Update from the President–August 22, 2009

August 22, 2009

I bet you’re wondering what’s going on now that summer’s coming to an end…  So here are some updates on OEA and the district…

Impasse declared, Mediation Scheduled for August 26th

As many of you know, on June 26^th we were notified by email that the district was declaring impasse in their negotiations with OEA. This was days after they presented us with a proposal for 2009-2010 that included subcontracting out nurses and counselors! (Not on MY watch!) We filed an Unfair Labor Practice with PERB and wrote our incoming new Superintendent advising him to rescind the impasse, but that hasn’t happened and the first mediation session is scheduled for August 26^th.

The District’s offer includes a 3% pay cut and numerous other take-aways — unconscionable in a district that is notorious for high teacher turnover! We say the money is there, it’s a question of priorities.

Return of local control…or is it déjà vu all over again?!?

Just minutes after that email, the District issued a press release announcing the return of local control the following Monday, June 29th. We issued our own press release and held a press conference an hour before the District’s to let the public know that while we have fought for and welcome the long-overdue return to local control,we have no choice but to question what it really represents, as long as State Administrator Vince Matthews continues to hold ultimate veto power over the budget as the State Trustee.

New Superintendent Tony Smith

I’ve met with the new Superintendent several times – once with our Bargaining Chair, David de Leeuw, and more recently with representatives of all the employee unions. He is open, listens well, and doesn’t get defensive when told that OUSD employees haven’t had a raise in six years, so are understandably upset that he got a 6% raise before he even started… He has made a public commitment to do what he says he’ll do, so we will hold him to that as we welcome him to OUSD.

Farewell to Nicole,Welcome Back Sergio, Hello/Goodbye/Hello Again Ward, Meet Rosie Roberts and Memo Durgin, and Thanks to all those who’ve kept OEA running smoothly!

Big changes around OEA over the summer – Nicole Love left us for Hayward so she could spend more time with her son, but tells us she misses us terribly. While no one will be able to replace her, we are excited to welcome Guillermo “Memo” Durgin September 1^st.  Memo comes from SEIU in Sacramento,and has an impressive background in organizing, bargaining, and grievances.Sergio Quintor returned from leave and has plunged back into the business of taking care of our members with dedication. Ward Rountree, who thinks he retired last year, is back with us to focus on bargaining (I told him that as long as we haven’t given him a retirement party, he’s still ours…). And to “bridge” the time between Nicole’s departure and Memo’s arrival, we have welcomed Rosie Roberts, a veritable force of nature who loves to problem solve and has found a wealth of problems to be solved in Oakland!  We are still missing Patricia Gray, our Administrative Assistant, who continues on medical leave. We hope all of you will take a moment to thank Linda Smith, our able Office Manager, for going above and beyond over the past eight months.Thanks to those who have filled it at OEA and made a difficult situation work:  Harriet Hutchinson, Trish Gorham, Don Kane, Jenny Mejia, Kei Swensen, and the many volunteers who have come to stuff envelopes, run copies, and do a myriad of other tasks.

Committees rockin’ at OEA

Without a strong Rep and Committee structure, too many things end up at the OEA office, and that leads to backlogs and frustration. We spent a lot of time this summer working on streamlining both Rep and Committee structures, and hope this will make us even stronger. Some highlights:

• The Crisis Action Team (CAT) spent a weekend at Chair Toni Morozumi’s cabin in Inverness working on an organizing plan for our membership. Expect to hear from a CAT Team member or your cluster leader in the next few weeks. Plans are to visit all the sites without Reps in the first few weeks. Ask about our “Masked Marauders”!
• The Membership Committee helped put together packets for new members, and teamed up with CAT and other volunteers to get the membership mailings out early this year. They have been working on planning trainings for members, and are committed to making sure you have accurate site rosters! They played an invaluable role in coming up with a master calendar for the year.
• The Elections Committee has new leadership, a schedule for the year, and a commitment to making sure we have more members voting in our elections!
• I invited several teachers and a parent to participate in a District-OEA Committee on School Climate. We had several animated discussions about the very serious issues prevailing at most school sites with student discipline and school climate. The upshot is that principals are being advised to create School Climate Committees with staff buy-in and participation.  Our concern is that this will be another project that ends up being mandated or put on the shelf. It’s up to all of us to insist that the issue of student discipline and school climate betaken seriously!

Arne Duncan comes to the NEA Representative Assembly

In late June, sixteen elected OEA delegates went to San Diego to participate in the world’s largest democratic decision-making body, the Representative Assembly (RA). Your OEA delegates introduced a number of NBI’s (New Business Items), were active on the floor on a range of issues from charter schools to poverty. You can read their reports on our website at oaklandea.org.

One of the“highlights” (or “lowlights” perhaps) was Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s visit to San Diego just prior to the RA. Over 7,000 delegates were there to make sure he got the message that we are not interested in merit pay, that innovation and charter schools are not synonyms, and that we want an overhaul of No Child Left Behind and its misguided focus on high stakes testing. Be sure to catch “The Annotated Arne” on the OEA website.

Meetings with new teachers

Although most other California districts had to lay off teachers, Oakland had no layoffs. How??? For one thing, we have one of the highest turnover rates in the state. This year, the District has hired nearly 300 new teachers – via Teach for America, Oakland Teaching Fellows, Oakland City Teaching Corps, and Teach Tomorrow in Oakland. I was able to meet with all the new teachers at their “onboarding” process and encourage them to become active participants in OEA.

Your President’s Summer

Although I didn’t take a long vacation, I did manage to get a few days away in Monterey and Mendocino with my husband, who was recovering from knee replacement surgery. The rest of the time I was either in the OEA office or attending some excellent training sessions: CTA Presidents’ Conference in Asilomar, and QEIA “Organizing For Power” in Burlingame with four Site Reps from QEIA sites.

HBIC

We have made significant progress in setting the stage for bargaining health care through the Health Benefits Improvement Committee, consisting of all the District unions. After two years, we came to an agreement on how to proceed with bargaining, and at our last meeting we began to agree on ground rules for our meetings and specific dates for bargaining. Health benefits for 2009-2010 rolled over, so there will be no increases (beyond contractual language) for this upcoming year.

The “Big Picture” – State and National Politics

As you all know,the state budget drama played out over most of the summer. It is clear to many that there needs to be a drastic overhaul of the state system, and more people are calling for progressive taxation, a repeal of part of Proposition 13 (split roll), an end to corporate loopholes (closetheloophole.com), and the restoration of a tax on the wealthiest Californians.

Catch the talk about “Race to the Top” funds – I’m sorry, but it’s asking us to sell our souls for a piece of silver to go along with changing state laws to allow using student test scores to evaluate and pay teachers. What if you were a coach and had to take any player that walked onto the field, instead of drafting them? Would you agree to be held responsible for their performance via your salary and/or evaluation???

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is not our friend when it comes to education.