be planning to pursue a college degree at an accredited four-year institution beginning in 2006.

Complete details are contained in the official application package available from Lori or Ly at the Mt. Hamilton CTA office by calling 272-0601. ESTA members who are aware of East Side students that may qualify for these awards are asked to encourage those students to apply. Sometimes all it takes to launch a successful bid is a gentle push from a caring teacher. Application forms are available now, and the deadline for receiving them completed is April 21, 2006.

Class size overage payments for first semester of this year will be issued in February, before the end of the month, most likely on the 10th. The payments will be calculated on the basis of $1 per day for each enrolled student beyond the Article 15.1 departmental class size limits for all covered classes that had excess students on the 17^th day of first semester, and will be retroactive to the first day of the semester. Teachers whose classes were at or below the departmental maximums from the 17^th day through the end of the semester, and teachers who signed class size waivers, will not receive overage payments for those classes. Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, excess students placed in classes pursuant to the "plus three students" policy this year will earn overage payments.

Teachers who itemize their deductions on either state or federal tax filings may wish to include expenses for union dues. Since our work year overlaps two different calendar years, you could go back over each of the ten monthly pay warrant receipts that you got last year and add up the numbers. But if you taught during both the 2004/05 and the 2005/06 school years, here is a summary of your dues expenses based upon the percentage of your teaching assignment. Full-timers (most of us) paid $991.40 in dues in 2005.

Don’t forget that if you make voluntary contributions to the Benevolent Alliance through payroll deduction, such contributions are tax deductible.

Interim Superintendent Bob Nunez has taken steps to resuscitate the comatose Instructional Policies Committee through a series of recent actions. Foremost is the appointment of Linda Gubman to the position of Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, a post that has been vacant for too long.

At one time, IPC was composed of Principals (or their designees), the occasional Subject Area Coordinator, and veteran ESTA members appointed from each site for their acknowledged expertise in curriculum issues. The Committee met periodically, held discussions, and actually voted on making recommendations to the school board on a variety of instruction matters. Among these have been the adoption of new textbooks, piloting of new courses, and institution of changes to course outlines. In recent years, however, IPC has seemingly been all but idle in the wake of district office personnel changes, a certain feeling of having become a rubber stamp, and apparent administrative apathy at the highest levels.

There is no shortage of work to be done. Many students in our district continue to suffer from underachievement in their scholarly pursuits, and no education institution should ever stop exploring for new ways to raise student performance. IPC could offer a bully platform to initiate discussions among the best educators in the district, with the aim of improving instructional practices and revising curriculum. Who better to offer advice for separating the fad fixes from the meaningful ones?

Another area that can benefit from IPC attention is the ongoing problem of the diminishing number of electives available to our students that has been occurring for years. This narrowing of choices seems to be a primary cause of the inequity of distribution of SpEd students into mainstream classes, and it may also contribute to a feeling of a lack of relevance for other students.

Our chapter has four Executive Officers who serve two year elected terms: President, Vice President, General Secretary, and Treasurer. Executive officer positions come open for election in the spring of even-numbered years. Our bylaws prohibit any individual from serving more than four consecutive full terms in any executive office without a break.

This year’s elections for ESTA Officers are scheduled to take place at all sites on Wednesday, March 22, 2006. All ESTA members are entitled to vote by secret ballot.

Within the next week or so, specific information will be distributed to members concerning the expectations and duties of executive officers. At around the same time, Declaration of Candidacy forms will be made available for use by any ESTA member seeking to be elected to any of the four offices. The deadline for submitting these Declarations will be March 8, which allows two weeks for the preparation of ballots and handling of requests for mail ballots from members who know they will be not be able to visit the polls on voting day.

Because of our term limits, I am prohibited from being a candidate for another term as President. It is therefore a surety that the Association will need to select a new person to fill this post. As in all ESTA elections, it is my hope that there will be multiple candidates from which to choose, and that each of the candidates will be seeking the office for all the right reasons.