Redwood City Teachers Association Rep. Council Minutes
Date: Monday January 13, 2020
Location: Red Morton CAB: 1400 Roosevelt, Redwood City
Food to be served at 3:30
Call to Order: Parliamentarian at 3:50 p.m.
Motion to accept the minutes. Passed.
Kevin pushed the need to communicate.
Site Collaboration: Clifford: getting a curriculum for 7-8 science. Don’t see the principal because of his attendance all the IEP’s and 504’s. Music Department: Teaching about Native Americans. We always lose a number of kids this time of year. Roosevelt: There is a question about photographing students - Michelle - nothing in the contract about this. There are video release forms. Brian - Parents are saying that it is a breach of PERBA. Brian will be discussing with Michelle Washington. NUA--Chris liked the training. It’s been positive for the students. Since a couple of months ago discipline has gotten better. Now they have the equivalent of three full time administrators. There was concern that some teachers felt that they were not part of the ‘staff’ grievance. Michelle explained that when several members are involved in a grievance it is called a ‘staff grievance’ even though not all are involved. Taft: John (preschool speech therapist). Need to open up two new classrooms for preschool special ed. They need teachers and classrooms. Pre-school is isolated from the rest of Taft. Lack of subs and kids be split up and this affects many classes when just one teacher is out. Nurses: Concerns about preschool students not being on Power School. Vision screening is starting, but nurses have less help from retired nurses. Selby Lane: A lot of frustration about the workload. There is a teacher who has been on disability for four years. Frustration about this because the lack of a regular teacher is impacting all. (Michelle: If she works a little each year then she can come back to her spot.) Kennedy: New office/family center is complete. Roy Cloud: Issues with discipline. Principal is trying to provide a positive feedback form for classroom observations. When she is in the classrooms she is going to fill out a form. Lack of communication. Teachers aren’t told why police are being called to the school. Teachers need to be informed of students’ behaviors. Orion/Mandarin Immersion: There is going to be a discussion at the board meeting about what the actual name of the school will be. People are feeling better about how things are going at school. There had been some serious discipline issues. Hoover: The campus is cleaner. Minor improvements to dismissal duty. Teachers attempted to have a meeting to discuss safety issues. This was brushed off. The principal is going out some days after school. Issues about placement for newcomers and children with IEP’s. Kerry wants to know if this is a grievable issue. Kerry wants to know if the negotiating team got feedback from the staff at various schools. Ford: Good intentions but not follow through from administration. More and more being put on us. SDC teacher for K-2 isn’t coming to work and the classroom was dissolved. Now the 3-5 teacher was told that she will be now be a 2-5. Not much warning. Lack of subs. Michelle noted: You cannot be called back to a sub for a lack of a sub. NSA: There are new locks on gates coming into the campus. Not all keys work. There is a lot of top down decision making. Feeling that all staff should have an input not just the steering committee. Side note: Alec heard that teachers don’t have to go out into the street to direct traffic.
Elections: Steven: Heads up about upcoming elections. They will start in March. Executive Board, State Council and RA (NEA) all in the same election. Guidelines will be sent out. Very important that we follow procedure. If number of the ballots don’t reflect the rosters, the ballots are invalided. A timeline will be presented. We will be going over with reps how to run the elections. At the April meeting we will go through how to vote. This is called a secure election.
Schools and Communities First Signature Campaign: Michelle Washington. Petitions need to be distributed and signed. Michelle spoke to the importance of getting the petitions signed. This will bring potentially 6.5 billion dollars to education. CTA has to get 1.6 million signatures on ballots. You must sign a petition from your county. Each county has to have a separate sheet. Petitions can only be signed during duty free times.
Reports
Negotiations Report: Meeting on December 16th. Our negotiating team was able to to distribute our proposals in written form. Focusing on prep time and the fact that the district has no way of monitoring how much work they are piling on teachers. Trying to reduce meeting time - reducing meeting time by a two thirds (?). Teachers should get uninterrupted planning time on Thursday. The administration could still call meeting, but they would not be on Thursdays. District has not provided a compensation proposal. They have to come through with one next Thursday, January 23. Now the district’s negotiating team gets their direction from the school board. The direction used to come more from the superintendent. They will try to tie prep time with compensation. Negotiations will be meeting again on next Thursday, January 23. Regarding MIT: (Brian works on the same campus) The behaviors of the students are the main problem. Another separate note. Question: There is a cap on RSP caseloads, but there is no cap on SDC cap loads?
Grievance Report: Michelle: Most issues seems to be middle school issues. Lack of discipline follow through on the part of the administration, safety issues, numbers of students. At MIT there was a teacher who had 46 students in one classroom. After 7 hours of negotiations the teacher was paid. Alec issue of safety at NSA with chairs that fall apart. Non reelection notices will be happening probably in February.
President: PAR; Please, communicate with Kevin if you have a teacher on your staff that would be interested in being on the PAR board. Organizing; School Visits; LCAP Steering Committee: Teachers need to be there. Please, let me know if you are interested. Very important for us to be there.
Please make all attempts to have your 10 minute meeting this week.
Adjourned at: 5:17.
Next meeting Monday February 3, 2020