"Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win."
By Dick Gale, SDEA Executive Director

I have watched in amazement over the past several weeks as SDEA
has moved ahead in positive ways to deal with the organizational
challenges that make up the day-to-day work of our union. Even as the
distractions of the outside world, from brush fires to first-time
grandparenthood, demanded our time and attention, the Association
remained focused on improving the working lives of its members.

In his first book, On Being a Teacher, educational reformer Jonathan
Kozol gave the above advice to beginning teachers. But it also has
value organizationally and it allows me to reflect with pride on the
accomplishments of our leaders and members. To that end, I offer the
following three events as evidence of SDEA's willingness to engage in
work that both matters and results in a win for our members.

First is the tentative agreement for 2007-08 salary and benefits
reached on Monday, October 8th. It took ten bargaining sessions over
eight weeks and the negotiated outcome was subsequently approved by
the SDEA Board of Directors and Rep. Council. As I write this,
ratification voting is still taking place among our members.

SDEA feels the settlement is worthy of your support. As you will see
on page 5, the salary increase and mid-year comparability adjustment
rank above the county average for 2007-08. It brings the top of our
salary schedule to over $80,000 for the first time.

Even more important is that our teachers and certificated support
staff will be able to get to that maximum salary in six fewer years.
In fact, the 17 steps to the top puts our schedule into a tie among
all salary schedules in San Diego County for fewest years to reach
the maximum salary. This means more dollars earned over a 20-year
career and a real enticement to prospective teachers who are looking
for employment.

In addition, the settlement includes maintenance of fully-paid family
medical and other fringe benefits. This is a valuable resource for
all District employees and increasingly rare in our world. You will
note on the next page, for example, higher % salary settlements that
came with no increase in the District contribution to medical care or
establishment of a District contribution cap based on an HMO rate.

There is no doubt that this settlement would not have been achieved
without your support and the support from all of our members. SDEA
recognizes that our actions must involve and inform our members and
to that end I want to present the second event- the SDEA Fall
Leadership Conference.

Held on Saturday, October 20th, it attracted a diverse group of over
150 Association leaders to the Scottish Rites Center here is San
Diego. The goal was to give all of our site representatives the tools
and support they need to tackle issues
and organize to achieve solutions at
their sites.

This year's Conference was designed around basic advocacy skills and
introduced a new resource, the Association Representative Handbook.
Keyed to small group sessions, reps. discussed the role and rights of
ARs, frequently asked advocacy questions and grievance basics. This
type of training underscores SDEA's strong belief that standing with
our colleagues to solve problems enables us to bring about better
working conditions, as well as better learning conditions.

The lessons of the Fall Leadership Conference barely had a chance to
sink in before the fires came that Sunday and Monday, October 21st &
22nd. At the height of the blazes, it is estimated that 60% of SDUSD
staff were personally affected by evacuation orders. Yet, despite the
urgency of attending to personal needs, SDEA officers and leaders
took on the gargantuan task of coordinating supplies and volunteers
to serve the thousands of children in fire evacuation centers at
Qualcomm Stadium and Mira Mesa High School.

This third event involved hundreds of our members, as well as
retirees and teachers from other districts that were also closed
during the week. The SDEA board room filled with donations, including
a truckload from Lakeshore Learning. Just as quickly, however, the
supplies were re-directed out into the field as teachers and
certificated support staff worked two-hour shifts all day on Tuesday
through Thursday.

Members who had never before had a chance to be in the SDEA office
came and contributed time and effort on behalf of a cause bigger than
any one of us. I am convinced that we made a positive difference,
especially in those first crucial days before Arnold, Bush and FEMA
arrived.

All during the week, SDEA staff and leaders attended the District's
Emergency Operations meetings. Members were updated about conditions
through daily e-mails and news updates on our website. Following the
fires, SDEA representatives sat down with the District to mutually
address how best to meet the needs of our members who had been
adversely affected by the fires and to cope with the week-long
closure of our campuses.

All in all, it was quite a momentous few weeks and it confirmed my
belief about the excellent work being done by your elected leaders,
our stand-up members and the dedicated SDEA staff. We hope that you
view SDEA's actions in a similar light and recognize the power of
collective action to achieve results that benefit all.