Welcome Back Everyone
I hope you had an amazing summer. Here are just a few things you need to know as we begin the new school year.
New Educators: Welcome to all of our new educators to the ESUHSD. We hope that your experience here is awesome. The East Side Teachers Association is here to support you in your new chapter in education with us. Your site representatives should be contacting you in the next week or so to help support you with anything that you might need. They are dedicated to making your first year in East Side a great one.
Know Your Site Reps: Every there is a bit of turnover with site leadership. Some of our site leaders have already introduced themselves to you. I am sure other sites will be doing the same. It is good to have some contacts when there are issues that arise. Your ESTA Site Leadership is linked here. I am sure they will be reaching out to their respective sites soon if they have not done so already.
Covid Leave MOU: Our Covid MOU has expired, but the district will continue to follow the more strict guideline from either the CDC or the County. The ESUHSD will continue to honor Covid leave through September 30, 2022 unless it is further extended. The current County guidelines require a 5 day quarantine following a positive Covid test. Those County guidelines for schools should be updated in the next day or so. It is very difficult to continue to follow the always changing guidelines. Our ESUHSD Covid flowchart is linked here. So if you have questions about Covid exposure, quarantine or anything else, please email the Covid Hotline (covid19line@esuhsd.org). You will be given instructions as to what your next steps are.
Pride Parade: ESTA has purchased a spot in the Silicon Valley Pride Parade. The activities for Pride week start August 22 and end on August 28. Check the event list in the link above. The actual parade is at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park in Downtown San Jose. You will be sent more info from our Equity Committee soon.
Class Size: The Class Size Committee will meet on Mondays starting next week. We will begin working to ensure that classes will be at contractual standards. Please do not sign waivers until you have discussed this with site leadership. If you sign a waiver, you will still be paid for class overages. The problem with this is that your class then has no cap and thus can be loaded even more than what your class size is at currently. Furthermore, the ability to open a new section then becomes compromised. Sometimes a waiver is needed, but please check the ramifications before doing so. Please contact your site reps with any concerns regarding class size.
Disability Insurance with No Health Questions: ESTA is launching a campaign with The Standard starting this month. We only run a campaign for this every 4-5 years, so now is the time to take advantage of this opportunity. The Standard will offer you the ability to receive disability and life insurance without having to answer any health questions. This is huge for people with preexisting conditions. Details will be coming soon as to how to register for these benefits.
Thank you for all that you do. I hope you have a fantastic first week.
Jack Hamner, ESTA President