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School Board Endorsements

Herbert Lee is running against Cherise Khaund.  He is not seeking MDEA's endorsement, only that of the East Bay Times.  He is not putting a lot into it and not expected to win.

We as a Union are NOT endorsing Cherise Khaund (Area 4 vs. Herbert Lee), Linda Mayo (Area 2 and running unopposed), or Deborah Mason (Area 1 vs. Jeannette Green and vs. AJ Faradella).

We are endorsing Jeanette Green, who we think is our best candidate for Area 1.

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MDEA Special Election October 7-10 for 3 OPEN positions

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MDEA Special Election October 7-10 for 3 OPEN positions

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1st) High School Delegate:
We are missing a high school delegate to the Executive Board due to Karna Cruz leaving from Concord High.  So we need a new delegate for her.

2nd) Special Groups
There are over 200 members in this group, so we would like to add another delegate to the Executive Board to get them more attention.  Alissa Juarez is the first delegate.  Special Groups includes these types of jobs:
Speech
Librarians
Music
ELD
TOSA's

3rd) CTA State Council Member
Can be any MDEA member, travels to LA four times per year to meet with other statewide delegates to vote on items at a statewide level

Declaration of Candidacies due by September 20th.

Special Election held, October 7-10th

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Done, edited, updated, salary schedules are on the MDEA website now (ourmdea.org). You can download a digital copy and save it to your laptop or phone. Thank you Dan Reynolds for getting it all done! One hard copy will be sent to every site.

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Please advertise to your students, this is for MDUSD & MUSD (Martinez Unified) kids.

Saturday, November 5th, 2-8pm
-Community Altar
-Fashion Show
-Aztec Dancers
-Baile Folklorico
-Vendors
-Art Displays (if you have any student art you would like displayed, please contact Libby.)  Her info is on the last slide:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PBOWqp3runq26tzzwlw8gxLk6grwYjFyzaUjzTZe5L0/edit#slide=id.ge1d838b627_0_25

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Late, but results still coming this week from Anita.  We can read through the comments.

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Class Size Grievances
-21 total as of right now
-Fill out class size grievance time sheet every month

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11 responses from our sites (Thank you Elizabeth for doing ours!)

-1 adult per every 12 students ALL of the time. We are in compliance at Silverwood
-1 issue in the district, Linda handling, against the law not to follow this
-Legal to have a sub not show up for the assistant position, as long as they are employed. However, not okay and district needs to find someone.

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Updates to Covid Sick Leave through 12/31

The State of CA bought back the supplemental paid sick leave (SPSL) for Covid.  We get 10 days, which were set to expire on 9/30.  The State Legislature has asked the Governor to extend it through 12/31/22, he hasn't signed it yet but it expected to.

-If you've already used your 10, you don't get anymore.
-Supplemental paid sick leave is there beyond your own sick leave, JUST for covid.
-An employer MAY demand that in order to use the second 5 of them, you have to submit another test for you to get days 6,7,8,9,10.

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https://files.constantcontact.com/e58be3cc001/27cc7396-2010-4b4e-98a4-d0ed5cfafc06.pdf

Important Contractual Deadlines.
-Don't WAIT to file a grievance, you only have 20 days to file it.
-Don't wait until you get all of your questions answered, that could waste several days.
-If you go over after September 7th for class size overage, file immediately.
-Seniority Lists in February
-Preference forms given to you by February 15th, tentative assignments to you by March 1st
-Notice of involuntary transfer must be given to you by March 1st
-Give notice by April 15th if you are taking a leave of absence next year (by Dec. 15th if taking a semester leave of absence)

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Promotion for our political academy training
Because we are not in active bargaining, we are using this year to provide training for our members.

Political campaigning 101
90 minute training
4-5:30pm, Thursday Sept. 29th
Training open to ALL MDEA members
Please RSVP to MDEA if interested

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"Potential" members to MDEA (not members now)

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"Potential" members to MDEA (not members now)

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We have 112 "potential" members to MDEA (this means people who have NOT joined the union), 7% of our total members

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Agenda for above mentioned meeting must be given at least 1 day before each scheduled meeting

We've heard from members that they would like to start Faculty/Advisory Senates. It allows you, our members, to bring up some issues with your administration.  This is members of your faculty wanting to speak to Admin about "issues."  Not a "bitching session," but a time to address and come up to solutions.

Give them an agenda a day before, so they can come up with some solutions at the meeting.

Faculty/Senate By-Laws:
Under Resources, we are allowed to have one.  Admin cannot tell us no, we are allowed to have one if we would like to have one.

Recommended Procedures for Establishing a Faculty Senate
-Easier to solve problems through this method, rather than having to go through the grievance process.

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https://files.constantcontact.com/e58be3cc001/660d5298-febc-451f-8fe9-22eff29d3a9d.pdf

-past couple of years a mish mash, and a mess
-spring of 2020, a bunch that didn't get finished
-made for more to be evaluated in 2020-2021 year
-but this year, 2022-2023, we are back in a traditional year's evaluation
-what that usually means, roughly half of all members will be evaluated this year
-There may be more new hires, or a larger percentage of experienced people (on a 5 year plan), but generally about 1/2 are completed in any given year

-Last day to tell who is being evaluated was last Thursday, 9/8
-By 9/15, everyone should be given all of the materials they need from the contract
-If a permananent employee was not notified until after 9/8, file a grievance, contract broken, may not need to be evaluated.

Don't agree to a 3rd standard.
-Admin picks one, and you pick one.
-Don't pick standard #6 if you have a strained relationship with admin
-October 28th, due date for initial conference meeting
-You must ask for a 24-hour notice during your eval meeting, if you would like one.
-Formal observations must be done twice, but they can choose to do more than 2.
-Must be for 20 minutes length or more.
-Evaluator must meet and discuss with you within 10 work days (new number, used to be 5).
-You have a right to attach a written response to all written observations.
-It's suggested that you write your response within 10 days, but still include if you finish after that
-Interim evaluations are not required for permanent employees, must be completed by January 31st if requested

-Distinguished can only be achieved or earned, IF you request it. Discuss with evaluator at initial conference.  Requires extra work.
-Everyone should get "meets expectations" - most common rating
-If you are doing a self eval, you decide what you are going to do, but both have to agree on what the product will be.  You have to follow the same timeline as those doing a regular eval
-Final conferences must be finished by Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Final signatures SHOULD be done that day.
-You have to sign eval EVEN IF you don't agree with it.
-You can then respond in writing
-You cannot grieve your evaluator's evaluation, but respond in writing if you do not believe the evaluation was done fairly.
-Responses should be succinct, and unemotional in nature.
-But you CAN grieve the timeline if not followed.
-If questions, reach out to MDEA
-MDEA will read responses if you would like.

-If in same district for more than 10 years, and have met "meets expectations" standards, you can ask for the "5 year plan"
-Either party can remove you from the 5 year contract at any time, in the 2nd, 3rd, or whatever year
-You could take yourself off the 5 year plan if you decide you want to go for "distinguished" at any time
-Can a new admin take away your 5 year cycle?  YES

-If a member does not agree to an evaluation, sign it yes, but put in parenthesis if you would like that you do not agree to this evaluation.  Your signature simply means that you were shown it, not that you agree to it.
-EVERY YEAR your administrator can agree to evaluate you, even with a 5 year waiver
-Does MDEA agree with the self evaluation?  Yes, if you would like and are up for it.  This negates the 2 observation evaluations.  However, administrators are ALWAYS allowed to visit your classroom and watch you work.

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The district added $40 MILLION dollars to their "leftover money at the end of last year" for a total of a $129 MILLION dollar surplus. And this is AFTER our raises, which they told us for over a year that they could not afford.

We could have kept 4th grade music, high school librarians, Diablo Day, brought back elementary PE teachers, provided intervention to our struggling students, and oh so much more.  We as a Union will be bringing these numbers to the Board at the meeting this Wednesday night!

It is absolutely not acceptable!  This money should have been spent on students!