Rep Council Meeting Minutes
Jepson library
March 12, 2013 – 3:30 – 5:30
Members present: Marsha Rucker, Sofia Felix, Linda Covey, Kathy Steiert, Sylvia Shepard, Julie Timmerman, Lenore Hubal, Chris Fickes, Linda Phelan, Mark Richardson, Stephanie Munzinger, Sharon Riehl, Russ Tucker, Julie McGee, Alyson Brauning, Larry Baker, Diane Dahl, Tracy Begley, Samantha Mauder, Miranda Merino, Joy Holleran, Bob Blaine, Ginny Miller, Todd Blanset, Helen Blood, Tom Buck, Aja Cook, Katherine Epstein, Sylvia Aqunio, Christine Williams, Cathy Valdez, Carolyn Thomas, Corey Penrose, Moira McSweeney
Members absent: Debbie Cavanaugh, Gary Eisenberg, Dawn Waid, Tom Kutz, Susan Morgan, Jenny Brown, Lili Fisher, Brenda Hensley
Site concerns:
- Elementary – PI issues at Fairmont and Padan.
- Junior High – off campus during prep issue at Vaca Pena.
- High School – none
1) – Approvals of the minutes – the minutes were approved.
2) – Approval of the agenda – the agenda was approved.
3)- Business:
- Special CTA presentation on member benefits from Henry Ahn – for more information, go to http://www.cta.org/Member-Services/Member-Benefits.aspx or http://www.vacateachers.org/member-services/ and be sure to talk to your site rep.
- Elections’ plan/schedule – Bob Blaine will collet ballots on Thursday the 14th at 11 am to collect ballots for the NEA-RA state and local delegates. Please keep the member lists Moira mailed earlier available for subsequent officer/state council elections in April.
- Plan for officer elections – Moira will advertise for VTA officer candidates between now and April 9th. Nominations for the officers will be taken at the April 9th rep council meeting. After April 9th, we’ll have a week to do the election. We will also hold an election for Jerry Eaton’s state council seat during this election cycle.
- Health care update – tabled until the April 9th rep council meeting.
4) – President’s report – Moira reported on the following items:
- No RIF notifications for the 13-14 school year – was announced at the last school board meeting. A press release will be distributed via our social media and to the local paper. There may be a displaced teacher pool, but there will be no layoffs for certificated personnel.
- School board elections – have gone to an even year cycle as of the last school board meeting. School board members who were up for election this year will have their terms extended by one year to accommodate the change.
- Leave information – the process behind this was reviewed and members are advised to ask questions/give feedback about this process to the VUSD HR department. For more information on the various kinds of leave, please go to – http://www.vacateachers.org/vta-documents/3-most-common-types-of-leave/ This report finished with some questions about bereavement leave procedures and contractual issues associated with various kinds of leave.
Motion – begin discussion with VUSD regarding leave procedures and leave contract language interpretation – seconded and approved.
- Early college – an MOU was signed to formalize this process. There will be two coordinator positions advertised for this program and students will be drawn from both junior high schools.
- Elementary prep/new report card MOU – will be drafted and potential changes were reviewed and discussed. Members are urged to give input through the 2nd Trimester Report Card Survey.
- Illegal Student Fees – policies coming out of the board meeting were reviewed and discussed. Some questions for Moira to take to the superintendent were recorded and she will report back at the next rep council meeting.
- VUSD Retirement Gala table – the Action team will investigate the cost of VTA purchasing a table for the Gala and /or the purchase of individual tickets for VTA leadership to attend and speak at the function.
- VTA t-shirts – rep council members are urged to help themselves to the VTA shirt stock before Brenda Hensley’s mom makes them into quilts, which will be raffled off to fund the VTA scholarship fund.
- Next rep council meeting – on April 9th will be at Chevys and the school board mixer will follow.
5) – Treasurer’s report – Brenda will prepare an updated budget report and proposed 13-14 VTA budget for the next rep council meeting.
6)- Committee/Chair reports
Action – Corey and Aja reported on the following items:
- Chamber mixers – the next chamber mixer will be held on April 4th. T-shirts, stickers and the banner will be used to advertise VTA.
- Vacateachers.org updates – the pdf compatibility issues seem to have been resolved and the mobile site is up and running. E-board members should also watch their email inboxes for some documents to review prior to the meeting on March 26th.
- Region one organizing academy – is scheduled April 19th and going until the 21st. The focus will probably be on internal organizing and external organizing.
- School board candidates – has been postponed, but we’re still looking at some great candidates for 2014.
Bargaining – will sunshine the contract articles we’re going to open for the 12-13 session at the next school board meeting.
Grievance – Sylvia reported on the following:
- Teacher safety – the process for developing procedures for “red flagging” relevant students was discussed.
- Personnel issues – are ongoing as the year continues.
- Administrative regulation regarding classroom assignments – if your principal is not following board procedures regarding classroom assignments please let Sylvia know.
Human Rights – Alyson reported that the bullying class went well and some of the statistics and themes which came out of the class were reviewed and discussed.
Women’s Issues – none
PAC – none
Special Ed – Padan unit members will be starting a program for their ED students.
Leave Bank – none
Membership – none
7) – Conference reports –
403b workshop – will have a report at the next rep council meeting
8)– Others – none
9)– Raffle – a 10-dollar gift card was won by Sharon Riehl
10)- Adjournment – the meeting was adjourned at 5:35 pm
Respectfully submitted, Corey Penrose
