SDEA Members—

Yesterday Superintendent Bill Kowba sent all of us an email doing exactly what I suggested he would in my own email to you last week: He has begun to call for deep contract concessions based on unknown budget numbers, and is threatening extensive layoffs that he knows are damaging to our students and our school communities if we do not concede. The reason the District’s actions have grown so easy to predict is that this is the fifth year in a row of the exact same behavior:

1. The District lacks comprehensive and reliable budget information in the spring.
2. The District picks and chooses from what unreliable information does exist to paint a portrait of the worst-case scenario for our schools.
3. The District issues extensive unnecessary layoffs based on their concocted worst-case scenario.
4. The District insists that they will not be able to recall the layoffs without contract concessions.
5. Schools open in the fall, and the District recalls the layoffs without the “needed” contract concessions.

If Kowba’s demands sound familiar, they should. His email yesterday calls for deferring our fairly negotiated raises, extending furlough days, salary rollbacks, “reshaping” health benefit contributions, and contingencies around budget changes. These concessions, Kowba claims, are necessary if layoffs are to be avoided. Just last June, School Board members Richard Barrera and Scott Barnett called for the continuation of furlough days, indefinite deferral of the salary increases, and “working with unions to explore savings in health benefit plans” (click here to download the June memo). Last June, just as now, our District leaders told us layoffs simply could not be avoided unless we conceded to their demands. And yet of the original 1,349 certificated pink slips issued last year, fewer than 200 educators remain in layoff status (and many of those have received and declined recall).

The only thing that differentiates this year from the preceding years is that the California budget has begun to actually look up for San Diego’s schools and students. Just this morning, Governor Jerry Brown gave his “State of the State” address, which he opened with the proclamation that “California is on the mend.” Brown’s address further underscored that reality for San Diego’s schools in particular. Among the many facts that Kowba failed to mention in his email is that Brown’s budget replaces the current categorical funding model with a weighted formula wherein districts with high proportions of low-income students and English learners may receive even more funding. According to the Sacramento Bee:

“Specifically, for every dollar districts receive for a student, they would get an additional 37 cents if the student were poor and/or an English learner. Districts with large concentrations of these disadvantaged students would receive extra funding on top of that.”

This, of course, is on the heels of the good news that our schools will not face feared mid-year cuts this year, and will receive additional monies based on the elimination of redevelopment agencies. And our District knows full well that they are not anywhere near insolvency or a “state takeover.” Seven school districts in our County just gave themselves “qualified” fiscal certifications (the first step on the road to insolvency). Our District was not one of them. The bottom line is this: As is always the case in January, the District simply does not know what their financial reality will be for the next school year, let alone the year after that. Unfortunately, these facts don’t match the District’s five-year-old playbook, and so are omitted from Kowba’s “four budget realities.”

Tempting though it is to engage in a point-by-point argument (for example, the District is projecting with certitude a $125 million hole for 2013-2014, despite only learning a few weeks ago what their definitive budget would be for our current school year), we educators need to be the ones who lead in refocusing our elected leaders on the one true priority: our students. In three pages, Kowba uses the word “budget” thirty-three times. He uses the word “students” only once. It is difficult to take a Superintendent seriously in his assertions that he wants to bring long-term stability to our schools when his only proposals are to either dismiss 1,000+ educators or render the compensation for our profession so untenable that no one will want to enter it in the first place. That is not the “stability” our students deserve.

In the end, the conversation comes down to trust. How can we trust a District that picks and chooses the “facts” it uses to portray its fiscal reality? How can we trust a District when it seeks to negotiate “contingency language” with employee unions, but won’t even honor the contingency language that we already have in our contract (as evidenced by the pending arbitration we have with the District to enforce contingency language we negotiated around healthcare savings)? How can we trust a District that changes the shape and size of its budget hole (and its reserve funding) with every new press release? Given that lack of trust, the only responsible course of action is to wait for reliable and accurate information to continue to emerge, and to respond accordingly.

Here is what we do know: Over the past four years, SDEA members have successfully protected our schools and our students by remaining united, not divided, and refusing to submit to cynical attempts on the part of the District to divide and conquer. The months ahead will require that we yet again join together in solidarity to fight for our students and our profession. When we work together with parents, students and the community to advocate for what we know is right, we win every single time.

Together We Are Stronger!

—Bill Freeman, SDEA President

Even District staff have been forced to express some optimism regarding their improving lot, going so far as to call the ruling possible “good news” in the San Diego Union-Tribune. This is a far cry from the shouts of “insolvency” that District leadership propagated over the past several months, leading to an avoidable and unfortunate downgrading of the District’s credit ratings.

Throughout the fall, SDEA leadership has refrained from engaging in guessing games and fortune telling about the District’s financial future, choosing instead to wait for real information and react accordingly. This second piece of promising news in as many months reaffirms that ours is the responsible and reasonable approach. As the District continues its budgeting process for the 2012-2013 school year, we hope that the School Board will join us in basing decisions about the future of our schools and our students on reality, not fear.

Here’s to a strong and successful 2012!

Happy holidays!

The District sent out an email that “requests” that all employees log on to a website to verify seniority dates. SDEA strongly discourages all members from verifying your seniority date. If a site administrator directs (as oppose to requests) that you physically sign a list or document verifying your seniority date, we advise that you write the following statement next to your initials/signature: “I cannot verify this information.”

It is the District’s responsibility to maintain accurate personnel information, not individual employees. Verifying a seniority date, which may later prove inaccurate, could jeopardize our efforts to defend members from layoff procedures.

Due to SDEA staff furlough days on Monday, Nov. 21 through Wednesday, Nov. 23, the SDEA office will be staffed by a skeleton crew for emergency purposes. Non-emergency issues will be addressed when the office reopens fully on Monday, Nov. 28.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Catastrophic Leave Bank provides additional paid sick leave when a member runs out of their own paid sick leave. Thousands of SDUSD employees have donated days since the bank was established in 1999 and hundreds have been the recipients of donated leave.

 But, the bank cannot continue to function without an infusion of new donations. That is where you come in. A one-time donation of a full-salary sick leave makes the employee eligible to receive sick leave credit from the bank. More importantly, it enables the Catastrophic Leave Bank to continue to provide assistance to all those who are in need.

 Please contact your AR or CR for an Enrollment/Donation form -OR- click here to download.  Completed forms must be returned BEFORE December 16, 2011, to Gloria Rangel in SDUSD Human Resources.

Recently, you were notified that your adult student dependent(s) had been removed from the district’s Dental and Vision Plans because their full-time class schedule for the Fall Semester had not been submitted to the Benefits office. We apologize for any stress this notice may have caused you.  While we communicated these new requirements to you previously, we understand that they were not necessarily received and/or understood.

In response, a one-time exception has been granted for this year only.  If your child is between the ages of 19 – 25, is a full-time student, and you can provide the Fall Semester, full-time, class schedule through November 14, 2011, end of the business day, dental and vision benefits will be reinstated for your student(s).

You may either bring the full-time class schedule to the Benefits Office located at 4100 Normal Street, Room 1150-A, San Diego, CA between 1 -5 pm, or you may fax it to 619.725.8132.  Please note that our offices will be closed on Friday, November 11, 2011 in honor of Veterans’ Day.

Once the appropriate class schedule is provided, Dental and Vision benefits will be reinstated.

As stated above, this is a one-time exception.  Going forward, it is essential that a full-time class schedule be submitted to the Benefits Office twice a year:  By September 30 for the Fall Semester and by January 31 for the Spring Semester.  It is the parents’ responsibility to submit these documents; no further reminders will be sent by the District.

We also strongly encourage you to carefully read Newsline and Superintendent’s Friday Notes sent out weekly; these vehicles convey important information impacting district employees.

Again, we apologize, and we hope that this one-time exception relieves any anxiety regarding your child’s benefits.  

Benefits Team
San Diego Unified School District

SDEA strongly recommends that all employees with eligible dependents submit (or resubmit) class schedules for their eligible adult student dependents to ensure that their dental and vision benefits are not discontinued. Please also note that these schedules must be submitted by the deadline twice each year (September 30 for the Fall Semester and January 31 for the Spring Semester) to maintain these benefits.

• Barnett has a long and public history of reversing his position if he thinks it is politically expedient.
• Barnett initially supported Prop. J in 2010 — a parcel tax that would have improved local school funding — and then withdrew his support from the parcel tax. This morning, he has reversed course yet again, and is suggesting that very thing: a local parcel tax to improve school funding.
• Barnett voted against issuing any teacher layoffs last March (when he knew the votes were there to issue layoffs anyway), but then voted against rescinding them throughout the spring.
• Last year, Barnett wanted to avoid teacher layoffs by laying off thousands of additional classified workers instead. Now, he is proposing sparing classified workers from pay cuts, which would instead be absorbed by teachers. (The one thing he’s consistent about is being divisive.)
• Most recently, Barnett supported the District’s school closure proposals, until hundreds of angry parents and teachers marched on the School Board last Tuesday. On Thursday he flipped his position, and scheduled two press conferences about it!

Barnett knows that proposals such as a 10% across-the-board pay cut, dismantling employees’ healthcare and tying teacher compensation to ballot measures aren’t necessary or viable. Rather than work with the members of San Diego’s educational community to create a realistic long-term fiscal plan, Barnett has instead chosen to work on his rhetoric, suggesting publicly that San Diego’s teachers will agree to renegotiate our closed contact if we have a gun to our heads. Shame on Barnett for not offering a better example to our children! Rather than propose that a gun be placed against the heads of his own children’s teachers, or wasting his time calling press conference after press conference, Barnett should join the rest of us and do some actual work on behalf of San Diego’s students.

The video below contains excerpts from the rally. Scroll to 7:13 to see Bill draw connections between SDEA members’ successful fight to stop the SD4GS takeover of our School Board and the ongoing nationwide battle to protect public education.

Occupy LAUSD

Please review the guidelines below for an overview of how to work with your site AR to resolve workplace concerns. There is now one SDEA Contract Specialist who will be handling incoming calls from ARs, as well as a new Research Specialist who will work with SDEA leadership and staff to research possible grievances as well as other issues. The first step for SDEA members with questions is to work with the site AR, and the next step for the AR is to call the Contract Specialist for additional support if needed. SDEA staff will also be revamping the website in the month of September to make it easier for members and ARs to find answers to common contract questions, so check back for updates.

You can also download the Issue Intake Form below, which will help the AR determine how best to proceed, as well as a Post and Bid-specific intake form. (This intake form is designed to alert SDEA staff about violations of the transfer process as well as the inappropriate classification of members who should be working under a contract but are currently serving as visiting teachers in vacancies.)

• Post and Bid Grievance Intake Form
• Issue Intake Form