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Candidates are:
1- Linda Mayo (Pleasant Hill incumbent) running unopposed
2- Cherise Khaund (WC incumbent) vs. Herbert Lee
3-Debra Mason (Bay Point incumbent) vs. AJ Faradella vs. Jeannette Reans

The last names are most likely spelled incorrectly, just the names I think I heard.

MDEA Leadership is meeting with the opposition to see if we are in support of their ideals and whether we will campaign with them.

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In October there will be an election for 2 positions that have become vacant on the Executive Board.  One is for a high school delegate, and one is for a State Council delegate.  And there might be a third position opening up for the "Special Groups" since there are so many of them.

Candidates & election dates will be announced in September.  Anybody is welcome to run!  (except for the high school position)

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Teachers working at a site for more than 50% of the week should be doing before/after school duty at their site.  Anybody at a site for 50% or less of the week is not required to do a duty at that site.  This includes librarians, ELD, Resource, Music, etc.

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Their new office is at:
1000 Burnett Avenue, Suite 435
Concord, CA  94520

This is near Concord DMV, Home Depot, etc.

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The additional 1.5% will be voted on by the School Board at Wednesday night's Board Meeting.  Once it passes, which we are assured it will, we will get a new salary schedule plus new rates for teachers working overtime.  AND, a new updated contract with the new changes from last year.

Just so you know, the 1.5% bonus that MDEA Leadership was able to add to our agreed upon raise was not just given to us easily.  Here's how it went down:

The district decided to offer hiring bonuses of $5K and $10K for certain positions such as Speech teachers, Special Ed teachers, Math/Science Teachers, and perhaps more.  So MDEA said, if you are going to give bonuses to teachers in these categories only, then you need to give the SAME retention bonus to the teachers already in those positions.

Instead, the district decided to give everyone a 1.5% bonus, which is actually more costly than the retention bonuses, particularly since the new rate is cumulative over time.

We think that the District decided to offer this because they knew they were in a "teacher hiring" crisis and knew this additional pay would help to attract more teachers to our district.

And it should be voted on and approved Wednesday night, and I'm sure you all are awaiting our new salary numbers as much as I am.

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Formal Grievances will be done on September 7, 2022
See me if your class size overage has not been remedied by that date.
There is a grievance form you will need to complete, and I have a sample to help you.

Part of the form will be writing down the remedy that you would like taken.  Here are your options:

1-Remove all additional students and compensate for every day ($27.74 per day per student) until overages are eliminated, beginning with the date of Sept. 7th.
2-Keep the additional student(s) for an additional rate of $27.74 per day.

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Elizabeth, I'm sure you already know this, but just so everyone knows the rules for TK because they are different than for K-5.

TK has to be at an adult:student ratio of 1:12 at ALL times.  This means from the FIRST day of school.  There is no 18 day wait time.  If the second adult does not show up or is not there for some reason, the TK teacher is not to have more than 12 students at anytime, UNLESS there is a 2nd adult in the room.

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You have a right to be represented by a union member if you ever feel that you are being called into a meeting for a disciplinary measure.  Administration always must tell you what a meeting is regarding, and if they do NOT, you have the right to bring a Union Rep in with you.

I am trained on how to help you during a meeting of this type, so please reach out if you need me to attend with you.  Admin DOES NOT have to remind you or tell you that you have this right.  You HAVE to speak up for yourself and say that you would like a representative present with you.

Additionally, we both want to take notes of everything that is said if we ever find ourselves in this situation.

And finally, remember that anything that you would like to speak with me about this year will be kept confidential.  This is part of my agreement as your Rep and my responsibility to you as teachers at our site.

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If you have not signed up for this yet, I highly encourage you to do it.  You only have to give 1 sick day, one time in your life, and then you are covered if you ever have to go out on an extended disability leave.  You would use your own sick days/disability (don't quote me on this, I'm not exactly sure how it all works) and then this Catastrophic leave bank would kick in to cover the rest of your days.

I have the form if you would like to join, message me, and I will put it in your box.

I will get a list from MDEA of who is in this BANK already, and let you all know asap.

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MDEA Reps in the district will now be paid from the MDEA budget, and not from the funding that we all usually split at the end of the year.

Because of this, sites will only receive stipends for a certain number of reps based on the number of members at the site.  Our site only qualifies for 1 rep.

Therefore, I will be the sole Rep this year.  Lorna has enjoyed being the Rep, but it would be a lot to ask of her to do for no pay at all, so she has chosen to step down.

Thank you Lorna so much for all of your help last year on the big STRIKE year!