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Rep Council Meeting

Highlights

February 9, 2006

REPORTS

State Council

State Council voted on the endorsements for State offices at the last meeting. Rep Council had asked that the State Council Reps address the Council and let them know our concerns about State Supt. of Public Instruction, Jack O'Connell, regarding what is going on in Vallejo . Janice Sullivan did address the Council. The Council postponed, again, the vote of endorsement for O'Connell.

Some people asked about the dues increase of $60/year, for 3 years, to pay for the campaign we had to wage against Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Propositions. That $60/year ($6 per month) was a commitment that we voted on to fund the campaign. The accounting on the campaign expenditures is going to be published soon. If there needs to be an adjustment on the dues assessment, that will happen after the report is issued.

Conferences

Katherine Catanzarite reported that all of the slots that were allocated for the Equity & Human Rights Conference and the Urban Issues Conference have been filled. People who are going to these conferences have the responsibility of reporting back to us about their participation at the conference(s).

Treasurer's

The budget committee will be meeting next week at Hogan. We will have more details about the VEA budget after that meeting.

Grievance

If people are still having heating problems at their school, they need to contact Linda Casale at Vallejo Middle School .

Cleaning Committee (Teresa Morgan was not able to attend the meeting but wanted this report included).

The committee has met several times. People need to continue to turn in the “Condition of Classroom” reports, as those are what the cleaning committee is looking at. Since not many forms have been turned in, the Maintenance Department thinks that there are not many problems.

Calendar Committee

440 surveys were turned in. All of the calendars have to be negotiated with the District, so the survey is just to give us direction on what we want. From the surveys that were received, the calendar committee has compiled the data and will be sitting down with the District early in March.

President's

Reps received a school roster of unit members that VEA has located at their site. Reps are asked to review the list and use the pink sheet to add or delete any people on their roster. Members on leave should be indicated as on “Leave of Absence” (LOA) on the pink sheet. Updated rosters need to be returned to us (Janice Sullivan @ VEA—through district mail) by 2/21.

Reps were given enough “Safety Palm Pamphlets” for their school sites. Labels with phone numbers were also provided and should be placed on the back of the safety pamphlets before distributing them at their school sites. This pamphlet is the work of the School Safety committee at State Council.

Janice announced that she was meeting with Dee Alarcon, Superintendent of Schools for Solano County , on Friday. She asked reps to write down any questions/comments that they had for Ms. Alarcon and Janice would take them to the meeting.

Your salary protection plan and/or disability plan may have the wrong amount of money being deducted. The premiums on these plans (UnumProvident and American Fidelity) plans have not been updated for several years. The premiums are based on your salary and this information has not been updated by the District with the companies. If would be a good idea, if you have one of these plans, to get in touch with your agent. UnumProvident's agent for our area is Leo Sypert at 800-282-4049. American Fidelity's agent, Beverly Howard, is available at 365-6231.

Secondary schools are starting Opportunity Programs at their sites. These programs have very definite specifications for their functioning and are not to be used simply as a “dumping ground” for students. If you are interested in the limitations and purpose of this program, please contact Janice for more information.

The 4/5 prep program is starting back up the week of 2/13. The District is hiring a sufficient number of prep teachers to make sure that all of our 4/5 teachers get the 1800 minutes that they are guaranteed in our contract. It will be important for each teacher to keep track of the prep time that they receive to make sure that they get the 1800 minutes. The prep teachers are supposed to “carry on” the LA program for you. The prep teachers will receive some training in the LA program but probably not before they begin their job. It is also important that the 4/5 teachers actually leave their classrooms during the prep time so that they actually get their prep time. If they don't leave, they will get “pulled in” to dealing with stuff.

The rate of pay grievance has been moved to arbitration and the date for that is in July. This grievance includes any and all work done beyond the duty day/year that is training/work that is required of teachers to perform their job. If you have already received pay for this at the rate of $19.43 per hour, and VEA prevails in the arbitration, teachers will be compensated for the difference.

Janice will be checking on how much the State is giving to the District for the AB466 training. We do know that money has been made available for the training and in most districts teachers are being paid a stipend to do the additional 80 hours of work that is required.

Benefit Deductions

Rep Council spent some time going over the formula for the monthly deductions that are now being made for the health benefits. The sheet that we worked is enclosed. Reps should set aside some time to go over these deductions with the teachers at their site so that everyone understands why and how the deductions are done.