I just found out yesterday that some parts of ConnectEd files are being deleted and some of you were FREAKING OUT.  You spend your valuable time (didn’t we just talk about that) creating materials trying to help students learn not just for this year, and then it’s purged.  Who wants to start from scratch every year?  About three hours of my release time yesterday was devoted to this issue.  As of now…

1. custom assessments that were created, stay with the teacher and will not be deleted.
2. What does get deleted are any student scores associated with assessments from previous school years.  
3. If the teacher copied their planner from an existing class during the setup wizard (in Wonders) then the previous customized lesson presentations from the class they copied from are carried over to the new class. Most teachers do copy from an existing class because it’s an easier process.
4. The district will send out another email updating this issue. The purge has been put on hold until all the questions are answered.
5. If you ask me questions about this, I can’t answer them cuz that’s all I know!  😊

The MEA Bargaining Team would like your input on what we should bargain this year.  Salary and benefits is closed for the next two years, meaning we can’t bring that up unless new money shows up in the district’s coffers.  Remember, we bargained 85% of cola goes into our pockets.  2% will go on salary, and the remaining dollars will go on health care.  So, my question for you is…anything else in the contract you would like us to bring up?

​Some new events have been added to our Member Free Fun in this order…Manteca Pumpkin Fair, Manteca Dining Hall, and Bowling Night, Christmas Parade.  Editorial blurb… working the Fair, St. Mary’s Dining Hall, and the Parade Fair helps us to build allies in the community.  When we need their help during negotiations, they know what we’ve done for the community, and not just teaching their kids.  Plus, it makes you feel pretty damn good afterwards.  Click here to sign up for any of our free events!
 

1. MEA Pumpkin Fair Booth, you volunteer an hour or two to help children work on arts and crafts projects and pass out flyers on tips for parents to help their child learn.  Super easy!
2. St. Mary's Dining Hall, you volunteer two hours to feed the homeless at St. Mary's Dining Hall in Stockton.  A rewarding experience to remind all of us during the holiday season how much we TRULY have to be thankful for.
3. Bowling Night, 2 hours of free bowling including shoe rental and a $5 credit on any food or drink purchased.

​Dear Members:
 
Well, WE did it! Thanks to all of you for taking action and making your voices heard on behalf of the students you work for and with each and every day. Our collective hard work led to the OVERWHELMING passage of legislation that protects students, fixes 27-year-old broken charter laws, guarantees educators paid parental leave and much more. Give yourselves a round of applause!  👏👏  Gov. Newsom has until Oct. 13 to act on the bills that cleared the legislature and are now on his desk.

Bills We PASSED ✅
 
Charter Bills
AB 1505 allows local school boards to consider the fiscal impact of charter petitions, ensures every student has a credentialed teacher in the classroom, and holds all taxpayer-funded charter schools to the same high standards as public schools. AB 1505 was written by Assembly Member (and Long Beach high school educator) Patrick O’Donnell.
AB 1507 requires charter schools to operate within the boundaries of the district that approved it. This was REALLY important.
 
Parental Leave
CTA-priority bill AB 500 by Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez requires K-14 districts to provide certificated and classified employees paid leave for a length to be determined between the employee and their doctor for a minimum of six weeks for pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth and recovery.  That’s in addition to using your sick leave or unpaid leave.
 
A bill we DEFEATED ❌
AB 1078 (Weber): Extends the probationary period for certificated educators to 3 years. Weber is a Democrat and a college professor in San Diego.  At one time, she proposed a FIVE-year probationary period for new teachers which CTA fought and defeated like this one.
 
Need your help on this one.
After midnight, the Assembly passed Senator Anthony Portantino’s school start time bill, SB 328 , which CTA opposes. SB 328 has elementary starting some time before 830am and high school starting some time after 830am.  There is plenty of research that shows elementary kids learn better earlier in the day.  The same research shows that high school students learn better later in the day. However, SB 328 is a bad bill because not all school districts are equal and would place financial and athletic program impacts on individual school districts.  CTA supports each school district deciding what is best for their students.  Send Gov. Newsom an email today and urge him to veto SB 328 and ask him to sign these other bills that we support. 

Next week is our MEA Rep Council Meeting at 4:15pm on Wednesday, September 18.  You’re always welcome to attend.  Food, fun, and prizes as we support each other in our profession.

Paint Night is Thursday October 3rd, starting at 5 pm at the MEA office. 

I will let you know next week when you can sign up.  Paint Night includes dinner, raffle, cold beverages good times, and of course all the materials needed to create your painting. 

​We will have two Paint Nights this year as demand required it.  However, you may attend only one Paint Night.  The other Paint Night is tentatively scheduled for January.

Download the scholarship form for you to attend CTA conferences with conference registration, meals, and half the cost of a hotel room paid!  Go with a friend and share the room or you can have the room to yourself but you would have to pay the other half yourself.  Check the flyer for more details.

1. New Educator Conference is for, you guessed it, new educators!  New educators are classified as having 3 years or less teaching experience.
2. Good Teaching Conference is for…anyone!

The question I get most often is regarding leaves.  Sick leave, personal leave, special purpose leave, bereavement leave…the list goes on and on.  How about if we get ten days of leave, and WE choose how to use it?   Oh Spunky, you are quite the optimist.  

Sick leave can’t be used fraudulently.  If it is discovered(usually because you told someone or posted on social media while at your nephew’s wedding, etc…), they can dock you a day’s pay for every day misused. You’d be surprised how often that happens.  Hate to say this, but I know of a person who was terminated by a school district for this because it is considered a fraudulent use of taxpayer money.  

Like our students…”I just told my best friend…”  Yea, well, your friend won’t knowingly betray you, but it might slip out in casual conversation.

On the district website, there is a VERY clear explanation of how leaves can be used.  This information is also in the contract, but it is nowhere near as clear as the district website.   Favorite place this link, read it over, test tomorrow.  Wait, test Thursday because I only send emails on Tuesday/Thursday.  Looks like I received a failing grade from myself.

​Last thing… Friday is a flex minimum day for elementary.  It is a training/staff meeting day for secondary.  Some people like to take the entire day off as sick leave knowing they won’t get docked in the afternoon.  We made that deal with the district AS LONG AS IT ISN’T ABUSED BY MEMBERSHIP.  I am placing emphasis on that because they can take that deal back.  Notice we didn’t have a minimum flex on the Friday before Labor Day?  Exactly.

​I lied…last last thing…I bet you’re wondering when our first Paint Night is going to be.  Thursday, I’ll tell you.  Ya, I said first Paint Night.  We’re going to have two.  Have a GREAT Tuesday!

A reminder that we are having a Standard Disability Insurance Open Enrollment all throughout the month of October. That means, during October, you can join Standard Disability with no health questions or exam being required.  You have a previous condition?  No problem.  You’re pregnant?  No problem.  You’re having surgery next week?  No problem. 

​The terms of this plan was actually written by CTA, and Standard agreed to implement it.  More on all of that as we get closer.  I’ll visit the sites with Suzanne, our Standard rep.

Hope you had a great three-day Labor Day weekend!

My mom (nurse) and pops (plumber) were both union folks as well as veterans of WWII.  Unions help everyone, not just union workers. However, unions are under attack today as you know by corporate America.  They don’t like that we speak out when something is wrong or unsafe.  They certainly don’t like paying us a living wage with health benefits.  So many have sacrificed to get our wages and benefits where they are today. 

​These two female teachers were pregnant and on strike in 1975…I can’t even imagine that…for obvious reasons.  Click the photo for the story.

Did you Know...

1. In 1895, CTA supported the first class-size reduction law, limiting the number of students in a class to 80.
2. In 1911,  At CTA’s urging, free textbooks are printed and distributed at state expense.
3. In 1910, CTA calls for the creation of teacher’s pension system which leads to the creation of CalSTRS in 1913.
4. In 1927,  CTA wins legal victory when state Supreme Court rules that a school board cannot fire a female teacher simply because she got married.
5. Those of you that take students or your children to Columbia for a field trip, CTA leads the successful campaign to preserve the historic Gold Rush-era schoolhouse in 1960.  Hundreds of thousands of school children give their pennies, nickels and dimes to the project, raising $40,000 altogether, while CTA contributes $30,000 to finish the job.
6. 1988 – CTA writes Proposition 98 and wins passage at the ballot box which guarantees a minimum portion of state money to fund K-14 education.

 
Martin Luther King once said, “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome."