Leave Benefit Available to Members Who Have Tested Positive for COVID
If a member tests positive for COVID, they are eligible for special leave that will not be deducted from their leave balances. This COVID leave is something we won as a union and is contained in our agreement to reopen for this school year.
According to our COVID agreement, members are required to submit documentation of a positive COVID test result in order to access paid COVID leave.
If you have tested positive for COVID (rapid antigen or PCR), you should report your results to SDUSD Nursing & Wellness. SDUSD employees should use this form to report positive COVID test results, symptoms, and close contacts. Once this information is received, you will be contacted with guidance on your individual case.
Visiting Teacher Update
Over the past couple of months, SDEA member leaders have been speaking with District leadership about the impact of the visiting teacher shortage on educators and classrooms across the district. Thank you to those who have provided information about people they know who are having trouble navigating the application process. I have forwarded that information to Supt. Jackson and other District leaders. HR is following up with those who have shared concerns about the process. If you have knowledge of someone who is having trouble with the application process, please complete this form.
To address the visiting teacher shortage in another way, our Union has proposed that the District increase VT pay in the hopes of recruiting more VTs. The District has federal COVID relief funds to pay for the cost of this increase. The proposal specifically goes towards increasing the rate of pay for long-term and day-to-day substitutes like last school year. The goal is to have these rates in place by the start of January 2022. We will keep you updated on the District's response.
SDEA/SDUSD Joint Special Education Committee Update
A team of SDEA educator leaders meets monthly with the District’s Special Education leadership as a joint Special Education committee to discuss strategies to alleviate educator workload. The role of this committee has taken on additional importance this year as we absorb the impact of vacancies of classified and certificated special education positions that have been driven by the pandemic.
SDEA special education site leaders and SDEA members of the committee met last week to brainstorm on appropriate educator roles within the district’s learning loss recovery support process that intends to address lack of student growth on goals due to the school shutdown last school year and current staffing shortages. We then advocated for the implementation of these collectively developed measures at our monthly meeting. Action items from our meeting on Monday are: 1) the district will release guidelines on developing site plans for learning loss recovery support that can inform decisions at IEP meetings and 2) the district and SDEA will send a joint communication to case managers clarifying that the staffing shortage leading to students’ Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI) hours not being met does not equate to case managers being responsible for taking on all the extra work that this generates for students on their caseload.
A Big Win for Senior SLPs and Senior School Psychologists
A Big Win for SDEA - Senior SLPs and Senior School Psychologists Have Been Restored After Union Members Took Fight All the Way to the State’s Public Employee Relations Board!
Last school year, SDEA members in the Speech-Language Pathology and School Psychology departments were unceremoniously notified via email that the District would eliminate the Senior Speech-Language Pathologist and Senior School Psychologist positions starting in the 2020-2021 school year. With the support of a CTA attorney, SDEA member leaders Sarah Darr (Millennial Tech Middle & Scripps Ranch High School) and Michelle Crisci (NPS), along with SDEA Organizer Sara Holerud, worked together to file both a grievance and an Unfair Practice Charge through the California Public Employee Relations Board challenging the District’s unilateral action.
The senior positions that the District eliminated are identified in our union contract. Because of that, the District cannot eliminate whole job classes without first negotiating with the members of SDEA.
Because of our charge at the state, SDEA’s team entered into mediation with the District in August 2021. With the help of a state appointed mediator, members were able to reach an Agreement that is a definite win for our schools and members.
The mediated agreement restores the senior positions back to the levels they were at in the 2019-2020 school year.
Members who previously held Senior SLP and Senior School Psychologist positions, who still had time left on their 3-year rotation, will be offered their positions back to finish out their terms. The remaining FTE will be posted internally in both departments as vacancies to allow new candidates to apply.
In addition to the restoration of senior positions, SDEA’s team was also able to negotiate job responsibilities for the senior positions. This will help fine tune the responsibilities of the members holding the Senior School Psychologist and Senior Speech-Language Pathologist positions to the needs of our schools. In short, senior positions will no longer perform administrative work or clerical tasks and will be used to support and be a resource to SLPs and School Psychologists at comprehensive sites, in addition to supporting their departments.
This is a major win for members who will once again have the support of Senior SLPs and Senior School Psychologists to support them in using best practices and performing their jobs to support our students effectively!
Visiting Teacher Shortage
Members have shared concerns around the difficulties in securing a visiting teacher for absences and leaves. Our union negotiated the Resident Visiting Teacher agreement which has brought a lot of support to our school sites. However, the problem is still persistent. SDEA will engage with the District again on this topic and work towards further solutions that will hopefully bring more visiting teachers into our system.
In the meantime, a recent executive order from the governor’s office allows for recent retirees to work as a visiting teacher without having to wait out the traditional 6 month period. If you know of any recent retirees who may be interested in working as a visiting teacher, please encourage them to apply using this link.
The Fight is On to Defend Temporary Employees’ Rights!
After an investigation conducted by SDEA staff found that SDUSD may be abusing a provision of state law that allows school districts to hire teachers on temporary contracts. We are taking action through our attorney. Our attorney has notified SDUSD’s attorney in writing that the District may be in violation of state law by employing some teachers as temporary instead of probationary.
Possibly Running Afoul of the Law
The California Education Code allows Districts to hire certificated employees on temporary contracts, but only in limited circumstances. Others must be classified as probationary or permanent, both of which afford greater job security than temporary employment.
SDEA staff recently concluded a year-long look into temporary employment practices in SDUSD. The initial finding indicates that nearly a quarter of the 509 temporary employees towards the end of the 2020-21 school year may not have been appropriately identified as temporary.
Why So Many Temporary Contracts?
Hiring teachers as temporary is necessary to replace teachers on leave and those who are working in positions that have short term funding. However, sometimes district administration takes advantage of this framework to hire more than the acceptable number of temporary employees. Districts have fewer obligations to temporary employees. It’s easier to cut temporary employees. And employees who worry about their job security are less likely to stand up at work.
What should I do if I am on a temporary contract, or was last year?
Wait for further updates on this effort in future Union Notes emails and other union updates. If you’re not a member, make sure to join so that if you have a potential legal issue with your contract our union attorneys can support you.
What can I do to support the fight for temporary employees’ rights?
Teachers are only able to mount this fight because we are a union. If teachers were not organized as a union, each temporary teacher would have to get their own attorney and fund their own legal effort. Both the year-long investigation and the legal action is funded by dues-contributing members of SDEA. If you’re not yet a member of SDEA, now is the time to join. The District knows how many of us are members of SDEA, and when all of us are members, that sends a message that educators are united and we have power.
District Fights to Shortchange ECE Teachers on Their Pay
Union Takes Case Before an Arbitrator
In 2018, Emmanuel Francouis, a veteran SDEA member and Early Childhood Education teacher noticed a peculiar discrepancy in his pay. Despite being employed by SDUSD for over 30 years he was not receiving his longevity pay. That didn’t make sense, so he worked with his SDEA AR and Contract Specialist to determine if there was something wrong with his situation. What they discovered unearthed a systemic underpayment system by SDUSD for veteran ECE teachers and it kicked off an excessively litigious grievance between the union and SDUSD.
In the 2019 round of bargaining, the union won longevity pay for all regular SDEA unit members. However, for ECE teachers that longevity pay had been in the contract going back at least two decades. In 2016, the union won a change to the contract that allowed ECE teachers to get to the top of the salary schedule by year 17, thereby guaranteeing higher career earnings. This change also aligned the ECE pay with that of other SDEA members who also topped out at 17 steps.
When that change occurred, the District unilaterally decided the longevity pay that was in place for many decades for ECE teachers would cease to be paid in addition to the regular salary of ECE teachers. Instead the district paid the longevity on Steps 16 and 17 of the ECE salary schedule. This seemingly benign change meant that a group of teachers who are the lowest paid SDEA members, and predominately made up of women of color, were now being shortchanged in some cases over $200 a month of pay that they were due from the District. That’s because the District is arguing that an unwritten practice somehow allows them to roll the longevity pay for this group, and this group only, into the regular steps of the contract. A practice that other higher compensated SDEA members do not have to live under.
After Mr. Francouis discovered this discrepancy he filed a grievance, and so began a 3-year grievance saga that was finally heard by an arbitrator last month. Although the grievance was initially filed in August of 2018, the District’s legal and labor relations offices, which have inexplicably grown despite the overall size of the District shrinking, took many steps to try to ensure that the grievance didn’t make it before a neutral arbitrator.
SDEA, working with a CTA attorney, was successful in getting the matter before an arbitrator last month. A decision on the case is expected in November; however, Mr. Francouis, the member who first discovered the contract violation, passed away in the intervening years since the grievance was started.
Safety Concern Reporting Platform
As a reminder, members can report safety concerns by submitting a report to the District’s Physical Plant Operations Department. This includes concerns about PPE supplies, lack of air purifiers, etc. Submit your report to https://pposervices.sandi.net/home.html. You must be on the District network to access the reporting platform.
Defending Temporary Employees' Rights
An investigation conducted by SDEA staff found that SDUSD may be abusing a provision of state law that allows school districts to hire teachers on temporary contracts. We are taking action through our attorney. Our attorney has notified SDUSD’s attorney in writing that the District may be in violation of state law by employing some teachers as temporary instead of probationary
POSSIBLY RUNNING AFOUL OF THE LAW
The California Education Code allows Districts to hire certificated employees on temporary contracts, but only in limited circumstances. Others must be classified as probationary or permanent, both of which afford greater job security than temporary employment.
SDEA staff recently concluded a year-long look into temporary employment practices in SDUSD. The initial finding indicates that nearly a quarter of the 509 temporary employees towards the end of the 2020-21 school year may have been inappropriately identified as temporary
WHY SO MANY TEMPORARY CONTRACTS?
Hiring teachers as temporary is necessary to replace teachers on leave and those who are working in positions that have short term funding. However, sometimes district administration takes advantage of this framework to hire more than the acceptable number of temporary employees. Districts have fewer obligations to temporary employees. It’s easier to cut temporary employees. And employees who worry about their job security are less likely to stand up at work.
Resident Visiting Teacher Program
In order to ensure that there are sufficient visiting teachers in place at schools, SDEA has been pushing the District to again increase the pay for visiting teachers. We now have a side letter agreement with the District that does just that. This new agreement increases visiting teacher pay to $285 to visiting teachers who commit to be assigned to a school site every day for the remainder of the school year. Schools may select these Resident Visiting Teachers from the District’s eligible Visiting Teachers pool. Sites may receive additional Resident Visiting Teachers based on their substitute fill rate, and student enrollment.