Vacaville – In just over two months, residents of Vacaville will be asked to go to the polls and elect four trustees to the Vacaville Unified School District Board of Education.

If you haven’t kept up with who is running and what the issues are, Michele “Shelley” Dally, David McCallum, Horace “Whit” Whitman, Jeremy Jeffreys, Judith D. Ruggiero, Tracee Stacy, Deloris Roach, Christopher Flask and Shawn Windham are all expected to attend the candidate forum on August 19^th, and make their argument as to why he or she is the best person to join the seven seat board.

Given that a majority of the board is up for grabs, the four people who are elected will have a major influence on the future of the Vacaville Unified School District, which serves just over 12,000 students and employs almost 1,000.

“Four out of seven is a majority,” said Moira McSweeney, Vacaville Teachers Association   President.  “These people can have a very large effect on the future of our schools and the future of our schools affects everyone in Vacaville.”

The forum will be on August 19^th, in the Wildcat Theater at Will C Wood High School, which is located at 998 Marshall Rd.

It will be a two-hour forum starting at 6:00 pm and is sponsored by the Vacaville Teachers Association.

The election will be Tuesday, November 4th.

Bargaining will be starting VERY soon. Stay informed on all the issues and help support the bargaining team! 600 voices beats a handful any day!

The School Board race is underway! Help us choose endorsed candidates by attending the School Board Candidate Forum on August 19, 2014 at the Will C Wood theater at 6:00 pm. We NEED pro-public education and teacher-friendly candidates! Invest a bit of your time into the campaign.

Do you have non-school ties to our community? VTA wants to expand its community outreach and that begins with YOU! Invest a little time spreading our message!

Teacher-voice and teacher-driven change: YOU are the professional educator and YOUR VOICE MATTERS. At least half of your Wednesday collaboration days are to be member-driven. Drive the change you want to see in OUR district for OUR student

Are you aware that a bond initiative to upgrade VUSD schools will be on the November ballot? Keep an eye out for information and updates.

Would you like to keep up on everything happening in VTA? Please visit, and bookmark, www.vacateachers.org!

Get involved in your union. There are many opportunities to be a part of the important work done by VTA on behalf of our members. Sign up to participate and make a difference!

Here’s some pictures from today’s VUSD BBQ at Vacaville High School!

Have a great year, brothers and sisters, and watch this space for the winners from todays’ raffle!

Also, if you took any pictures you’d like to share, please put in the comments – you can use Facebook!

Due to uneasiness in 14-15 enrollment numbers (including the enrollment loss due to the Kairos Charter School) and in the ending balance for 13-14, the District did not want to talk money increases until the fall.

To be better prepared for bargaining, the VTA Bargaining team agreed to open negotiations in September.

Consequently, we will be using the 14-15 Salary Schedules in the contract (Appendix C, Sections A-K), which have the 1.5% one-time increase from 13-14 taken off.

These can be found at: http://www.vacateachers.org/vta-documents/salary-schedules/ When you click on the correct salary schedule, click on “13-14 and 14-15 Section _.”

The salary schedule highlighted in blue is the 14-15 salary schedule.

Look at the salary for your next step. In many cases, the next step on the 14-15 schedule is LESS money than the previous step on the 13-14 salary schedule.

VTA has the survey data related to bargaining salary increases and other money items and will be using members’ priorities in crafting an initial proposal for the fall.

We wanted to make sure that you were aware that your July and August paychecks will, in many cases, be lower than your June check. We will be working to reverse that ASAP.

Dear Colleagues,

This is an election year for our School Board, and the race has begun for most of our candidates. You may have candidates who ask for your endorsement. The Vacaville Teachers Association won’t make a formal endorsement until the end of August, after input from our members.

VTA will host a forum, where you can hear each candidate speak on the educational issues that affect our schools, students and district. The forum will be held on Tuesday, August 19th, beginning at 6:00 pm, at WCW’s Wildcat Theater.

This event is open to the public, so tell your family and friends! Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Dawn Kelly
VTA PAC Chair