ESTA ELECTIONS
October 31 is the deadline for declaring candidacy for
the November 14 ESTA site
elections. Positions available at each
site are: ESTA Site President, Vice President, ESTA Local Grievance Rep, and
ESTA Assembly Representative. The number of Assembly Representatives
elected per site is on the basis of one (1) for each forty (40) Association
members, or major fraction thereof.
If you are an ESTA member at any of the SBNs, or the EVCC
site, or other location without a local Site President, you will automatically
be sent all necessary materials for voting by mail. Any other person wishing to vote by mail
should contact me. The deadline for applying to vote by mail in the November 14
election is November 9. The election
will be held at all sites on Wednesday, November 14. The Election Committee
Chair, Rosalind Taylor, contacted each site President in which they each gave
her the name of an ESTA member who would be willing to run the election at the
site. In order for the election to be valid, all voting members must sign in
when casting their ballot.
Bargaining Input Meetings Continue
The bargaining team input meetings are going well and should all be done by the time we go on Christmas Vacation. The site meetings begin at the end of the month:
Oak Grove High School:
October. 29, 2:45 PM, Room X1
Andrew Hill High School:
October. 30, 3:15 PM, Room 411
Independence High School:
November 5, 2:15PM, 3:15 PM, School Library
Evergreen Valley High School:
November. 6, 3:15 PM Faculty Room
Yerba Buena High School:
November 8, 3:15 PM, Faculty Room
Silver Creek High School:
November 13, 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM, Faculty Lounge
William C. Overfelt High School:
November. 19, 3:20 PM, Faculty Lounge
James Lick High School:
November. 20, 3:20 PM, Faculty Lounge
Santa Teresa High School:
November 28, 2:45 PM, Location TBA
Piedmont Hills High School:
December 4, 2:15 PM, 3:15 PM, Room E-4
Mount Pleasant High School:
December 6, 3:15 PM, School Library
CALIFORNIA COMMISSION ON TEACHER CREDENTIALING
All California Teaching Credentials can be viewed and renewed online at http://www.ctc.ca.gov. If you have not had a chance to look up your credential or if you do not remember when it expires, go to the website to learn more about your teaching credential.
ESTA BROCHURE
The Secretary of ESTA, Jane Voss, has begun working on a brochure that would give information about ESTA such as: bylaws, mission statements, site leaders, etc. She would like a committee of 5-8 to help her work on the brochure. She especially needs someone who could help format the brochure once the information is finished. If you can work on this project, please email Jane at vossj@esuhsd.org and let her know you would like to join her team.
UNION DUES
126 of our ESTA members were not charged the correct amount of union dues, so there will be a correction in the next pay warrant for those who still owe union dues. Some members were under-charged $1.80. A few members were not charged the extra contributions they make each month and 10 members were not charged any dues at all. 17 members were over charged and will be receiving a check from ESTA Treasurer, Ralph Giannini.
ESTA/CTA/ NEA union dues are the following:
CATEGORY 1 FEES – 1,078.30
$107.83/ Month
Category 1: For those faculty whose teaching assignment is 61% to 100% of a normal assignment except for faculty employed as a pre-school, head start, and child care teachers whose salaries are less than the minimum teacher salary for the District in which they are employed.
CATEGORY 2-A FEES- $544.15
$54.41/ Month
Category 2-A: For those faculty members whose assignment is 34% to 50% of a normal assignment.
CATEGORY 2-B FEES- $646.10
$64.61
CATEGORY 2-B: For those faculty whose teaching assignment is 51% to 60% of a normal assignment, or faculty employed as pre-school, head-start, or child teachers whose salary in the District in which they are employed is less than the minimum salary paid regular teachers in such District or those faculty employed in private higher educational institutes for whom no representative by the Association in employer-employee relations exists or is immediately contemplated.
CATEGORY FEES- $337.15
$33.71/Month
CATEGORY 3: For those faculty members whose teaching assignment is 33% or less.
DATA
Lately there has been a lot of student data floating around. Rest assured this data will not be used in anyway as a part of the evaluation process. The evaluation process is clearly outlined in our contract in Article 11. Keep in mind the following language for evaluations which was added during the last contract negotiations: 11.3.1.1 A unit member with permanent status who has been employed at least ten (10) years with the District, and is highly qualified (if appropriate) as defined in 20 U.S.C. 7801 (ESEA) and whose previous evaluations rated the employee as meeting or exceeding standards, shall be evaluated every five (5) years if the unit member and the evaluator consent to this schedule.
BOND ELECTION
At the September 19th Assembly Meeting, a motion was approved to allow the ESTA Executive Board to approve supporting the upcoming bond if it were passed at the September 20th school board meeting and if there was a recommendation from the ESTA PAC to support the bond. The Bond Measure was passed at the September 20 School Board Meeting, so the ESTA Executive Board, by the recommendation of the ESTA PAC, donated PAC funds to help support the district with the upcoming Bond election. If passed, the Bond will help all of our sites with much needed building improvements in the amount of $349 million.
ACADEMIC MASTER PLAN (AMP) VISITS SITES
There have been many concerns about the AMP site visitations. It was brought to my attention that a few Principals did not notify staff ahead of time of the planned visits. There has been some confusion as to who the visitors are, and what purpose they have on the sites. The visitations have been part of a plan to observe the site while the school day is in session. All visitors were instructed that there would be no note-taking or interruptions while the class was in progress during the visit. Several members feel that this has not been the case. So, I notified the Superintendent, Bob Nunez, and the AMP Director, Marie Grey, of our concerns and they both assured me that they will make the necessary adjustments immediately in response to ESTA members’ concerns. Also, if your class is given the “Quick Write”, it is completely up to you to administer it or not to your students.
NEWLY TENURED
The names of the newly tenured teachers are usually presented to the school board at the October Meeting and are officially approved at that time. This year, at the October 18 meeting, 84 teachers were presented to the board and are now tenured. Under the state Education Code, certificated public school employees must serve at least two years in a Probationary status, before becoming tenured. During their Probationary time, even though all teachers are covered by the Collective Bargaining agreement, they have reduced rights in the process of dismissal. March 15 of each school year is the deadline for administration to notify Probationary employees of their “non-renewal” for the following school year. If they are not contacted by March 15, then it means they have a job in the district for the upcoming school year.
I have announced plans to hold a “Tenure Party” for this year’s 84 new Permanent employees. Invitations will be sent for a get-together on Thursday, December 14th, at the Mt. Hamilton CTA Office from 4:00 PM- 5:30 PM.
CTA Scholarships
The California Teachers Association is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the 2008 CTA Scholarship for Dependent Children. Up to twenty-five (25) - $5,000.00 scholarships will be awarded. One scholarship is designated as the Ralph J. Flynn Memorial Scholarship and is awarded to the highest scoring applicant. In addition, the California Teachers Association announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2008 Scholarship for CTA Members. Up to five (5) - $2,500.00 scholarships will be awarded.
Both applications have the follow process:
1) Chapter President or designee must sign the Membership Verification Form.
2) Applications must be completely filled out.
3) Applications must be postmarked by: February 8, 2008
Email me at hansonm@esuhsd.org if you would like an application.
ESTA SCHOLARSHIPS
In December, the ESTA Scholarship application for dependents of members will be available on our website to download. Stay tuned for more information as we will be adding more scholarships than in previous years. Neil Wilson is currently the Scholarship Committee Chair and he is looking for a few more members to join. The committee meets 2 – 4 times a year. Contact him directly at wilsonn@esuhsd.org if you are interested in being a part of this committee.
TEACHER INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPLY RELIEF FUND 2008
A few weeks ago, Jerry Kurr, Associate Superintendent of Administration & Business Services, sent out an email with a memo that identified restricted funds that could be used to reimburse certificated staff. He referred to the money as the “Teacher Instructional Supply Relief Fund 2008.” The maximum amount per FTE reimbursement for the 2007-2008 school year is: $215.00. Departments are allowed to “pool the amount to acquire a better quality purchase of supplies” but they must include all bargaining unit members’ names on the request.
COACHING
Recently, a few questions have come up about coaching assignments. This language is difficult to find, so here it is from page 29 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. 7.3: Bargaining unit members who apply for open Appendix C, Part II positions will be given priority over non-bargaining unit applicants. The final selection is within the discretion of the site/district management. All coaching assignments should be posted and all ESTA members are eligible to apply.
ACCESSING DISTRICT EMAIL
As you might have noticed, lately I am using district email to notify members of current issues and events that are coming up. So, this begs the question, “Does every member have access to district email?” Many handouts that I have sent out are not of interest for all 1300 bargaining unit members. So, if I request members to email me for such handouts to be ponied, I want to make sure I am including everyone. For example; when the ESTA scholarship applications are ready to be sent out, only a handful of members will request one. So, if you do not currently have email access, I kindly ask that you notify your site President so that I can create a list of people who are not receiving my email updates.
Thanks.