Mask Mandate
On Monday, the state announced that we will move from required masking indoors in schools to strongly recommending masks indoors in schools as of March 11th.
Reaction to this announcement will be mixed. While some educators are ready to immediately remove their masks, others have remaining health concerns and are extremely cautious. Educators will be dealing with all reactions in their classrooms. We must also not forget the needs of students with disabilities or those who are medically fragile.
The state’s announcement also said that school districts have the authority to decide what the mask mandate should look like beyond March 11th within their districts. Also, our safety agreement with the District requires that the District apply the highest minimum standards in all matters related to our response to COVID-19. As they have throughout the pandemic, San Diego Unified has consulted with experts at UCSD on the indicators for a safe, science-based relaxation of masking indoors in schools and it’s important to do that now as well. Stay tuned for further updates.
Educators Applaud Supplemental COVID Sick Leave Agreement
BURLINGAME – California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd, a kindergarten educator, released the following statement applauding the agreement announced Tuesday that will provide much-needed supplemental paid COVID sick leave for California workers:
“We commend Governor Newsom, ProTem Toni Atkins and Speaker Anthony Rendon for hearing the pleas of workers throughout the state calling for much-needed supplemental paid sick leave. The fast-spreading Omicron COVID-19 variant has brought unprecedented challenges to our schools and colleges as thousands of students and educators have tested positive or fallen ill with COVID. This has put undue pressure on teachers and school employees faced with having to choose between going without pay or spreading the virus to their school communities. Most educators receive a finite number of sick days per school year. When those days are gone, they are gone. This leave will allow school employees to quarantine, recover, and return to their students and classrooms. The agreement announced today is the fruits of our collective labor as educators, labor partners and state leaders committed to the health and well-being of California workers.”
All Hands-on Deck and Elimination of Non-Essential Workload
Member leaders have asked the District to put in place a plan that ensures that all available staff, including administration, are deployed to cover classes and to minimize the warehousing of students in large groups or provide adequate supervision when there is no other option but to warehouse students.
Additionally,
SDEA member leaders met with District leadership about educator workload and
District initiatives that could be suspended this year, including:
- Non-essential assessments and professional development being eliminated for the remainder of this school year.
- All site pilot projects that were not approved by the SGT must either be stopped or reviewed for approval by the SGT.
- Any scheduled PLCs that are not teacher directed should cease.
Substitute Teacher Pay Improvements Won!
In order to improve Visiting Teacher staffing, we have just won the highest pay for substitute teachers in the whole county! These new rates are effective retroactive to January 3, 2022 and will be in place for the remainder of this school year.
Read the new substitute teacher
pay agreement here.
Also, if you know
someone wanting to work as a substitute teacher, send them this link so
they can apply.
Together We are Stronger!
We are able to win the
highest paid substitute rates, and other protections because we are a strong
union! Are you a member? If not, here is a membership
form link you can use to join.
COVID Testing
In addition to weekly school site testing, SDUSD employees and students are able to obtain a COVID test from the Ed Center Monday-Friday from 7am-7pm and on the weekends from 8am-5pm.
Members can also go to the UCSD Health Drive-Up testing centers. Info on the UCSD testing centers can be found here. Make sure to read the directions carefully to make your reservation. Other testing opportunities can be found here and here.
Members have reported long lines and unavailable testing windows at the district sites and through UCSD respectively. This is a result of the severe need for testing at this time due the surge in COVID cases. Increased testing capacity is an important element of addressing these issues with at least one new testing location coming online next week according to SDUSD Director of Nursing and Wellness.
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.