Thank you to all who showed their support on Tuesday at Gray Ave.  Our members showed the Board that when we begin bargaining for 15/16 on May 14, our Bargaining Team represents our members.  Let's keep it going.  We presented our yellow sunshine proposal to the Board as well as the green salary comparison that shows the gap in salaries after Marysville settled for a 9% increase - all of which will be in effect for 15/16.  We distributed these to our members on Tuesday at Gray Ave.  We will also be sending them out to sites on Monday.

If you could not join us, we still have your new blue shirt.  I am wearing the new design today.  Our first bargaining session for 15/16 is Thursday, May 14.  Let's all have our blue shirts ready for a show of support for the team that morning.  You could pick it up at the YCTA office on Monday between 3:30PM and 7:00PM.

If you did not order a shirt, you can still get one.  You will need to let us know your size.  Lee Gundy will send the survey monkey again.  Plus we will be taking order for polo shirts before the end of the year.

Tuesday, we ratified the work-year TA.  Thank you to Julie Barkley and Sam Young who counted those ballots yesterday.  We still have a vacancy on the election committee.  You could volunteer to help them with the next election.  We hope to reach an agreement for 15/16 that will address collaboration time and minimum days.  We may have another ratification before we leave in June.

In addition, Julie and Sam counted the Exec Bd election ballots from our sites. Thank you to all our site reps who helped with the election. You have elected the YCTA Exec Bd. for the term June 1, 2015 until May 31, 2017.  That announcement will follow in a separate email.

Have you seen this week's Blue Flier?  Ursula Towne, YCTA Organizing Chair, did a great job.  Would you like to add your creativity to these organizing tools or bring other ideas to help us unite our members?  Join Ursula on the Organizing Team.  Someone asked me yesterday - how likely is that we can match the Marysville pay increase? The answer lies in our unity and organizing.  

Have you heard about the recent settlements?  Both Chico and Stockton were on the verge of strikes and have reached settlements that provide improvements in contractual language as well as salary increases.  Marysville did not even need to get to the brink of strike to reach a settlement.  You can get more details about the Marysville and Chico settlements in the latest issue of the YCTA Unifier - soon to be delivered to your site.  You can also ask your Site Rep to share the newest salary comparison between YC and Marysville after their latest raise.  Or you can come to YCTA meeting at Gray Ave on Tuesday 4/28. 

How did they do it?  By organizing and standing together.  We will do that as well.

There is good news from Stockton, that is particularly relevant to us.  They have added paid collaboration time to their contract.  Part of the pay raise they secured was the result of paid collaboration time as well as paid parent engagement time.  About 2.3% will be added to their salary schedule by adding 1.5 hours of paid collaboration time every two weeks.  They negotiated parameters for PLCs that allow for teacher-driven collaboration to address improving instruction.  In addition they added nine hours of parent engagement time to build relationships with parents as partners in the education of students (adding about 0.8% to the salary schedule) I have inserted the relevant language from their TA below, but you can access their entire agreement on the Stockton Teachers Association website.  These are exciting and innovative ideas to address the goals of the LCAP. 

Your YCTA Bargaining Team will bring our proposal to the bargaining table on May 14. Our proposal will include paid collaboration time.   We ask that you support the power of our Bargaining Team to negotiate on behalf of all our YCTA members.   You can do this by standing with YCTA. 
   
    Be there on Tuesday 4/28 at Gray Ave.  Beginning at 4PM, You can ...

• Pick up your new YCTA blue tee-shirt. You will be able to wear it next Blue Thursday.
• Get some updates from YCTA including details of our sunshine proposal for 2015/2016
• Vote to ratify the work year TA. 
• Stay until 5:30PM to show the Board we are united in support for our Bargaining Team
• We will present our sunshine proposal to the Board before they go into closed session at Gray Ave.
• We will be done at 5:45PM.  You can go out to dinner with other members.

We are YCTA and together we can make a difference.  Let's do it. 

Join me next Tuesday,

Dina

P.S.  I love this one from Stockton's organizing efforts:

You can't put students first, if you put teachers last.

Good Morning YCTA,

We had a lively Rep Council meeting.  Reps shared issues of importance to members at their sites.  We discussed recent negotiated settlements in neighboring districts.  I urge you to attend a ten minute meeting with your Site Rep.  It is important for us to engage in two-way communication to build our union.  Let's keep talking and listening to each other.

We discussed the reauthorization of the ESEA (Federal legislation originally intended as part of the War on Poverty by President Lyndon Johnson).  Have you contributed to the dialogue to help Congress get it right by focusing on quality education instead of high stakes costly testing?  Here is the link.  I urge you to use it to share your story.  

We discussed the importance of our membership participation in YCTA.  Does your administrator respect the YCTA time after the staff meeting to allow our members to meet and discuss issues important to us?  We have the right to participate the protected activities of union involvement.  Supportive administrators include YCTA at the bottom of the agenda and leave promptly to allow this time.  If you administrator does not allow this time, please let us know so that we can address this matter.  

Will you participate and stand up with other YCTA members next Tuesday?  Come pick up your new blue tee shirt, vote on the TA and stay until  5:30 PM to show the Board that we are standing together with our YCTA Bargaining Team.

Finally, we have a signed Contract (CBA - Collectively Bargained Agreement).  Our YCTA Bargaining Team Chair Steve Jennings signed it during spring break. It took a lot of time to be sure it was an accurate reflection of all our agreements. You can find a scanned copy of the signed CBA on YCTA.net.  You will be able to request a printed copy from YCUSD.  Site reps will be provided copies at our next Rep Council meeting.  Here is the link for the CBA.

Stand together with pride.

We are YCTA.

Dina

We are pleased to inform you that Anthem has resolved the WBA issues and it is now completely functional.  All members can now log intowww.cvtrust.org/HealthConnect to take their WBA and qualify for their incentive award. 

We are also happy to share that currently, 75% of all registered members have successfully completed the assessment! So encourage others to take the first step to improving their health and complete the health assessment today.  This assessment IS NOT shared with CVT or any other entity, but is intended for members to use as a tool to help make healthier choices.

Members are encouraged to email HealthConnect@cvtrust.org if they experience any difficulty in accessing the assessment.  CVT will then escalate the issue to Anthem for resolution.

In addition, Anthem Blue Cross would like to extend their deepest apologies to CVT members and districts for their failure to provide timely access to this tool for CVT members and for the inconvenience this has caused. They also stated that they value their partnership with CVT, its participating districts and members and appreciate your patience as they worked through resolving the system issues.

Download - Completing your Well-Being Assessment

Hello YCTA,

Tuesday night the YCUSD Board celebrated noteworthy distinctions bestowed upon our District.  Our members play a key role in supporting our students to high levels of academic success and more.  We should all celebrate these. 

I bring you these distinctions, but there are so many more ways we all make a difference every day for children.  I salute you all  as educators who make immeasurable contributions to improving the lives of children. You impact the future every day.

First.  AP Honor Roll for YCUSD.

Here is a link to the AP site for information on the Honor Roll.  Thirty five districts in California earned this distinction.

The award is based upon increasing numbers of students taking AP exams while also maintaining the pass rates.  Increasing the percent free and reduced lunch kids and/or African American, Native American or Hispanic/Latino.

We all play a role in encouraging, supporting and educating students to achieve at higher levels.  Teachers in the classroom play a key role in the achievement of students.  The superintendent's report indicated that the:

• # of students increased from 208 in 2008 to 314 in 2010 and 377 in 2013.
• % of students tested increased from 11.1% in 2008 to 15.7% in 2010 to 20.5% in 2013
• % of students achieving a 3 or higher (passing) remained at 40% while # tested increased by over 20%
• more than 30% of the students tested qualify as economically disadvantaged

Second.  YCHS recognized as a Top AFS School for 2015
YCHS was also recognized as one of the eight CA recipients of the 2015 Top AFS School awards.  AFS is the program that fostering global awareness through foreign exchange students.  Here is the excerpt from the AFS website. 

• 2015 Yuba City High School, Yuba City

Yuba City High School accepted its first AFS student in 1955-1956, and sent its first student abroad for the summer of 1956. Since then, YCHS has hosted AFS exchange students and sent students abroad on AFS programs almost every year. Administrators and teachers value the different dynamic and perspectives exchange students bring to classroom discussions. The students are invited to give presentations in 10th grade World History classes which helps YCHS students meet the challenges of the increasing globalization of the world today. A firsthand account of life in a foreign country is much more meaningful for students--especially when given by their peers, the AFS students.

Have a great day and remember you make a difference.

Stay in touch,
Dina

You have received two emails from Hallie Hunt.  Be sure you open them and save them.  They contain important information. 

Assignment and Salary Placement for 2014/15 School Year Confirmation on Oct. 2

Sick Leave Accrual and Balances on Oct. 30

Previously you would have received a hard copy of these annual notices, but you are now receiving them by email.   You should save these notices.  Locate them in your district email in-box and save them either electronically by hitting reply, copying the contents, and pasting it into a word document or by printing the email and saving the hard copy.

The salary schedule placement used to come to you as a purple sheet at the end of August.  It was late this year, but I anticipate that we can expect it next year at the end of August.  

    Review these items carefully:

• Your step and column placement.  Is it accurate?  Prior contract language provided for advancement to the next step with any increment of service in the prior year.  Beginning this year, at least 50% of paid service time (that includes fully paid sick leave) will be required to advance.   If you miss more than 91.5 days or its equivalent, you will not advance to the next step.  Ask if you are not sure.  This includes part-time.  That is if you have a reduced contract for less than 50%, you will need to accumulate the equivalent of 50% (91.5 full days or portions that add up to 91.5 days) in order to advance. 
• Your units.  How many units does the District show after your BA or MA.  If you do not have at least 60 units past your BA, you will NOT earn any credit towards the anniversary increments.  That is you will NOT advance past step 12 until you have accumulated either 60 past your BA or 15 units beyond your MA .  You may even want to accumulate units beyond the 60 although there is currently no salary schedule advantage to doing so.

Your sick leave accrual previously came on a white sheet at the end of October.  The balance shown is as of the date indicated on the notice, so it includes absences taken this year as well as your annual allotment added to the prior year's total.  Your sick leave balance is also shown on each paycheck, although that balance may not reflect recent absences due to processing time delays.  Your sick leave balance will count towards years of service when you retire. Attached to this email you will find a helpful graphic for understanding sick leave.  Unused sick leave will apply to years of service at retirement. 

It is your responsibility to review the accuracy of these records and ask questions if you are unsure of their accuracy.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. 

Stay in touch, Dina

Hello YCTA,

Tom Torlakson has won re-election for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.  The opposition poured more ten million dollars from out of state interests and billionaires into the election.  But CTA demonstrated the power of people and the voice of teachers.  We were talking and people were listening.  

Thank you CTA for standing up for teachers.  Dean Vogel's press release is at the end of this email.

Thank you to everyone who phoned a friend or did any work on this important election.

Are you tired of the corporate reformers with plenty of money to blame teachers instead of propose real reforms? I am, but I am also energized by the power of our union to stand up for our profession.  My deliberations in the last Unifier delineated one of these attacks on our profession - The Vergara Lawsuit.

We successfully pushed back Marshall Tuck this time, but have you seen the Time magazine front cover.  Go here for the CTA page.    Will you add you voice to the outrage?  I have already.  You can go here for the AFT page to add your name to their petition.

Have a great day.  You do important work.
Thank you, 
Dina

California Teachers Association President Dean E. Vogel issued the following statement congratulating Tom Torlakson for his victory in his re-election for State Superintendent of Public Instruction:

“It was a good election night for California’s students. Voters re-elected Tom Torlakson as the Superintendent of Public Instruction and showed once again that public education works best when decisions about local schools are made by parents and educators in their local communities.

“Voters clearly saw through the smoke, mirrors and millions of dollars poured into this race for Marshall Tuck by a group of billionaires and millionaires, many of whom don’t live in California, who were hoping to buy the Superintendent’s office and push their agenda on our local schools. Despite spending $12 million dollars in the final weeks of the race, voters rejected their corporate agenda of privatizing our schools, more standardized testing and eliminating professional rights for educators. In the end, it wasn’t the money that mattered; it was the voice of teachers, support staff and parents that prevailed. We can now stay on track, and continue to work together to give all students the quality education they deserve.

“We look forward to continuing to work with Tom to ensure learning over testing and the proper training and professional development for all educators as the state continues to implement the Common Core State Standards and the Local Control Funding Formula, and gets ready for the new assessment system.”