END OF FIRST SEMESTER 

With the end of the first semester approaching, here are a few reminders:

1)     You are only required to be on campus during your assigned periods during finals week.  This includes your preparation period.  On finals day, you may leave 15 minutes after the last final. At most sites, that will be around 1:00 PM.  Where you grade your finals is up to you.  

2)      “Grades are due no earlier than the end of the second school day after the close of the grading period.”  Each site has a different dead line, so make sure to meet the dead line given to you.   

3)     We do not have work on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22 so neither of those days are part of the two days after the semester ends.  All school will be open on Jan 23 to begin the new semester.  

4)     If during the first semester after the 18th day, you had a class or classes over class size limit and you did not sign a waiver, you will be compensated $1 per day per student.  The check will be a “10th of the month check” and most likely be ready on Feb. 10.  

UNION DUES DEDUCTIONS

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 can 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 2006/07 and the 2007/08 school years, here is a summary of your dues expenses based upon the percentage of your teaching assignment.  Full-timers (most of us) paid $1067.50 in dues for 2007. This information will also be posted on our website.

 

 

UNITY

ESTA is strongest when we are united.  I know this is a stressful time for all of us with the end of the first semester approaching.  So let’s all take a minute to think about how we can work together to help all members though this stressful time.  I want to remind everyone that WE are ESTA and together WE make a difference each day in many lives.   

Union Code of Conduct

1.      I will not criticize any union colleague except to the individual directly.

2.      If any union colleague is being criticized in my presence, I will confront the criticism and ask that it stop.

3.      I will not participate in any conversations with management that criticize, or negatively speculate about, any union colleague.

4.      I will settle my differences with colleagues within my union. 

5.      I will engage in debate, offer others every opportunity for debate and respect minority viewpoints, but I will observe and support the majority mandate of my union.  

LOGO CONTEST

The deadline to submit a logo for the ESTA Logo Contest is January 23, 2008.  The contest is open to anyone who would like to submit a design idea and the winning entry will receive $250.  We have had the contest open all semester, so now is the time to collect entries.   The winning entry will become the property of the East Side Teachers Association. 

Designs will be judged based upon the degree to which they:  

·        Communicate the dynamic nature of ESTA.

·        Provide ease of recognition of the Association and its purposes.

·        Demonstrate originality.

·        Allow ease of duplication on a wide range of printing devices.

CHILDREN CENTERS

Lately members have been asking me questions about our Children Centers that we have on our sites. These centers are funded by; General Care Contracts within the State of California, CAL SAFE-Teen Parent, MAA Funding, various Grants of CA, SMART Start funding and Head Start at a few of the sites.  The centers are for low-income families who live in the community and who qualify under the restrictions of these programs. The cost to run the centers does not come from the General Fund.  We do have ESTA members who teach high school students for a few periods at these sites who should be earning ADA to help offset the cost of the program.  Currently, that ADA is not being allocated to their budget.  The ESTA members who work the Child Centers are paid on a different salary schedule and have a much longer work year.  Some of them are 12 month employees.  Check out the ESTA website if you want to learn more about ESTA member’s duties at the Child Care Centers. 

CTA GOOD TEACHING CONFERENCE

Seven members were granted scholarships for the CTA Good Teaching Conference from the Santa Clara County Service Center Council.  The requirements were that they had to be new teachers with only a few years’ experience and that they must work in Santa Clara County.  Here are the members who were selected: 

·        Ismaila Biaye, IHS

·        Xinrong Liu, AH

·        James Yang, WCO

·        Christine Todd, IHS

·        Shirley Cheng, MP 

·        Jinsue Choi, YB 

The conference was held in Burlingame on January 11-13.  

NEA

Each summer, the National Education Association holds a meeting called the Representative Assembly (RA).  This coming summer, from June 30 through July 7, the RA will be in Washington D.C.  There are two ways that ESTA members can go the RA.

First, each NEA local affiliate chapter is entitled to send elected delegates to the RA in the ratio of one delegate for each 150 NEA members.  With over 1300 members, this means ESTA can send nine local delegates.

Second, each NEA state affiliate is entitled to send elected delegates to the RA.  The allocation of State Delegates to Service Center Councils will be sent to the service center sometime in February upon receipt of the information from the NEA. ESTA’s 9 local delegates are elected to three-year terms, which we stagger so as to elect two or three each year.

Watch your school mailbox for information on how you can declare yourself to be a candidate for one of the three local delegate spots that we’ll elect in March.

Look in the inside back cover of the December issue of CTA’s California Educator for the form you would use to declare yourself a candidate for election as a state delegate or go to the www.cta.org to download the form in the My CTA section.  The deadline for that form to arrive at CTA in Campbell is very firm:  5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 1.

CTA CONFERENCES

ESTA has limited funds to send 2-3 members to each of the following conferences that are listed on the CTA website.  They are;

·        Urban Issues, Marriott Hotel, Santa Clara.

·        Equity & Human Rights, Marriott Hotel, Irvine.

CTA conferences do offer one unit of college credit to be purchased through Cal State Chico.  

DISTRICT WIDE TESTING

Due to being in Program Improvement (PI), each English 1-9 class is required to do one benchmark test per semester.  I am meeting with Dan Moser to discuss the issues that have been brought to me about whether or not the district is requiring other benchmark tests.  From what I was told, many of the department chairs are working along with their Section Area Coordinators (SAC) to produce district wide assessments that are voluntary.  Although some of the tests are data-collecting, and Jane Baldi is helping to interpret them, the data is simple enough for individual departments to make some conjectures for sharing at their site. 

RETIREMENT

34 ESTA members have submitted a letter of intent to retire by January 8, and will be receiving a one-time payment of $3,000.  The next deadlines to submit a letter of intent to retire are;

·        February 4 - for a one-time payment of $2,000.

·        February 27 - for a one-time payment of $1,000.

In order to receive the funds you must indicate a retirement date of not later than June 30, 2008.  Before deciding to retire, you should consult a CalSTRS retirement counselor for advice so you are not surprised when your checks begin arriving in July.  Check out the ESTA website for information on our CalSTRS workshops.

If you are one of the retirees, Esther Carrillo the Benefits Coordinator, will once again host a retirement seminar to discuss benefits.  This event will happen in the spring and will be announced to all certificated staff.  If you are retiring and not going to be using your Sick Days for CalSTRS credit for years of service and would like to donate them to the Sick Leave Bank, please let me know before the school year ends.  Your contribution will be greatly appreciated by other ESTA members in need.