D.O. Update

Letter by Karen Taylor to Board on Budget Reduction

Negotiations Update

The Negotiating team continues to work on language updates for the collective bargaining agreement.  The articles sent to school sites to be ratified have been returned and counted. They have been ratified by the membership and will be included in the next printing of the contract. The WEA team will also be working to ensure that proposals for savings are in keeping with current contract language whenever possible.  The Board of Trustees for the Woodland School District will be reviewing a proposal for an early retirement program, PARS, the week of January 12.  If the board approves moving forward with the process, there will be an informational meeting the following week.  

Teacher Rights

Teachers have the right to:

1.    suspend students from class for two days, but the teacher must call parents to set up a conference. EC48910

2.    be informed of students’ violent, criminal, harassing, or threatening conduct. EC 49079

3.    Make the final decision as to student grades.  EC 49066

4.    Be notified within a reasonable time before a parent visits the classroom. EC 49091.10

BAC

The Budget Advisory Committee plans to meet on Jan 7 and will meet again on January 14.  This committee will help to shape the savings and cuts the district must identify prior to the end of January.  This committee is comprised of members from administration, both bargaining units, and members of the community.  The committee discusses financial issues that concern everyone in the district and often makes recommendations with regard to the budget. 

As members of the BAC, the representatives may also request information or suggest topics to discuss with regard to the budget.  The membership should forward any ideas for cuts and savings to this office as soon as possible.

 CTA/NEA

Retired or Retiring????

Retirees can continue to belong to CTA and NEA.  If you would like to find out more, you may go to www.cta.org or call 650-552-5446.  As an active member of CTA and NEA, you may retain many of the benefits you enjoy as a currently-employed unit member.  As a Pre-Retired Subscriber you may pay a one-time fee of $320 for a lifetime membership that entitles you to insurances; credit union services; loan services; entertainment, travel, and purchasing discounts; vision service and long term care plans.  The current rate for annual dues is $42. and monthly dues is $3.50 if retired unit members would prefer the pay-as-you-go plan for the retired CTA/NEA dues.  

District Emergency Leave –Article XII, Section E

There are days of leave provided in the Bargaining Agreement that are paid by the district in the case of bereavement.  There are also provisions for caring for Immediate family members in an emergency.  Up to 3 days per year are paid by the district.  This is explained in detail in Article XII, Section E. 

 Intern Support Program

The program is designed to offer first and second year support to our District teacher interns. The support offered includes an intern mentor teacher and a specially designed induction program articulated with the Interns Credentialing Program.  We serve approximately nine (9) intern teachers who are currently working on their credentials through National, Chapman, Project Impact, and CSU Sacramento.  Our intern teachers are supported by eight (8) mentor teachers.

Participating teachers have been engaged in multiple one hour weekly mentoring conversations, have been informally and formally observed by their mentor teacher, and participants have observed a colleague.  All participants have received support surrounding the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and Teacher Preparation Expectations. 

BEST BUY INVITE

My name is Denise Dubins and I am the Community Involvement Coordinator for the Sacramento Area Best Buy stores, including the Natomas store. We are having an after-hours event on January 25, 2009 to honor our local heroes. We will be having refreshments, a coupon offer valid for that night only, and a raffle. I would like to invite your teaching staff as we view them as local heroes. The event is from 7:30pm to 9:00pm at the Natomas store which is located at 3690 N. Freeway Blvd Sacramento 95834.

Bulletin Number 1--Health Care 

 Here are some bulletins from the WEA.  More information will be coming to you as soon as it is available. No decision has been made with regard to the insurance yet.  That is because the Association has requested that Western Health Advantage provide a bid for our group.  The recent survey indicated that we have about 200 members who take Health Net.  Of these 200 or so, over 100 of the self-proclaimed Health Net users want to change to WHA even if they lose Sutter and about 60 of the self-proclaimed Health Net users want to keep their Sutter doctors at all costs.

The district is proclaiming that it is  too much work to have two brokers, so they want the unit members to continue the carry the cost rather than help them find a better solution. The district cap is $433. The following are the options as the health care committee see them so far.

1.  CalPERS           BENEFITS--lower premiums for the same plan and includes Sutter   DRAWBACKS--no history making it difficult to leave the plan and the premiums have been increasing.

2.  CVT                 BENEFITS--lower premiums for the same plan, options that fall below our district cap of $433           DRAWBACKS---no history making it difficult to leave the plan, AND there are a number of unit members who would lose cash-in-lieu--a negotiated item

3. Stay with Health Net that includes Sutter at a 17% increase over last year and a high payment of nearly $1900/mo for retiree with family and $1700/mo for an "active" family.

4.  Change to Western Health Advantage with a lower premium (This amount should be back to us in about a week.) It will not have SUTTER.

5.  We could retain the High Option in Health Net (with the 17% increase) and create a very low plan ( with an out of pocket deductible of $3,000 to $5,000 -- depending on the one created) that would come in at around $500 to $600 per month premium.  This kind of plan would mean the unit member pays for everything up to the deductible, THEN the insurance pays.  This would mean that you would pay out your deductible and the difference between the district cap ($433) and your premium every month.

The committee and the Association are still working on this and CTA is also now involved.

BULLETIN #2-- Next Year's Dues

Next Year, the CTA dues increase will be approximately $21. for the year.  There has been a New Business Item filed to have that dues amount suspended in light of the current economic state.  The recommendation was that the item be presented to committee.  I do not know where it will go from there. I do not have any information on the NEA dues amount.  The WEA amount for next year and the following year will remain at its current level, unless some now unforeseen need comes up.  A New Business Item was filed with CTA and fast tracked to approval will allow locals to retain current levels of dues and still qualify for crisis funding and arbitration.

BULLETIN #3 -- 

The secondary ALS testing is under review.  Teachers and administrators should be involved soon with the process of making this test more useful, especially with the addition of DATA WORKS.

BULLETIN #4 --

The NEW WEA OFFICERS FOR 2009-2010 are as follows:   President--Adelina Perez;  Vice President: Bobby Rogers; Secretary/Treasurer--Carol Mathisen; Directors-at-large: Traci Edwards, Gayle Hawke  and Hellen Campen.

BULLETIN #5 -- Board Meeting Update

The Board of Trustees issues have increased over the last few weeks as you might well imagine, but you might not have imagined it quite this way.

~~~The Superintendent Search continues, but there is very little said or done, to my knowledge, at this point in time.  The goal is for the board to interview the candidates on April 23 or 25 and take a recommendation to the board at the first board meeting in May.  I am not sure why the board interviews, makes a decision regarding recommendations, then votes.  There is a week scheduled between the determination of the recommended candidate and the board approval to "negotiate a salary."

In addition, the Board has directed Administration to seek further involvement with a company who will orchestrate a bond going to the voters in a near election to pay for a number of items our district needs--some of them were included in the last list of items that were to be covered by the previous bond.  The District Office Building was on the first list, but not on the most recent one.  It will not surprise me if it reappears.  There is also some talk of shifting things off of one plate to put them on the bond and asking for more rather than less.

BULLETIN #6 --

 There will be no true bumping when teachers/unit members are placed from the two closing schools.  No one can point at a currently held position and say "I want that one."

Stay tuned.
Karen