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Process on changing your school site calendar – it cannot be imposed!

April 22, 2013

Under the VEA/VCUSD Collective Bargaining agreement, the district is responsible for setting the start and end time of our day. However, it is staff at school sites that have the ultimate say in the hours within the day. Under 5.11, any change in the bell schedule has to go through a process, which requires a development of a leadership team (not just selected by site administration), a poll and a vote of all impacted staff.

At the start of the current school year, the district tried to make substantial changes to the calendars used at our middle schools. Specifically, there was an attempt to standardized the minimum days at the middle schools. While VEA doesn’t have an outright problem with this standardization, what we do believe is that ALL members should have a say in this process and a right to vote on any changes on calendars at each school site.

If your site administrator presents any change to the student/teacher work day in the the 2013-14 calendar, remind them of 5.11 of the VEA/VCUSD CBA. VEA recognizes that each school site is unique and their calendar is a reflection of what teachers, support staff, and administration has developed for a variety of reasons. No calendar should be imposed on your staff. It is imperative that any school site that believes they are being forced to change their calendar, contact VEA in order to help you through this process.

Some school sites may choose to retain their current calendar. Even if you are rolling your current calendar over into the 2013-14, school sites are encouraged to still follow the process as defined under 5.11 of the CBA, including voting on maintaining your current calendar. This vote has to take place by May 1st!

Please be advised that each school site should vote on their calendar for the upcoming school year – even if there are no changes. However, if no vote takes place, then your current calendar automatically rolls over into the next school year. NO vote equals maintaining the status quo on your school site calendar.

Please contact your VEA Director for more information.

Elementary:
Teri Nutt
Loree Tackmier
Katie Vevoda

Middle School:
Katherine Catanzarite
Lynette Henley

High School:
Scott Heinecke
Rob Raven

Adult School:
Effie Dudley

Special Education:
Deanna Dunn

District retracts statement that it will “confiscate personal appliances”

January 17, 2013
VEA’s Bargaining team discussed the letter that was sent out by the District yesterday regarding personal appliances. Mel Jordan,  Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services, was part of this discussion and in fact, released a revised letter, which is posted below. Please note that Mel Jordan did acknowledge that the tone of the original letter was not necessary. He took full responsibility for the tone and apologized stating that the message could have been better conveyed. NO personal appliances will be confiscated as stated in the original letter.

Operation Energy Sweep-Memo Revision

 

District seeks to ban and illegally confiscate teachers’ personal property

January 16, 2013

VEA has issued a demand to bargain on the letter that was sent today by VCUSD employee Denise Brogan-Whitford, most likely at the the direction of new District Administrator, Stephen Lane.

This letter was sent to all VEA members and issued the directive to stop immediate use of personal appliances such as microwaves, refrigerators, and coffee makers. This is supposedly due to an increase in energy usage.

No mention is made in this letter about the cold snap that has hit Vallejo and other parts of Northern California in the past couple of weeks.

Instead the blame for this increased energy use is placed on the usage of small appliances used by teachers in their classrooms.

The District has stated that if personal appliances are not removed by January 31st that they will “confiscate” these items.

VEA believes that perhaps the District has larger issues to address, such as the safety of their employees and the students of Vallejo, rather than the use of small appliances.

We also believes that in light of the fact that many teachers report having heaters that do not work in their classrooms, including VEA President Christal Watts’ 3rd grade classroom, that this District should spend more “energy” (no pun intended) on updating antiquated heating systems rather than seek to ban and illegally confiscate the personal property of VCUSD employees.

VEA’s Bargaining Team meets with the District’s bargaining team tomorrow. We will keep you posted!

VEA’s FAQ on restoration of 2012-13 furlough days

January 6, 2013

Right before the holiday break, Christal Watts, President of VEA, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Dr. Ramona Bishop, Superintendent of VCUSD. Below is the FAQ that has been developed for VEA members.

Members will also see the proposed calendar change.  VEA has tentatively scheduled the vote to take place on Monday, January 14th at Jesse Bethel High School from 7 to 3 p.m. From 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., voting will continue for VEA members at our January Social at Chevy’s.

Questions from VEA members regarding the proposed MOU can be asked at our upcoming Site Rep meeting (open to VEA Site Reps, VEA E-Board members and VEA members only) on Thursday, January 10th at the VHS South Campus. Those wanting to ask questions should expect to arrive no later than 4:15 p.m., in which the floor will be open to answer questions on the MOU and is slated to last for no more than 30 minutes.

Restoration of Furlough Days

December 21, 2012

VEA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the VCUSD restoring all five days that were originally planned as furlough days for the 2012-13 school year. More details will be released regarding the specifics of the restoration language after the holiday break.

Website update

December 18, 2012

The VEA website has been experiencing issues since last week. It appears these issues have been resolved. We do apologize for the inconvenience to our members and anyone visiting our site.

We hope that these issues will not occur again and appreciate everyone’s patience.

Important Information on the 2012-13 Student Calendar

July 19, 2012

Please note that the loss of instructional/pay cut days (aka furlough) are only IF Proposition 30, “The Save our Schools and Public Safety” initiative fails.

The only exception are the two dates in November, which are right before the November election.

Parents & Certificated Staff should NOT make plans that cannot be changed if the Prop 30 passes as those days after the November election will NOT be taken.

Bargaining Update

March 6, 2012
On Thursday, March 1st, the VEA Bargaining Team met with the district. At that meeting, the district reviewed the additional cuts by the state. Unfortunately the additional cuts trigger 1 furlough day. It will be Friday, May 18th. Here is what happened.
January 2012
The state cut $13 per student in the Base Revenue Limit (BRL) and $28 per student for transportation for a total of $41. This was below our cut point of $50, so no furlough day was needed.

March 2012
Due to concerns of rural districts the state reversed its decision to cut transportation but increased the cuts per student in the BRL to $55. So the cut point now is $55, which is in the second tier requiring one pay-cut day for the 2011-12 school year.

VEA does not anticipate any other furlough days for this year and we are working with the district to determine when this money will be taken from our paychecks. VEA is asking that this money is spread over three paychecks (April, May and June) in order to minimize the impact as much as possible.

2012-13 School Year
Your Bargaining Team continues to discuss with the district any potential pay-cut days for the 2012-13 school year. Due to the uncertainty of the state budget and the possibility that the tax initiatives may fail, ALL unit members are strongly encouraged to start planning for potential pay-cut days in the 2012-13 school year.