Date: September 14th, 2020 4:00-5:30PM
Location: Zoom Meeting ID: 995 2145 6048
Passcode:
1. Call meeting to order at: RCTA President called the meeting to order at 4:06pm
27 attendants present
1.5 A moment of silence for the passing of Lisa Bamberger, a Tk-K teacher at Roosevelt
Anyone who would like to speak to her memory
RCTA sent a bouquet of sunflowers from Ah Sam’s to the family
SF Gate link above includes more information on Lisa and the opportunity to send flowers to the family. Lisa was a kind and generous teacher and community member. She was ready to return to the classroom this year, and even nominated herself as a site representative. Her dedication to her students, teachers and community was genuine and generous. She will be missed immensely by our community.
* Roy Cloud has a Bonnie Schepler(spelling?) award for teachers who exemplify genuine, generous staff members. This could be something we create through RCTA to continuously honor Lisa’s memory in our district.
2. Roll Call Site Reps:
Rita Melton-Adelante/Selby ✓
Sandy Hoover-Clifford ✓
Anyone from Garfield? Still needing rep
Sandra Covacha-Henry Ford ✓
Angie Teupel-Henry Ford ✓
Kevin Sugar-Hoover x Kristy Herrera present from Hoover
Julie Gordon-Kennedy x Jane LaPaglia present from Kennedy
Ann Berljafa-Orion and Staff Development ✓
Jackie Kroner Swartz- Orion
Susanne Pillay-McKinley x
Brenda Whitla-Pinto-North Star ✓ Brenda will relay information to Susanne for MIT
Chris Holm-Roosevelt x
Maureen McPeek-Roosevelt ✓
Belinda Mendez-Roy Cloud ✓
Kim Combs-Taft ✓
Aida Ortiz-CDC x
Bernadette Garcia-SDC preschool x
Lisa Cox-Nurses ✓
3. Review and Approve 8/24 Minutes
Rep council approves board minutes from 8/24 without objection
4. Budget Vote:
$165 dues/member/month comes to $58, 514
$185 dues/member/month comes to $65,754
Discussion on approval for budget plan b
With all the new demands on our plates as teachers and new regulations and reportings with distance learning, the dues increase covering arbitration through CTA seems to be a good option.
Discussion on disapproval for budget plan b
With dues already high at $165, even though arbitration is good protection, with COVID job displacement and limited incomes, it can be a steep cost to put out in these difficult times for our members and their families.
Is it possible to use our overflow money from RCTA savings to cover arbitration for RCTA members? Why do we have so much money and what are we going to use it for, if not for arbitration coverage? (SM: This money is not able to be used for arbitration coverage) The savings could be spent on members and our community, as decided by the rep council and ex
Do you approve of our new budget plan (Budget b) to raise dues from $165 to $185/month?
_3_yay __7_nay
If Budget b fails for approval:
Do you approve of our current budget plan (Budget a) to keep member dues at $165/month?
_10__yay __0_nay
5. Elections
Apologies to executive board candidates and members.
Ballot will be sent out on: September 25
Make a copy of declaration, fill it out and return to rctaelections@gmail.com
Declarations Due by Sept. 18th.
Announce Sept. 25th
6. Yes on Prop 15- Greg Bonaccorsi
RCTA message with CTA Virtual Pledge Card
School & Communities First Initiative
Initiative will attempt to repair 4 decades of unfair property tax input, loophole by big corporations and wealthy investors
Reclaim 12 Billion dollars/year for our school communities
Close commercial property tax, big corporation exploiting loopholes
Protect homeowners and renters and tac relief on small businesses
Increase revenue for funding public schools and local services
For Redwood City, Prop 15 will give us about 5 million a year ongoing
Site Reps: Presentation (linked above).to share at site meetings. Have site members sign the pledge card (linked above)
Out to membership this week. Feel free to share it with your site.
-Connect with parents. It would be great to have an RCTA member at site PTO meetings.
- Share committees with site members
8. Last week concerns answered...
No WiFi at Adelante-Selby-solved ✓
Admin calling for Wednesday meeting this week
NO Admin can schedule meetings (staff, IEP, etc.) Wednesday is protected planning time, and is contracted as un-interrupted.
Admin should not schedule anything for teachers on Wednesdays and hold teachers accountable to “choose” to go. There should not be guilt-based decisions on any site. No Principal directed work should occur on Wednesdays.✓
Follow Up On
Optional training sessions being scheduled on Wednesdays for iReady, NUA, SEL, Tech across sites.
IEPs are still being scheduled on Wednesdays, which tears us. We want the best for our students, but we want to preserve our MOU promise of uninterrupted prep.
Workload: Teaching bell to bell live, grading, planning, being asked create, add-to, update websites daily, seasoned teachers can’t keep up; workload is just insane. New curriculum pushouts to be learned. Electives require excess planning. 12-14 hour days everyday, plus weekends. Let’s monitor this….(due to check in at week 6)
Brainstorm RCTA EB and RCSD top admin. (9/11)
a) Reviewing the Cohort model in elementary schedules for effectiveness and
time concerns.
b) Adding more breaks between classes
c) Pausing on electives for the next week or so until we evaluate the elective
schedule and perhaps contracting with outside agencies to provide optional
enrichment choices for students in the afternoon. If this does not work out,
(Would RCTA be willing to sign an MOU eliminating class size for elective
teachers and PE teachers and possibly making them Pass/No Pass?)
d). No requirements for weekly newsletters or updating of websites. This is
optional for teachers.
2. Climate Committee Meeting on Sept. 21st-expect some answers from the district
Ann, Meaghan, Erinn, Siggy will meet with John Baker and Wendy Kelly
--------- 5:30 pm Motion to increase the meeting 10 more minutes without objections---------
3. Possible cease and desist letter to demand a return to the bargaining table
Tech tools are not working for students, or in large meets. Technology issues are taking up a lot of time, and parents are getting frustrated with teachers who cannot stop to troubleshoot student tech issues during class. Ask your principals for whatever you need. The district is willing to provide and deliver.
Technology issues are not being resolved as quickly as would seem necessary for student success. Teachers are still supporting tech issues because parents/students won’t use tech tickets, or call and are not pleased with lack of urgency.
No or slow responses to tech tickets for teachers
Where are the subscriptions and materials requested for our teachers? Some sites have not received technology such as doc cams, sites/app subscriptions, whiteboards for students, etc.
Wipes/PPE: Aren’t we supposed to have plenty of access to cleaning and PPE supplies?
No, teachers should not have “plenty of access” but rather everything should be stocked.
RSP: Workload is insane especially with these crazy schedules, some are reporting 10 hour work days/7 per week. -must report problems and work on solutions with site admin.
Construction Issues: No Wifi, no running water, loud/disruptive sounds during work day, Copiers not working, limited work space not safe. -some days, you may have to work remotely. You can ask site admin for a different space to work.
Admins pushing out direction to find bilingual supports to support teachers needing help translating. This is solely the responsibility of admin and office staff to help support and/or provide stipends to those being asked to translate. -let site admin know that you do not have the time to do this.
Parents videotaping lessons, students snapchatting during class, parents abusing student email access, parents pushing into video chats. Serious privacy issues. Liz Wolfe has said that the district is addressing these privacy issues, but teachers need to keep their eyes open, and report any misuse of technology by parents or students. We are adding language to Board Policy. Please report to Kyle as he has all of the AUP Agreements families signed.
10. Instructional Assistants: What is their role? CDC reports that there is no need to have 4 adults in a Google Meet for 6 students. Is there a way to be more efficient with IA placements?We don’t have google voice or classroom phones connected on some sites, but are being asked to reach out to parents, yet not given the means to do so if parent does not sign up for Remind, email , etc. In the MOU, teachers are asked to come to campus to use phones until we have this solution fixed. We are getting a new system, Cisco, which is expected to be up and running by the end of September. (also *67 blocks your number)
9. Any current concerns?
10. Site Reps please get your members’ personal email addresses and phone numbers so you can communicate with them about site specific matters.
New members must- join CTA http://join.cta.org/
vote for executive board members
declare candidacy for local RA and State Council positions
Yes on Prop 15
committee survey
--------- 5:40 pm Motion to increase the meeting 10 more minutes NOT APPROVED ---------
Meeting Adjourned at: 5:42 pm
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