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The Vallejo Education Association (VEA) is the exclusive representative of all the certificated employees in the Vallejo City Unified School District. Day 8 - Bargaining Update
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Good news! The District has withdrawn its proposal to increase our workday to a 7-1/2 hour day. Our work day will remain at 6.5 hours. We also agreed to extend our current contract from June 30, 2008 to December 1, 2008. Some progress was made on Article 8: Transfer and Reassignment. We also discussed Article 5: Hours. No agreement has been reached on full day Kindergarten. The school year will begin with ½ day Kindergarten. Our next scheduled meeting with the District will take place on September 10th . Remember to wear your VEA t-shirt on all bargaining days. Enjoy your summer! Working Harder for Less? It's day 7 of negotiations, the District placed a miniscule economic proposal on the table, which for some unit members would result in a significant decrease in expendable dollars. The District spent a great deal of time in the morning talking about full-day Kindergarten offering no concrete plan, expecting kindergarten teachers to come in during the summer months to help develop the program. Compensation for kindergarten teachers was only offered after VEA raised the issue about compensation for summer work. It was suggested that larger class sizes would save the District money in order to offer a salary increase. This proposal would eliminate teaching positions. In another swipe at teachers, it was also stated that teachers were abusing sick leave and actually had a higher absentee rate than students. It was the position of the District that by reducing the amount of subs needed, more money "might" be available. VEA had proposed a mediation step in the Grievance Procedure which could save VEA and the District thousands of dollars in arbitration expenses. This proposal would (both) expedite grievances as it would add another step prior to moving a grievance to arbitration and it would have zero fiscal impact. The District rejected this proposal. A tentative agreement was reached on Article 9: Safety. Bargaining will resume on Wednesday, June 25. Two Year Calendar Ratified This past Friday and Monday, elections were held on the tentative agreement that had been reached with the District. With 380 votes in favor and 185 opposed, the two year calendar was ratified. The first student day for the 2008-09 school year is August 20th. New calendar will be posted on this site as soon as they are ready. No Bull Afternoon Negotiations with the District were off to a rocky start with very little progress made in the morning. After the abrupt departure of Dr. Bull, negotiations went much more smoothly in the afternoon. VEA and VCUSD opened discussions on Article 8, Transfer and Reassignment; Article 9, Safety; and Article 17, Grievance. Ongoing dialogue on these articles will continue when we next meet on June 17 th . Progress Made! Progress was made on today's negotiations with the District. VEA and the District were able to tentatively agree on a total of six articles – a quarter of our contract. We tentatively agreed on the following articles: 1, 2, 4, 16, 19, and 23. Overall, the day was productive with VEA and the District working together. We will meet again next Wednesday. Continue to show your support by wearing your white on Wednesdays! Tentative Agreement Reached! VEA and VCUSD reached a tentative agreement on K-12 school calendars for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. After three full days of bargaining with the District, we reached a tentative agreement on calendars for two years. This agreement includes an increase to $250 for each of the three voluntary staff development/buyback days. The agreement also includes one full day of uninterrupted classroom preparation time at the beginning of the school year with a ½ day of uninterrupted classroom preparation time on the last work day of the school year. We will get copies of the calendar at school sites by next week. Now that we have an agreement on K-12, VEA and VCUSD will meet with Adult School and Child Development Centers to work on their calendars. Information about calendar ratification by VEA unit members will be available soon. Day 3 - VEA/VCUSD Negotiations STALL . . . STALL . . . STALL . . . VEA and VCUSD were scheduled to meet for 7 hours in negotiations to try to and get a calendar for the 2008 to 2009 school year. Out of the 6 available hours to bargain this important issue, VEA was kept waiting for 5 of the 6 hours. With only 21 school days left, we still do not know when school will start. TICK . . . TICK . . . TICK . . . Time is running out. You still need to vote on a calendar. However, you don't have one to vote on! Reminder! Wear your BLUE on Monday to support CSEA and WHITE on Wednesday to support VEA. Look for new ribbons from your action team member. Blog your thoughts on negotiations by going to the VEA Blog! Day 2 - VEA/VCUSD Negotiations On Wednesday, April 30th, your Bargaining team met with the District to discuss the calendar and buy back days for the 2008 to 2009 school year. While the Bargaining team gave proposals to the District over the calendar and attempted in good faith to reach an agreement, we later learned that the District was merely exchanging “concepts” and not proposals. It is the opinion of the Bargaining Team that the District engaged in regressive bargaining when their last “concept” was significantly less than their previous “concept.” As of April 30 th , we still do not have an agreement on the 2008 to 2009 calendar. Our next bargaining session is scheduled for May 7 th . Bargaining Team Meets with District On Wednesday, April 16, 2008, the Bargaining Team met for the first time with the District to begin the negotiation process. At this first meeting, both sides were able to go over their prospective proposals. The next date that Bargaining has to meet with the District is on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. VEA Steps into the Blog-o-Sphere! We are excited to announce that we have set up blog for our VEA members. Blogs are a very interactive forum in which issues can be posted and discussed. Our VEA Blog can be found by pointing your browser to http://www.myvea.org/wordpress. Please be sure to drop by and post a comment. Bargaining & Action You may now e-mail the Bargaining and Action Teams directly with your questions and concerns. Look under "Contacts" on the left-hand side of this page and click one of the e-mail links. This will open your e-mail program. Got Something to Tell Us? We are interested in what you have to say! 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Christal Watts, Webmaster; A. Malchiodi, Graphic Design, Copyright VEA 2004