"Arriving at one point is the starting point for another"
By Dick Gale, SDEA Executive Director

It was going to be the worst kind of holiday news. In the days leading up to the winter break, SDEA was notified by the AR from Memorial Charter Middle School that seven teachers and an administrator were going to be losing their jobs, effective the Friday before vacation. SDEA President Camille Zombro and staff organizer Craig Leedham visited the school and found a demoralized group and great sadness over the budget mess that had led to this kind of drastic action.

After some difficulty, Craig arranged a meeting with the local site administrator. He questioned the ethical and legal basis for the action. After further deliberation, ultimately involving the school's attorneys, the Charter Board of Directors decided to rescind the terminations and to reinstate all of the employees until the end of the school year.

Clearly, not all cases in which SDEA gets involved have this kind of quick, positive outcome. But, in this case, SDEA staff was able to consult with CTA Group Legal Services attorneys to devise a strategy to respond to the acute need. Crucially, the school's charter AR made the Association aware of the problem quickly so there was an opportunity to respond effectively.

While SDEA cannot guarantee a particular outcome, we do want to assure all of bargaining unit members that your employment issues will receive a timely and professional response. As an Association, we have always taken our advocacy responsibilities seriously. We recognize, however, the truth in John Dewey's quote above. All actions lead to new beginnings.

To that extent, we will begin this month to implement new office protocols (see page 5) and staffing assignments. Our commitment to representing all of our bargaining unit members in their employment-related issues will not change. Our leaders and staff are committed to fulfilling our duty of fair representation.

However, SDEA is also committed to structuring our union to empower our members and that is the purpose of the changes we are putting into practice. First, we are dedicated to training our ARs and CRs so they can be the effective first contact for problems and issues at your site or within your program.

At out Fall Leadership Conference last October we focused on teaching the specific advocacy skills necessary for our reps to assist in the representation of teachers and certificated support staff members at their schools. We want all of our bargaining unit members to feel confident involving SDEA reps. in their search for a solution to their problem.

Our next AR/CR training is scheduled for the end of February and we will be concentrating on practicing the skills and techniques that were covered in October. In addition, we will focus on many of the most common
contract-related issues that arise in the course of the school year.

Our ARs and CRs also have direct access to SDEA's contract specialists, Morgan Thornberry and Ossee Desmangles, who work full-time at SDEA. Both are highly qualified and capable and, although they do many things to benefit our organization, their primary responsibility is answering questions, providing advice and devising strategies to deal with the employment-related issues that arise.

Undoubtedly, the most effective strategy to deal with site problems is a unified staff with a clear outcome in mind for resolving with an issue. To that end, SDEA's UniServ Field Organizers (Don Crawford, Steve Kaplan, Craig Leedham, Donald Moore and Elsie Norgard) are ready to work directly with members at their schools to create positive solutions.

As part of SDEA's changes, some of their school and program assignments have been changed (primarily in the Lincoln, Point Loma and San Diego clusters). What hasn't changed, however, is their expertise and professionalism. They stand ready to come to your school to provide training for staff and to work with members to organize around site-related issues.

SDEA has seen the beneficial results of a school staff organized around the resolution of a problem. For example, in recent months we have witnessed the staff at Hoover High School resolve issues related to student discipline. At Emerson-Bandini Elementary it was about K-8 conversion. At Lincoln High it was about work year/workday issues. At Mann Middle School and Miramar Ranch Elementary it was about improving administrative respect for the staff.

The common denominator in all of these schools was the unity of the staff and their ownership of both the problem and the solution. It wasn't about calling the SDEA office to "fix" the crisis. It was recognizing that we are all SDEA. Our union's strength is our members and, to the extent all of us get organized around an issue, we will be successful advocates for our own professional working conditions.

It is SDEA's hope that the office and staffing changes we are putting into place beginning this month will help contribute to this member empowerment. For those of you who are intrigued about the possibilities of this approach, please consider that it is your turn to step up and become involved as a leader. Association elections are just a few months away.