May 11th Minutes

Redwood City Teachers Association Rep. Council Minutes

Date: Monday May 11, 2020

Location: Zoom

Called for 3:30 p.m.

Adjourned: 4:25 p.m.

1. TA: Questions and Answers:

Brian: School District is not willing to ratify the TA. We, RCTA, held a vote and passed it. The Board was supposed to vote on it. The TA was signed too close to the pandemic. We have renegotiated. They seem to agree that we will get 4% next year. We return to the table for the following year’s (2021-2022) compensation. We probably will get some kind of raise, but we have to renegotiate it. The District has to come up with convincing financial reasons if they don’t give us the 4% for the second year of the contract.

Kevin asked that people chat the questions:

Question:When will we receive the raise?

Answer: This coming school year.

Question:Does the TA address only salary?

Answer: Brian all changes made in the TA are going into effect next year.

Question: What about the kindergarten minutes?

Answer:Brian: Since they didn’t want to give us the 4% the second year. We tried to say that they wouldn’t get their kindergarten minutes. District very entrenched. The District does have bargaining power. If the board votes the whole thing down it means that we go back to the table and drag it out for a year. We didn’t want to lose the 4% for next school year. We could have gone to impasse. It’s a very lengthy process. This would be in their interest not in ours. We wanted to guarantee that we got the 4% for our members for this coming year. Cathy Schecter. We can reopen the kindergarten minutes in January. Brian: There was a bill which was vetoed by the governor. The bill would have mandated a full day kindergarten. The point is that there is a momentum for full day kindergarten.

Question: What is next year’s model.

Answer:Kevin: Next year’s model is not written in stone. These are just ideas at the moment.

Question: Is there a document about additional expenses for working at home? Answer: Kevin: District would not deal with this at all. he district is saving quite a bit of money by not having classes.

Question about staggered days?

Answer: Kevin. Nothing has been decided. Michelle: Long Beach is planning for the school year to begin on time.

Jeanne Martin: Zoom capacity is 100. Many are not able to get into this meeting.

Question:What is the district’s percentage in reserves? Isn’t the budget already projected.

Answer: Brian: At the last meeting the school district hoped to lease out one of the properties that has fallen through. Jeanne Martin: There is a law that reserves are 7%. The County says that the District has to have 3%. We have 6%. I did not have the information as to what the actual reserves are

Question about older workers?

Answer: Michelle: The district is considering the needs of older teachers. Each side gets two openers when we go back to the table in January. There may be an opportunity for some teachers to teach remotely for those families who don’t want to send their kids back to school. Perhaps older teachers would have first opportunity to do that.

Kevin: We were speaking to CTA about filing a fair labor practice complaint. Brian: I have not communicated with our new rep from CTA. The CTA tends to not give recommendations on what we should ask for in negotiations.

Questions: Concerns about social distancing and teachers with health conditions.

Answer: Michelle: Wendy was throwing out things like the teacher’s age and a doctor’s note for those who might be the first ones for distance learning.

Question: What if we vote this down?

Answer: Brian: We would have to go back to the table and may not get the 4% for next year. The district is not voting in bad faith by simply not voting for it. We would have to make a case that they have done something above and beyond that. At this point we are not pursuing the PERB complaint.

Question: How many contacts could vary depending on the school?

Answer: Kevin: There are specific contract numbers of student contacts. Cathy Scheckter: The school will be getting recommendations from County Health Officials. Michelle: I don’t think there will be an increase in contacts.

Question: Anastacia: How many contacts per day? How many kids in a classroom? Will kids have to wear masks? How many students will I be exposed to each day? There are socioeconomic issues where some of our families live in denser concentration and therefore have more contacts.

Answer: Cathy S: These guidelines will come from the County Health Officials. Erin: The equity piece is really important. Brian: These are great things to talk about but they are unrelated to the new ratification vote. There will be much more going on in terms of MOU’s. But the vote on the TA is a separate issue. This doesn’t mean that we are disregarding these other important issues. Michelle: The current MOU expires at the end of the school year. There will be another MOU. Kevin; The new MOU is going to take an executive board and we need people to run for these positions.

Question: How are teachers who are parents supposed to deal with these alternating schedules. Kevin will make a note. Michelle: Teachers will be teaching all the days. They will have to figure out childcare for their own children.

1. Elections update: Steven: At this point only three people are running: Erinn is running for President. MaryJane for recording secretary and Steve for Treasurer. Jeanne Martin said this was her last year on PAR, but we did not meet this year. Steve: I sent out all the forms adjusting the schedule. CTA allowed us to do all virtually. Today is the last day for the declaration of candidacy. Erinn Washburn for president and MaryJane Gurtz for recording secretary. Now candidates can start to campaign. Steve: The district knows that we don’t have a lot of power behind us. They play games with us. Right now we only have 20% involved. We don’t have the power organization to have any clout with the district. Erin: We need to get everyone on board. Carol Marque: I was sent to the NEA/RA This really fired me up to be more involved in the union. We have a lot of people in this meeting and a lot of people waiting to get into this meeting. I think the trend is going to be toward doing this kind of meeting. Take into consideration if you have the time to do this kind of meeting you could get more involved.

1. Kevin: How do people feel about this online platform. How do we reorganize? Maybe we could do the 10 minute site based meetings on Zoom. Maybe the reps can start to organize their school sites. Are site reps willing to organize your school sites? Angie: We were at full capacity with 100 people at the meeting. This makes it even more Important for reps to report back to their sites. . Michelle: Google Meet has a capacity of 250. Angie: There is a delay on Google Meet. Kevin: Great. These schools are going to meet with their sites. Henry Ford, Adelante Selby Lane, Taft, MIT, Roy Cloud, and Roosevelt. Thank you.

Victoria: Need to look into how best to meet since we did have more than 100.

Meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m.