We held a mandatory meeting on December 19 where we went over the proposed Tentative Agreement in detail. Per our bylaws, to be ratified a tentative agreement must pass by a simple majority. I am happy to report that with 83 members voting (out of 124) it passed 82 to 1.

I’m sure there were a few more members who perhaps were inclined to vote against the agreement, and chose simply not to vote. There’s no way to know. What I have heard from many of you, was that you intended to vote, but thought you didn’t really need to or were really busy or out of town. I get it. Totally. But, here’s the thing…

As we stressed in the meeting, your leadership relies on member feedback in order to prioritize the issues that are important to the majority of the membership. Simply put, if we don’t hear from you in any polls or votes, then we can’t advocate effectively for YOU.

Also, when things get tough - we use things like the number of responses to leverage the District Office. If I could show that 124 of our members voted, then it would prove that we are a strong union and not easy to trifle with. (Apologies for the dangling preposition, but “with whom cannot be easily trifled” seemed a grammatical bridge to far.)

So, can we all make a New Year’s promise to recommit to our organization and take part in mandatory meetings and respond to all polls and votes put to you by BTA?

Even though we have an agreement, it does not mean that we will be easing off pressure to improve our contract. Now more than ever, we need to show our solidarity - to continue the fight until EVERY educator has a prep period, until our benefits package is more reasonable for family coverage, until school supplies are provided by the District, until every campus is safe and provides a comfortable working environment for our students and educators, until Special Education has their own article in our contract, until class sizes are made more manageable, until support for our students with special needs and language learners is more robust! Our daily challenges don’t stop and we can’t stop pushing to improve what we can to make our lives easier.

Yes, we have good news! We are reaching competitive levels in total compensation, but by no means should this read like the District has done us some favor! We are only starting to get what we deserve after sacrificing when the District needed it the most. Now is the time to show that we are BTA, with whom you should not trifle!

I know some of you could not imagine life without these President’s Message updates! 😂 But, I have to apologize to those of you who were unceremoniously jettisoned when I did an update of our software. The bitter irony is that we had just spent two days straightening out the lists, grouping everyone by site and identifying new teachers and other special subgroups. It took forever. CTA has had things messed up for sometime, so believe me when I tell you it was a task. Well, with the help of the site reps and Olivia Haro, I finally got it squared away in time for our Bargaining Bulletins.

Well, surprise, all our work was just simply erased. Gone. I nearly cried. I wanted to throw my computer across the room. Instead, I just asked your wonderful site reps to help me send the link via text.

I am crossing my fingers and my toes that this email finds the entire membership! If you get this twice, please let me know. If you hear of anyone who didn’t get it, please have them text me. I’m feeling pretty optimistic that all 124 of us will be getting this email and each one going forward.

6.5% raise retroactive to July 1, 2023

2% + compaction for next year

A ton of new language concerning special education, caseloads, and caps

Hourly rate increased to $50

Bonus pay starting after 3rd prep (secondary)

Panel to create implementation plan for providing prep time for elementary educators

And so much more…

It took Olivia nearly 40 minutes to read through all the changes to the contract! Way to go, team!

A question that comes up a lot with our site reps is, “Do I have to sub during my prep?” Or “Do I have to take extra kids when there are no subs?”

In short, yes. Yes, we do.

Contractually, we never actually had the right to refuse a directive. Especially when it comes to the safety of children. We tried to get language that made admin jump through every hoop possible before forcing us to take on someone else’s class, and admin still asks for volunteers, tries to spread around the ask, but at the end of the day, if they direct us to do it, we have to do it.

That battle is a non-starter, no way around it, especially in this day and age of more absences, less subs, and less teachers.

What BTA could do is monetize the sacrifice. So, if you are directed to take a class (or part of a class in elementary) you will get paid for it, per our contract. You will get your hourly rate. They can’t deny it, it’s in the contract! Thank you, bargaining team!

Make sure you time card it!

-If you are called in to meet with admin you are allowed to ask for union representation.

-If a general ed educator is asked to stay after school for an IEP, BEFORE the meeting say, “This meeting is taking place outside of my contract hours, will I be excused at (contract hour) or will I be time-carding for the extra time?”

-If you volunteer for something, then you cannot timecard it.

-If an admin asks you to do something outside or beyond your contracted day, say, “I would be happy to do x,y,z if I can timecard for my time.”

If admin refuses to pay you for x,y.z - don’t do it! If they say they will pay you, but then don’t let us know ASAP.

(If you really, really want to do something, then do it…. But, it is voluntary, and you can’t timecard it). Just remember, to admin, unless they explicitly state they will pay you, they assume you are volunteering. I know this seems obvious, but we are all big-hearted and it is super easy to get sucked in to doing more than we wanted. So don’t be afraid to ask.

-Whenever you have an issue with work conditions or pay, always, always, always let BTA know. Simply add us as a cc or a bcc to your email.

If we don’t know you are having a problem, we can’t work to help you resolve it. At the end of last year there were three different members, at three different school sites, who had been struggling with issues for months. After BTA was brought in, all three members were able to have their issues resolved to their satisfaction, before going off for winter holidays.

Did you know that BTA will help send you to a conference? If you are within your first three years of teaching, please consider going to the NEW teachers conference, we sent teachers last year and they came back with so many practical strategies that paid off in the classroom on day one. The Good Teaching Conference is open for anyone interested in taking part in peer-to-peer instruction on best practices in teaching. I highly recommend and encourage anyone interested in attending to contact me asap. Per our bylaws, members must apply for all grants possible, but contact me and I can help get it sorted for you! Bonsallteachersassociation@gmail.com or text me at 310-365-5006.

Bonsall Teachers Association. Bonsallteachersassociation@gmail.com

PO BOX 1427

Bonsall, CA 92003