TVEA Today
August 29th, 2023
Your TVEA Grievance Committee, chaired by Kim de la Cruz, sent out a process to ensure civility, which is in the Board Policies. Conversations about a student's educational experience should not be happening in tense and hostile situations. All parties deserve the respect they bring through their capacity. If a situation gets out of hand, be sure to file a civility report to begin to address the situation. You can read the Civility Process here.
Your TVEA AdHoc Budget Committee, chaired by Lowena Manzano, met on Wednesday to review the district budget based on the unaudited actuals presented at the Board Meeting and examine the current factors that the district is working with. Revenue, expenditures, student enrollment.
Funding for districts is difficult to plan for. Every district adopts a budget for the next year in May/June, with certain conditions to establish the parameters of a budget. These are guesses. The California Legislature adopts their budget in mid June, after districts pass their budgets. School funding is set after districts adopt their budgets for the following year.
While a budget is passed in May, the variables of the budget don’t start taking shape until the first month of school. A district is taking a guess on how they shape their budget based on a prediction on student enrollment and attendance. Students don’t show up until August, and start attending school. Which is how schools get funded, Average Daily Attendance. ADA is based on a date in October as a snapshot.
You can access the link to the 2022-2023 Unaudited Actuals presentation at the board meeting and the slides (this is the accounting of how the district budget for the previous year ended in July).
The joint committee came to a conclusion on discussing compensation for 2023-2024.
Your TVEA Bargaining Committee, chaired by Brian Balaris, met today, Monday.
At this time, they are working on compensation and re-openers to the Coordinated Bargaining Agreement, otherwise known as The Contract. You can read my comments to the board on bargaining on the TVEA Spotlight for September 19, including TVUSD’s offer of 6% to our brothers and sisters in CSEA here.
They have an agenda that includes compensation along with:
locked door policy update,
Medical Bridge (retirement),
clarification on language of combo stipends and 6/5ths,
evaluation tools, 24/25 PD day in August (extra day to the calendar with per diem pay),
Health and Welfare Benefit for single individuals,
BP 5020.1 Parental Notification,
Alternative Schools (HIIA, SAEC, Summit),
locked door policy, AR 6115: Ceremonies and Observances (USA and CA flag), and
the Sunshine Process.
Bargaining will release a communication about today’s settlement agreement after meeting with Executive board at 4pm. Expect this communique in the early evening.
Up to this week, TVEA has not participated, joined, or organized in the community-led recall efforts of the governing board trustees. That does not preclude any member from participating through their own efforts.
The Political Action Committee, chaired by Kelly Maxey, led a discussion at the TVEA Leadership Council meeting on September 14 that focused on the three “School Board Discussions” communiques sent out to membership. Many leaders shared about impacts in learning and teaching. Consequences in employee progressive discipline bypassing steps in our contract. The impacts to members with conflicts following their licensure requirements or board policy, choosing to risk their license or their job. Instances of safety of staff being challenged by intimidation, creating vague working environments with board policy, admin regulations, or resolutions. Instances of removing books and classroom libraries because of a lack of guidance on what is acceptable.
The Leadership Council was then asked what TVEA could do about what our members are encountering. A motion was made and seconded to support the community-led recall of board trustees and a long discussion took place. Eventually the motion was amended to move the LC vote to Tuesday to allow themselves the extra time to connect and discuss with their respective sites and employee groups.
I heard back from sites that conducted site-wide meetings, site leaders walking the halls to gather input from colleagues, sites conducting their own survey and votes. Sites with multiple Site Leaders coordinated their votes to reflect the breakdown of the input they received as best as they could. This is how our union gets stronger, by not shying away from tough conversations. We have to do the work of talking to each other in a civil nature, understanding we all come from different backgrounds and perspectives, united in serving in public education.
Last Wednesday, The Leadership Council of TVEA approved supporting the community-led recall efforts.
What does this support mean? At the moment it is to purchase political data from the state at the cost of $350 from the TVEA PAC account and utilize resources available to TVEA through our CTA support network. The last time this account was funded was through a voluntary contribution where members were able to opt out of contributing $4 in the months of April, May, and June of 2022 for a total of $12. This was within the current dues structure, moving funds from the general account to the TVEA PAC account. (Which means dues did not increase during these months).
As the policy making body the Leadership Council of TVEA establishes policy for our union. TVEA is a democratic body. We utilize a representative model, which makes a Site Leader an important role! They lead and take part in discussions within their sites and groups and bring ideas and actions to the body. The major work of our organization is establishing relationships and having discussions with facets of our organization that lead to stronger teaching and learning conditions.
A vote by the Leadership Council guides the TVEA. A poll/survey of membership can gather informal information to be used by a committee, Leadership Council or Executive Board. A vote by the membership is on contractual matters affecting a change in compensation or working conditions, and only taken by the affected group.
There are individuals reaching out to me to work against the decision of the Leadership Council of TVEA, in regards to the position on the recall. The role of the officers is to support the organization and thus the Leadership Council. There are plenty of opportunities for members to have a voice in our organization. Many opportunities to join in the work, either as an elected Executive Board member, Site Leader, committee member, part of a site’s Contract Action Team, participating in site 10 minute meetings, or TVEA sessions, but it does take time, effort and listening.
In keeping with the values of your union and commitment as professionals, let’s listen to each other. Talk to each other respectively, and come to a collaborative solution. I know it is difficult on certain topics, but our relationships is what makes our union strong, and I continue to trust and believe that we are stronger together.
-Edgar Díaz
