10/18/07 Board Speech

By Brenda HensleyVTA President

Good Evening Board Members. I am Brenda Hensley, President of the Vacaville Teachers Association.

I come to speak to tonight about VTA/VUSD Negotiations. I have brought a few friends with me, as you can see. I want to wholeheartedly thank each person who is here. I know they didn’t have a whole lot of notice to attend and they somehow worked this in to their busy lives. Thank you so much! There are more people that because of second jobs, family responsibilities, etc. couldn’t attend. They are represented by the signed VTA Support Cards that the folks are holding up for you to see. I thank them as well for making a commitment of support for VTA’s proposal.

A little bit of history first… in December 2006, a majority of this board voted in an administrative pay package, which included across the board increases and salary schedule restructuring for administrators.

As Board President Yerkes put it in January 2007, “The Board made a difficult, but necessary, fiscal decision when we granted our administrators this increase to correct this inequity and competitiveness.”

Mr. Yerkes also stated that “Our highest priority as a School Board is to ensure that we maintain the competitive edge for our students, our employees, and our schools.”

In January 2007, I made a speech to this Board outlining my members’ discontent with the Board’s approval of such a package for administrators. I asked at that meeting “How can you in good conscience implement a plan to make administrators’ pay comparable with other districts and not acknowledge the teacher pay inequities with Travis, Fairfield and Napa?”

I also stated “Expect to see a comprehensive plan for attracting and retaining the best of the best in educators who work directly with students.”

October 2007: VTA has delivered such a plan to you. We hope that you have seen it, read it and tried to understand where we are coming from and what we need to accomplish.

VTA has yet to hear a wages and benefits proposal from you through your District bargaining team. We have been told to expect something tomorrow at the bargaining table.

VTA’s bargaining team, members and I personally and eagerly look forward to seeing the creative solutions you have come up with to address our continuing lack of salary competitiveness as compared with those districts around us, as well as attracting and retaining new teachers in this district. I know that you and your staff will work closely together to examine the budget, to see where priorities and items can be adjusted so that we can come together and figure out the best plan to move forward.

VTA members are the dedicated people that work directly with the children of this community every day.  Making us a priority is making the students a priority in the District. We sincerely hope that your initial specific money offer tomorrow will reflect that.

It’s our turn.

Thank you and have a good evening.