Overwhelming Majority of Outstanding SDEA Member Layoffs to Be Rescinded by Tomorrow
Thanks to SDEA and allied community members’ organizing, we’ve been able to reach an agreement with SDUSD on a side letter that will result in the rescinding of 101 of the 108 remaining educator layoff notices! The SDUSD Human Resources Department anticipates to notify all the recalled educators before the end of the day Friday.
The layoffs of educators in the following credential areas will be rescinded:
Multiple Subject
English
Physical Education
Social Science
Counseling
This agreement will maintain stability for our schools. Educators that will be recalled will retain their current assignment if they were not excessed. Those who were excessed, but recalled, will be able to participate in the Post and Bid process to find a new assignment. Here is additional information about the Post and Bid process for this summer.
Multiple subject teachers that were reappointed into ECE positions will maintain their Appendix A level of pay for the 2024-25 school year, and receive priority consideration at the end of next year.
As part of this agreement, those who are excessed and do not find an assignment through Post and Bid by the start of the school year will be placed at high needs schools as additional support. During the 2024-25 school year, members in the additional support positions may be moved a maximum of one time to a newly occurring vacancy if they are qualified to teach in that vacancy. The District may move up to 50 of the least senior unit members who are still in excess after the conclusion of the Post and Bid process on July 30 and who do not have an assignment. This was the agreement we had to reach in order to recall our fellow laid off members.
We anticipate that SDUSD will not reach this number of 50, as there are numerous positions available on Post and Bid, and more retirements are expected. The Superintendent was adamant about this additional flexibility to allow for the movement of some of these individuals to occur throughout the school year without incurring the additional cost of hiring temporary contract staff.
This Side Letter will result in the immediate rescission of the layoffs of 101 union educators! It will also keep our school communities stable for the 2024-25 school year. These incredible gains were not possible without our collective actions. Our school board rally, site based accountability sessions with laid off educators, parent leafleting and signs on the doors of our classrooms throughout the district were the organizing actions that helped move the Superintendent and School Board to reach this agreement with SDEA.
Together We Are Stronger!
No Layoff School Board Action Recap
On March 6th, the SDUSD Board of Education voted to approve issuing preliminary layoff notices to over 200 SDEA unit members. These layoffs are entirely unnecessary, given that the district is set to end this school year with millions of dollars in reserves.
On Tuesday, 3/26, pink-slipped teachers and allies marched into the SDUSD Board Meeting, holding pink pieces of paper with the number of students affected by their individual layoff. We then turned our back on the Board Members for three minutes to represent how they have turned their back on educators, standing up for one second for each school that is going to be impacted by these misguided layoffs. The action was covered by multiple media outlets and SDEA teachers shared how these cuts will have devastating impacts both in and out of the classroom.
After we announced our anti-layoff school board action, over 30 layoff notices were rescinded! And soon, we’ll be out in front of schools throughout the district with flyers, calling on families to join our fight and take action to let the school board members know that we will be forceful in defending our schools and students from these shortsighted and demoralizing layoffs.
John S. Lyons Memorial Foundation Scholarship Program
The John S. Lyons Memorial Foundation Scholarship Program is open and accepting applicants! This is a $5,500 one-time scholarship for high school seniors or college students and the deadline is May 24th.
REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must be a high school senior or college student having graduated from a San Diego or Imperial County school system, whose parent or legal guardian is a member in good standing of any local labor union in San Diego and Imperial Counties. Students must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher (on a 4.0 scale) and participate in community and/or extracurricular activities.
Please see this flyer for information on how to enter.
Great News! The Monthly Benefit for SDUSD Retiree Medical Fund Participants is Increasing
The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) and the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) are pleased to announce an increased monthly benefit for retirees participating in the Retiree Medical Fund.
Effective retroactively to April 1, 2024, the monthly benefit will jump from $375 to $450. This increase comes after a joint recommendation by the SDEA-SDUSD Retiree Medical Trust and an actuarial study that confirmed the fund's solvency. The additional benefit is intended to help retirees offset rising healthcare costs when participating in a VEBA sponsored health benefit plan. Here is a link to the new side letter that allows for this increase of this benefit.
Eligibility to receive this benefit:
- The fund is open to those who have retired with 17 years of service to the SDUSD (excluding unpaid leave).
- They need to be under age 67 and already be receiving a monthly retirement benefit from CalSTRS or CalPERS.
- If they’re 65 or older, they must be enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B.
- They must have been covered under an SDUSD medical plan as an employee immediately before their retirement and have maintained continuous coverage since then.
RESCIND REMAINING LAYOFFS, NOW!
Our collective work to stop layoffs is having a real impact and has resulted in over 80 educators having their notices rescinded. We won’t stop, however, until district leadership rescinds all layoffs and our school communities are protected! While every single layoff notice is unnecessary and harms the educator who received it, some of our schools have been disproportionately impacted.
Linda Vista, Nipaquay, and Oak Park are three elementary schools that have been hit hard by layoff notices. At all three schools this week, SDEA union educators held meetings with school board members to share their stories and to make sure Board members fully understand the impact of their decisions. We demanded that layoff notices are rescinded now, before impacted educators are torn out of their school communities and away from our students.
Linda Vista Elementary - After years of unstable administration that contributed to educator turnover, the staff at Linda Vista are rebuilding their learning community together. Over 30 members of the school community, including educators, parents, and students met with Board member Sabrina Bazzo to walk her through the hard work they have done to rebuild Linda Vista classroom by classroom and day by day.
“Linda Vista Elementary is a special place. I arrived late November of last school year. The class I had inherited had substitute teacher after substitute teacher for nearly two months. The children did not have the social or emotional skills a stable environment would help foster. A majority of them did not even know the alphabet or how to sit properly in a chair at a desk. I advocated to loop up with them for second grade because I believed it would be in their best interests to have one teacher for an entire year. The kids have blossomed. Almost all of them are now reading at grade level. They have fabulous imaginations and love learning. I’ve been an educator for 22 years, was recruited to San Diego Unified and have dedicated myself to Linda Vista. It hurt to receive a layoff notice, of course it did, but I am much more worried about what this means for our community. Layoffs will destroy the stability and trust we’ve built and will only drive more parents away from our schools which is why we are calling on District leaders to do the right thing and rescind the remaining layoffs now.” - Mary Richardson, 1st/2nd Grade Teacher, Linda Vista Elementary.
Oak Park Elementary- Oak Park Elementary staff, inclusive of both SDEA & CSEA members, met with school board member Sharon Whitehurst-Payne to describe the impacts that layoffs would have on the school community. The members who received layoff notices are eagerly anticipating the news of being rescinded, while still providing a nurturing environment with a sense of belonging to each and every one of their students they are responsible to care for. Educators shared how devastating it would be if they were forced to leave SDUSD due to misplaced budget assumptions. With the community watching, they called on Board Member Whitehurst-Payne to use her influence to get the remaining layoff notices rescinded and restore trust in the district.
Nipaquay Elementary - Educators came to work at Nipaquay to build a new school from the ground up, including some with more than 20 years of experience who left stable jobs in other districts to dedicate themselves to realizing the vision of a school that is defined by the spirit of care and community. Nipaquay means "Our Other Home" and the impact of layoffs not being rescinded and close to half of the staff being torn from their students will dismantle the work that has been done to build this safe and stable home. SDEA members at Nipaquay met with Board President Shana Hazen to call on her to commit to doing the right thing by rescinding remaining layoffs now.
“The SDUSD board exists to prioritize the students they were elected to serve. However, Nipaquay will be decimated by the layoffs that are being imposed by the school board. Our community will be torn apart. Hardworking teachers who give more than their all every single day are being pushed out of the door. These are innovative and creative teachers with so much to offer, teachers who are also single parents, new parents, brand new teachers, and teachers with decades of experience. It is within the power of the board to stop these devastating changes and to give SDUSD students what they need, what they deserve. Rescind all layoffs and rescind them immediately.” - Janele Thornton, 3rd Grade Teacher, Nipaquay Elementary
The district has the resources to rescind all remaining layoffs and to do so NOW. Together we will not stop until that happens. School sites heavily impacted by the layoffs are continuing to meet with Board members and our work to bring parents into our collective efforts is happening throughout the district.
Together we are stronger and together we will protect our school communities!
IMPORTANT - Layoff Informational Meetings for Impacted SDEA Members
As we use our collective power as union members to fight unnecessary layoffs, there are also important legal rights and processes that are important to understand once notices have been received. If you are an SDEA member impacted by layoffs, please read this information carefully and make every effort to attend one of upcoming layoff informational meetings.
Informational Meetings Regarding Layoffs
There are two layoff informational meetings that will both be held at your SDEA union hall on March 18 and 19 at 4:30pm. At this meeting, impacted educators will receive important information regarding the layoff process, get questions answered, and have an opportunity to sign up for 1-on-1 meetings to support noticed members who may have violations of either their rights under the Ed. Code and/or SDEA Contract.
Space will be limited to only those members who receive layoff notices.
More information and registration to attend one of the meetings will be forthcoming. Stay tuned!
Union Wide Grievance for Impacted Probationary Status Employees
The processes related to layoffs can be confusing especially as permanent and probationary layoffs are handled differently. Individual members and site reps do not need to file any layoff grievances at the site level. SDEA staff will be filing a union wide grievance on behalf of all probationary status employees that receive a layoff notice. Article 19 of the union contract details the process for layoff of probationary unit members.
CTA Retirement Workshops on March 5, 12 and April 4
You’re never too young or old to learn about your CalSTRS benefits, programs, and services! Register now for upcoming CTA online retirement workshops on March 5, 12 and April 4 from 4:30-6:30PM. Space is limited!
There will be materials and discussion of the CalSTRS retirement benefit formula, options, Defined Benefit Supplemental program, survivor benefits, legislative changes, and Social Security Offsets. See this flyer for more information on the CTA online retirement workshops.
CTA Scholarships and Grants
CTA has a variety of grants and scholarships available to members and their dependents. Applications are available online at www.cta.org/scholarships. The CTA Institute for Teaching Grant deadline is March 31, 2024 for either an Educator Grant (up to $5,000) or an Impact Grant (up to $20,000 for teams of educators). The LGBTQ+ Safety in Schools Grant & Scholarship Program deadline is May 31, 2024.Questions? Email scholarships@cta.org
Update on 2023-24 SPED Caseload Overage Grievance
Earlier this school year, SDEA staff filed a unionwide SPED caseload overage grievance. The goal of this grievance is to remedy the overages from the 11th day of school to the point in which an Ed. Specialist’s caseload is at or below their caseload capacity. At this time, there is no need to file separate grievances at school sites on caseload overages.
SDEA staff have continued to meet with the District, not only to reach a 2023-24 grievance settlement, but also to analyze the efficacy of Section 3 in last year’s caseload grievance settlement. This section was added to last year's settlement as a preventative measure, in hopes of avoiding the accompanying workload increases due to caseload overages in the 2023-2024 school year.
While we continue this process, if you are experiencing overages, please document your caseload by saving weekly, timestamped PowerSchool reports and tracking any sort of support you receive from the Compliance Team.
Flood Damage Relief
Historic rainfall, San Diego’s aging drainage system and blockages along waterways led to flooding of our classrooms and neighborhoods on Monday. Were any of your personal electronics, instructional materials, books, supplies, vehicle or classroom furniture damaged due to flooding at your school? If so, per our contract, you can be reimbursed up to $1500 by submitting this completed form to SDUSD Risk Management. Your home or renters insurance can also potentially cover flood damage to personal property that occurred at your school. Was your home damaged or were you displaced from your home? SDEA members are eligible for CTA Disaster Relief grants. Want to contribute to the CTA Disaster Relief Fund? Donate here.