The registration deadline for the Redwood Educators Conference has been extended to Friday, April 5th! Attached is the revised flyer for distribution to your members.
Mar 08
Vacaville Unified School District board OKs even-year elections
After an hour of spirited debate, at times heated, Vacaville Unified School District leaders on Thursday voted to consolidate board member elections with statewide general elections.Their unanimous decision, made during a regular meeting at the Educational Services Center, came as several Solano County school district boards debated similar resolutions Thursday night, including Fairfield-Suisun and Dixon. On Wednesday, the Solano County Board of Education and the Vallejo City Unified board voted to consolidate elections, with the consensus being such a move would save their respective districts possibly several thousands of taxpayer dollars and also take advantage of greater turnout in general election years.
With the approval of Resolution No. 15, the VUSD governing board moves trustee elections from odd- to even-numbered years and extends board member terms by one year.
The board made its decision after a presentation from John Gardner, Solano County assistant registrar of voters, who, in a computer-aided slide presentation, laid out several scenarios of election costs.
He said if district trustees voted to stay in the odd-year election cycle, the percentage of VUSD costs would go up, perhaps considerably, given that several other districts had already decided to move to even-year elections. The deadline to decide is 5 p.m. today, he noted.
But nearly all the trustees voiced concern that their decision was rushed and forced upon them without adequate
notice or public input on the matter.”Could we revisit the issue next year?” Superintendent John Niederkorn asked at one point.
In public comments, Alex Henthron, a Sacramento State University student and community services commissioner for the city of Vacaville, said the pending vote appeared to be “a power grab” by some cities and other public entities.
Several trustees said they would not approve the resolution, saying, as board president David McCallum asserted, “It requires a lot more fleshing out.”
Kari Sousa, the district’s chief business official, said, “If we don’t go to even years,” then the district may be saddled with as much as 40 percent of odd-year election costs, potentially several hundred thousands of dollars.
After hearing the numbers, trustee Larry Mazucca said he felt pressured to vote to approve the resolution and that he was “ticked off.”
“This is BS,” he said. “This is just crap.”
“This goes against best judgment,” he added. “Now, we’re stuck” and must make “a poor decision.”
Fairfield-Suisun trustees on Thursday voted unanimously to approve consolidation, but Dixon Unified did not, with Superintendent Brian Dolan, in a text message, saying the motion died for lack of a second.
Jacki Cottingim-Dias, Fairfield-Suisun superintendent, said trustees debated the issue calmly and came to a decision for “logical reasons.”
“They felt voter participation would be higher in even years, and the board really felt they had no choice,” she said.
Mar 08
Leave update and contract language – update
You received an email from Human Resources in early February about leave. Below is a copy of the section of that communication pertaining to Personal Option Leave (POL) contract language and the comment regarding the use of the 4th and 5th day of POL from the District.
6.2.2 Personal Option Leave (POL)
6.2.2.1 The personal option leave permits the unit member to use a total of five (5) days. Three (3) days of the twelve (12) personal leave days quoted in Article 6.1 for personal necessities not included in that definition may include family related matters that occur during the workday. These three (3) days may not be used for: other employment, withholding of services, or activities normally considered to be related to recreation or vacation. Personal option leave days may not be accumulated and/or carried over from year to year.
6.2.2.2 Up to five (5) days of personal option leave may be used for professional growth to attend conferences, travel/study programs, or other professional activities
Comment: Your 3 days of POL come from your PL balance. The 4th or 5th day of POL must come from professional growth to attend conferences, travel/study programs, or other professional activities.
VTA has been discussing this section about Personal Option Leave with regards to the use of the 4th and 5th day with the District, as we have a difference in the interpretation of the language.
VTA has interpreted this language to mean that the 4th and 5th day “may” be used for professional development, not “must” be, as was stated in the District email. We have communicated this interpretation to our members in the past. We are concerned that the discrepancy in the interpretation may now result in members being docked in pay if they use a fourth and fifth day of POL for something other than professional development.
We have been unable to come to an agreement with the District as to the interpretation, and basically, have agreed to disagree for the remainder of the year. The language will most likely be rewritten and clarified during the negotiations process this spring.
Please be aware that if you use a fourth and fifth day of POL for something other than professional development between now and the end of the year, you could be subject to action by the District to dock your pay. VTA will intervene and support you through the grievance process in this event, but, we can not guarantee the outcome.
We want to make members aware of this situation and hope to have clear language in place in the contract for next year.
Mar 07
From the webmaster…
….I’ve just turned on the mobile website mode so, if you look at this site on your phone, it will look very different than if you look at it on your desktop.
Thoughts? Feedback? Leave it in the comments!
Mar 06
Rep Council Agenda March 12, 2013 3:30 Jepson library
Rep Council Agenda
March 12, 2013
3:30 Jepson library
*3:30 Special CTA presentation on member benefits
Site concerns: discussion and report
1) – Approval of the minutes
2) – Approval of the agenda
3) – Business
- Elections’ plan/schedule (Moira McSweeney)
- Health care update (Brenda Hensley)
4) – President’s report (Moira McSweeney)
5) – Treasurer’s report (Brenda Hensley)
6) – Committee/Chair reports
- Action (Corey Penrose and Aja Cook)
- Bargaining (Brenda Hensley)
- Grievance (Sylvia Aquino)
- Human Rights (Alyson Brauning)
- Women’s Issues (Tricia Cowen)
- PAC (Dawn Kelly)
- Special Ed (Tammy Parker)
- Leave Bank (Ann Kubler)
- Membership (Julie Timmerman)
7) – Conference reports
8) – Other
9) – Raffle
10) – Adjournment
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