SCTA Agrees to Fact-Finder’s Recommendation

SCTA Agrees to Fact-Finder’s Recommendation: reaching  March 17, 2022.

Why Can't They Just Get Along ? Union Teachers v SCUSD Administration

 Many in Sacramento are frustrated and angry about the continuing conflict between the Sacramento City Teachers Assoc, and the SCUSD Superintendent and Board of Education.  Families are being disrupted and children are having their school schedules scrambled.

So, what is going on ? 

To find the District view, read the Sacramento Bee and particularly Marcos Breton.  He opines regularly.

I wanted to hear the teachers' side. So,  at a meeting of the Communities Priority Coalition, I asked David Fisher, President of SCTA to explain the issues.  I got an explanation I could understand.  Here it is.

At its heart, our dispute can be boiled down to one major difference. It's not a dispute about the length of teachers' workday, or teacher pay, it's about providing the best instruction to address student needs and foster a love of learning. In a brick and mortar setting, teachers have the ability to use their professional expertise and judgement to provide an education based on the individual needs of their students. Rather than extend that respect for the professional judgement of teachers to the distance learning setting, SCUSD administrators, with no direct experience teaching in a distance learning environment, are trying to impose a rigid, overly scripted learning model that devalues teachers' professional judgement. It's a choice of quality, rather than simply quantity.

Other districts have been more respectful to the experience of teachers. Here is what one assistant superintendent from Folsom Cordova Unified who "placed his full faith in the teachers" had to say: "Teachers are the educational experts. They went through a lot of training, a lot of college, and a lot of credentialing classes on how to engage kids and help them with their learning."

There's no reason such a respect for teachers should not apply in Sac City as well.


We are moving forward teaching every day to the best of our abilities based on the needs of our students but we want the learning experience to be much better than it was in the Spring.

Last Spring the District unilaterally implemented their proposal without any input from educators at all. It was unclear what the expectations were and was inconsistent at best. 

We want this fall to be much better with much clearer expectations based on input from those who are charged with implementing the instruction. That is why we pushed so hard for training that the District only finally agreed to a few hours before the day began.

That is also why our current proposal including our schedules were developed by hundreds of teachers from every school site and segment. We considered our experience in the Spring, expert recommendations by the American Association or Pediatricians and the W.H.O, we reviewed research on sleep patterns of teenagers, as well as looked at what other Districts were doing and what was working and what wasn't. 

The teachers on our bargaining team believe their ethical obligation requires them to teach in the manner that is in the best interest of students.  In addition we have received feedback from hundreds of parents, teachers and community members who prefer our more flexible, comprehensive proposal.

As far as the schedules, we are in agreement with our District that the total instructional minutes are the same as recommended by the CDE and the same that most districts also have. While there is some variance in other districts around required live screen time, most other districts give teachers the same discretion they have in a brick and mortar setting to divide their instructional minutes between whole group, small group and independent practice.

For example Folsom Cordova has no minimum required synchronous minutes and leaves it up to the discretion of the individual teachers based on student needs.
https://www.fcusd.org/Page/39750


San Juan requires 45-65 synchronous minutes at elementary level. 

https://www.sanjuan.edu/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=79679&ViewID=9fc4dc78-f943-4224-8465-6c780e58f4df&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=55014&PageID=50114


Our proposal requires a much higher minimum of (110 1-3) and 120 synchronous minutes at the elementary level (4-12) and gives the teachers flexibility to increase the minutes for those students who need extra support.

As far as standards and assessments, all teachers will continue to use standards to guide their instruction and will assess students appropriately just like they always have.

It's also important to emphasize that the decision to propose our schedules was not made by me or only a handful of leaders, it was a unanimous Decision of our 85 member bargaining team and by hundreds of school site representatives elected by their peers at each school. 

I could not unilaterally make that decision nor change that decision even if I wanted to. And for some additional context, after discussion with other local association leaders, they all said they would never sign on to our District's overly rigid proposal as written. Natomas even went so far as to take a strike vote to make sure they got an acceptable plan and Folsom Cordova didn't have an agreement until about two weeks into their school year.

All that being said our teachers are committed to, and will continue to teach our hearts out to the best of our abilities with or without the trust or respect of our district leadership. And instead of ignoring the disparities in the schools we proposed multiple options for meeting the needs of students that are unable to connect during the live screen time instruction. Unfortunately the District has rejected those ideas. 



David Fisher
President SCTA 
Phone: 916-452-4591
Fax: 916-452-4675

SCUSD- Difficult to Believe

But some teachers, along with the Sacramento City Teachers Association, said the hybrid plan can’t work if most students don’t have their textbooks and materials on hand. 

CEASE AND DESIST LETTER ABOUT TECH SUPPORT

C.K. McClatchy High School teacher Lori Jablonski said that about a third of her students still had no access to devices. She can’t provide supplemental materials to her students because they’re unable to go back to campus, she said on a media call on Monday.

Teachers at McClatchy High created a mutual assistance program called SCTA Community Volunteer to help prepare for Monday’s distance learning launch. District-wide, more than 190 teachers offered to assist students and families with technology support — an offer met with an April 9 cease and desist letter from the district.

“Any district employee who provides technology support to district students as an ‘SCTA Community Volunteer’ does so without the district’s consent and such service is outside of the course and scope of their employment,” read the letter. “Such employees, and SCTA, will be solely responsible for any and all legal consequences arising from service as an ‘SCTA Community Volunteer.’ ” 

Aguilar said the letter was not designed to provide a chilling effect. The letter explained that technology support was not part of the memorandum of understanding between the district and the teachers union. 

“We have personnel that handles that support,” he said, adding that he encourages teachers to continue providing support to their own students.

Jablonski called the legal letter outrageous, adding that there could have been many ways for the district to clarify how they wanted to offer tech support. 

“It could have said, ‘We would like to be the first call for tech support,’ ” she said. “What they did was send the letter saying liability will rest on the teachers who are providing it.”

FOLLOW MORE OF OUR REPORTING ON CORONAVIRUS IN CALIFORNIA

Report from the Sacramento Bee. 

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article241985886.html?#storylink=cpy

Sac City Opens Schools Without Enough Teachers

Volume 40, No. 1| August 30, 2019

The Staffing Crisis School Board Member Transparency and Accountability Scorecard

Sac City has a staffing crisis. Our conservative estimate is that at least 100 certificated position are unfilled, meaning that between 3,000 to 4,000 Sac City students are without a credentialed educator--or nearly 10% of the entire student population. As of today (August 30), Human Resources has been unable to provide the list of current vacancies, or the number of unstaffed classroom positions. At CK McClatchy, for example, it was reported that classes began with 19 substitute teachers, nearly 20% of the staff. Many vacancies remain unposted. At Rosa Parks, the numbers reported were 10 of the 40 staff were substitutes, with several vacancies that were known for months only being posted Wednesday night. Sadly, last March and April, the Sac City school board voted unanimously to lay off more than 400 educators, including the elimination of 175 certificated positions. Predictably, many of those teachers are no longer available after taking jobs at other districts after being laid off. Additionally, the District only posted the new, vastly improved salary schedules on August 13--three months after the arbitrator's decision--missing another opportunity to attract staff to take positions with the District. Recently disclosed communications between FCMAT and Superintendent Aguilar and Board President Ryan from March, and additional communication between SCOE Superintendent Dave Gordon and Mr. Aguilar--as reported in the Sacramento Bee--indicate that the decision to layoff was based on faulty numbers and a huge enrollment error that was not disclosed to board members before those layoff decisions were finalized. Chief Human Resource Officer Cancy McArn confirmed to us that she was not informed about the letter from Dave Gordon and Mr. Aguilar's confirmation of the mistake before the school board made the decision to lay off. She testified under oath at the layoff hearings in late April 2019, based on the inaccurate numbers. To understand how something like this occurred and to try to prevent it from happening in the future, we asked each board member the following questions: 1) Can you please confirm unambiguously that you did not receive the March 7, 2019 exchange of emails between Mike Fine of FCMAT and Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and Board President Jessie Ryan prior to the District providing them to SCTA via a CPRA request on or about July 15, 2019? If you did receive them prior to that date, can you please provide the approximate date they were provided to you and the manner in which you received them? 2) Can you also confirm unambiguously that you did not receive copies of Dave Gordon’s March 19, 2019 letter to Mr. Aguilar regarding questions of enrollment and Mr. Aguilar’s April 1, 2019 email response to Mr. Gordon prior to the release of the Third Interim Budget on or about May 16, 2019? If you did receive them prior to that date, can you please provide the approximate date they were provided to you and the manner in which you received them? Here are the responses:

To view the original letter to Lisa Murawski, the chairperson of the Sac City School Board's Fiscal Transparency and Accountability Committee, click here. To view, Ms. Murawski's response and our follow-up, click here. To view, the letter from Superintendent Aguilar written on Ms. Murawski's behalf, click here. It is notable that Mr. Minnick, Ms. Murawski and Mr. Aguilar directly avoid answer the questions. According to Mr. Aguilar: he "strives" to keep board members informed but won't give a straight answer to these questions. We're interested in your thoughts on this.

Should board members confirm whether they received this vital information? Yes Select No Select

Public Education Statewide Day of Action /    Capitol.       

Sacramento DSA will welcome DSA members from all over California on May 22 for a statewide day of action to demand the public education California students deserve!

Together, we will join educators, parents, students, and community members to demand the full funding of our public schools, common-sense charter school accountability, and social & racial justice.

Shoulder to shoulder with thousands of educators, students, and community members, we'll take over the rotunda of the state capitol. That building belongs to all of us — it's about time that the lawmakers who make decisions that impact our daily lives remembered that.


We'll meet at 4:30 PM for a group photo with DSA members all over the state!

Date: Wednesday, May 22nd, 9:00am-5:30pm
Location: California State Capitol (Exact meeting location TBA)

Honor the Contract, Avoid Insolvency: The Path Forward

Honor the Contract, Avoid Insolvency: The Path Forward SCTA

How to resolve the budget crisis !

The Sacramento City Unified School District approved 102 layoffs Thursday evening as it continues to struggle financially and contends with a possible government takeover. 

The district’s Board of Education unanimously voted to authorize the layoffs, which will affect only certificated employees and 77 of which will affect teaching positions. Most of the teachers who face layoffs were hired less than a year ago, district spokesman Alex Barrios said.

The district will eliminate a total of 178 full-time positions, Barrios said, but only 102 employees will be terminated as other positions were removed through attrition.

Among those who will be laid off include the district’s only visual and performing arts coordinator and its only GATE, or Gifted and Talented Education, and AP, or Advanced Placement, coordinator, board President Jessie Ryan said.

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article230238729.html?#storylink=cpy

Sacramento Teachers Uprising ?

The #RedForEd Wave has already swept through Los Angeles and Oakland this year, with thousands of brave educators going on strike and leading massive movements to fight for the soul of public schools. Is Sacramento the next big fight of the Educator Uprising?

Frustrated and fed-up by continued deceit, disrespect and outright violation of their contract, Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) voted to authorize a strike over egregious unfair labor practices and unlawful activity by Sacramento City Unified School District’s superintendent and school board. With 70 percent of SCTA members voting, 92 percent approved a strike to stop the district’s unfair practices and unlawful behavior, SCTA leaders announced Friday.

The SCTA bargaining team offered to meet with SCUSD at the end of the month to give the district an opportunity to correct its ongoing unlawful behavior. If SCUSD’s conduct and unfair practices continue, the executive board is authorized to set a strike date, likely in the next month.

“It’s truly unfortunate that teachers may be forced to strike to get Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, Board President Jessie Ryan and other district leaders to obey the law, including things as simple as agreeing to meet with us and honoring agreements they signed 15 months ago,” said Sacramento City Teachers Association President David Fisher. “What kind of example are they setting for the 40,000 students in our district?”

If 2,800 Sacramento City educators do indeed go on strike, it would be the first #RedForEd-era strike in the country over unfair labor practices and a school district reneging on a contractual agreement. SCTA says SCUSD’s continued unlawful activity is giving them no choice but to take direct action. These transgressions include:

• Refusing to honor the collective bargaining agreement approved by both sides in December 2017, which included class-size reduction and increased numbers of school nurses and psychologists, violating the contract;
• Refusing to meet at reasonable times and places with representatives the educators have elected to have represent them, and attempting to dictate who the teachers have represent them at the bargaining table;
• Making unilateral and unlawful changes to the wages and working conditions of teachers without bargaining;
• Failing to send district representatives to the bargaining table who have the authority to negotiate on behalf of the district, rendering bargaining meaningless.

Sac City Unified Budget Crisis

Failing math

Sac schools flirting with disaster

By Kate Gonzales 

This article was published on 03.21.19. Sacramento News and Review.

Members of the Sacramento City Teachers Association announce March 15 that they have the votes to strike if the district doesn’t agree to their demands over a 2017 labor agreement. PHOTO BY SARAH HANSEL

Related stories: The audit exodus Special education committee resigns over Sacramento school district’s handling of probe on disabled students.SN&R, 01.10.19. Sacramento city's contentious school superintendent to resign, jumps ship before the storm If Jonathan Raymond is all done with them, could we please have our schools back now? SN&R, 10.24.13. Sacramento City Unified School District proposes gutting schools City district offers up goodbye to sports, music, school-bus programs. SN&R, 02.09.12. Advertisement

In November 2017, Sacramento City Unified School District and the unionrepresenting its teachers reached an eleventh-hour agreement to avert a strike.
Among the Sacramento City Teachers Association’s demands were salary increases, reduced class sizes and additional nurses and school psychologists. At the time, the district was in the black and the parties fleshed out an agreement with the help of Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Less than two years later, the district is in the red and trying to avoid both a state takeover and its first teacher strike since 1989.
At a March 15 press conference, SCTA President David Fisher cited the district’s “unlawful, unfair labor practices” as the reason that 92 percent of the union’s members authorized a strike. Fisher said SCTA, which represents about 2,500 teachers, librarians, psychologists and others, has requested a sit-down with Superintendent Jorge Aguilar at the end of March to work on a solution and avoid a strike.
“We don’t want to go to a strike,” Fisher said. “However, that is our lawful way of getting the district to live up to its commitments.”
At the same time, the district is on the brink of a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.
Last August, the Sacramento County Office of Education rejected the district’s adopted budget for 2018-19, citing a projected $62.1 million deficit over the next two school years. Subsequent revised budgets were also rejected.
A December 2018 report from the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, projected the district would be insolvent by 2019. The team, which helps California school districts identify, prevent and resolve financial issues, called for $30 million in reductions, imploring the district to focus on cuts that could be made immediately.
“Without action, state intervention is certain,” the FCMAT report summarized. “Failure to act quickly and decisively will result in imminent fiscal insolvency and loss of local control.”
The district has until June 30 to figure out how to cut $35 million over the next two years, or risk running out of money by November. If that happens, the district will have to take out an emergency loan from the state, which would shift decision-making power from the elected local board to a state-appointed administrator.
Four of the five labor unions representing SCUSD employees have agreed to work together on a plan to make the necessary cuts in the next two years to avoid state receivership.
As the district works to identify cuts before the summer deadline, the school district may also be the latest in California to see its teachers walk out. In January, a high-profile teachers strike got the Los Angeles Unified School District to commit to limits on class sizes and nurses. In February, a strike led Oakland Unified School District to agree to a halt on school closures and an 11 percent pay increase.
At the heart of the tension between teachers and administrators are conflicting interpretations of the deal they reached in 2017.
The district and SCTA agreed they were losing mid-career teachers who could earn more at nearby districts. In the framework agreement made at Steinberg’s home, teachers received three flat raises of 2.5 percent, two implemented retroactively and the third on July 1, 2018.

SCUSD Plans for Teacher Lay Offs

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article226618389.html

Sac City Unified Board decided to give 163 Lay Off notices to current teachers for the coming year in a vote on March 7, 2019.  In 2018/2019 the district received more money from Local Control Funding ( LCFF). Than in prior years, however they have a new deficit.  The board members argue that savings that could be made by changing the funding of health benefits.  This claim is related to a dispute over the existing contract between the district and the Teaches Union.   The Board voted unanimously  to issue the lay off notices. 

The district is at https://www.scusd.edu

The teachers union is currently conducting a vote by its members  for permission to  prepare for a strike. 

The budget challenges  faced by the district have placed the district  under the threat of state takeover as it wrestles with a $35 million budget gap. The district has yet to respond with a budget revision that would resolve the funding gap. 

It appears from the hearing that the district does not have a plan to resolve the budget shortfall.  Instead, they continue a public relations attempt to force the teachers union to accept a unilateral revision of the already signed contract. 

Board of Education Members 

Jessie Ryan, President, (Trustee Area 7)
Darrel Woo, Vice President, (Trustee Area 6) Michael Minnick, 2nd Vice President, (Trustee Area 4) Lisa Murawski, (Trustee Area 1)
Leticia Garcia, (Trustee Area 2)
Christina Pritchett, (Trustee Area 3)
Mai Vang, (Trustee Area 5)
Rachel Halbo, Student Member 

Sacramento Teachers Propose $16 Million budget reform.

SCTA Proposes  16 million $ budget reform.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article223091940.html

Sacramento Teachers Present Alternative Budget Proposal

Teachers from across the District united together to present SCTA’s Students First Rebalancing Budget Proposal to address the budget fiasco at Sac City at the December 13, 2018 School Board meeting.  You can view our video by clicking here.

Despite increase in income of over $100 million in recent years, bureaucratic bloat and financial mismanagement jeopardize our children’s educational opportunities.

We believe it our responsibility to try to offer real solutions to the sac city’s budget fiasco.

That’s why we proposed today to the school board a proposal that would save the district $60 million, balance the budget, curb bureaucratic bloat by redirecting resources back to the classroom to lower class sizes, expand arts and music opportunities, provide summer learning opportunities and to put Sac City on a path to becoming the destination district in California.  You can view our proposal by clicking here.

We sincerely hope the superintendent will accept our offer to meet and join with us to find real solutions to this budget crisis.  Our children deserve no less.

Support Sacramento Schools and Teachers

Sacramento : end of the imposed Core Waiver

Don't believe what the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board says, 

SCTA, along with many community groups, has been consistently opposed to the NCLB waiver as submitted by our former Superintendent and the California Office to Reform Education with no true input from stakeholders.  While the waiver did bring some flexibility in how the district could spend supplemental education service funds, the cost of the waiver and some of the requirements established within the application were detrimental to our schools and the students they serve. The way the application process was handled by those involved was unacceptable to our members and the community, which is one of the reasons why we have steadfastly opposed the waiver and those behind it. We would like to thank the Black Parallel School Board, Hmong Innovating Politics, the Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education, SEIU 1021 and the countless parents, community members and student advocates who have helped bring the waiver to light.  We believe that in working collaboratively with the district and the community, we can make many of the more positive initiatives contained within the application a reality without the loss of local control to the unelected California Office to Reform Education.

Reign of Error _ Ravitch

An Evening with Diane Ravitch, educational blogger and author

Memorial Auditorium
1515 J Street, Sacamento, CA  95814

Friday, Sept. 27, 2013
6:30-8:30 pm.
Tickets are $5.

For additional information, contact Sacramento City Teachers Association – 916 452-4591.

About Diane:

My website is dianeravitch.com.

I am a historian of education and Research Professor of Education at New York University.

Breton 2, Sacramento CTA 0

  But it is only the first inning.

This anti union tirade  by Marcos Bretón on page B-1 of the Bee today, leaves much to be desired.  I will leave aside the argument about Manny Virrael. Others have dealt with that.  And, Breton may even be right. But the rest of the article is lame.

What Breton does not say - we have an economic crisis.  Forty states have budget crises.  Almost all of the school districts in the state have budget crises. What caused this crisis ? It was caused by the greed and avarice of the financial class on Wall Street  and aided by the politicians of both major political parties.

Major banks and corporations looted the economy creating an international meltdown. The major bankers, finance capitalists in the U.S. robbed the bank last year  – and the federal treasury.  The Wall Street crisis crashed into main street.  People lost their jobs and their houses.  When they lost their jobs, they paid less taxes.  So, the schools and the states are in crisis.  Wall Street  took hundreds of billions of dollars .  The crisis was not caused by students, teachers, public employees  nor recipients of social security. 

 Teachers, like all taxpayers, are already paying for this theft.  What Breton does say.   Bretón thinks that teachers  should pay more through forloughs and cuts in benefits.  And, he thinks he knows best.  He inserts his views into the negotiations by publically condemning the teachers union and stirring up – or revealing- this intense teacher bashing exposed in the comments on the story.   Some people, like Steve Poizner, blame immigrants for the economic crisis.  Breton blames teachers unions.  In both cases it is scapegoating rather than looking at the evidence.