BEST ALERTS ARCHIVES

YCEA Members

On February 1, Tom and his Negotiation Team will meet with the District in their first attempt to negotiate a contract for the 2010-2011 school year.

The dire economic situation in the state will make this a difficult process, and the YCEA Negotiations Team and the YCEA Bargaining Emergency Support Team (BEST) want you to have the latest information. Please keep and eye on

your email or check with your head site reps, for updates and news.

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to email the YCEA BEST at ycea.best@gmail.com and now you can join YCEA BEST's Facebook Group by searching "YCEA Bargaining Emergency Support Team" in the Facebook search box and request an invitation to join.

In an attempt to help members understand the complexity of our situation, YCEA BEST will attempt to provide you with answers to some of your most frequently asked questions.

During this time, it is going to be more important than ever that we stick together and trust Tom and his team to do the same outstanding job that they have done for us in the past. The District is making every attempt to pit new teachers against experienced teachers and elementary teachers against secondary. We need to show them that we are united and that we truly believe that "an injury to one is an injury to all."

Patrick Smith

YCEA Vice President

Proud YCEA Member

YCEA BEST ALERT #1

BEST ALERTS & NEGOTIATION UPDATE ARCHIVES

YCEA BEST ALERT #2

YCEA and YCJUSD met on Monday, February 1.

District has already taken action that will result in a large number of teacher layoffs. This includes:

-Raising class size K-3 to 30:1

-Loss of 11 secondary positions either due to "overstaffing" or due to administrators being reassigned to classroom positions.

As a part of their initial proposal, the district has asked for concessions that could be used to "save" some of the elementary positions, however the secondary positions can't be saved through negotiations.

Many of the suggested concessions that could be used to "save" K-3 positions would end up cutting unit members’ positions in other grade levels. The District has told us that …

We could eliminate elementary prep time, but that would result in 8 elementary PE teachers either losing their jobs or being reassigned to classroom positions costing other unit members their jobs.

We could eliminate 7-12 prep time, but that would result in HUGE layoffs of secondary teachers.

We could increase class size, but obviously more kids in a class means fewer teachers are needed.

The District has offered other concessions that would hit us directly in our paychecks. These concessions include, among other things, …

Furlough Days, Salary Rollbacks, And Freezing Step and Column.

The YCEA BEST is analyzing the results of the negotiations survey and will be passing the results along the Negotiations Team. Your Negotiations team is going to fight hard to save as many positions as they can with the least possible financial impact on members.

The next negotiations session is scheduled for February 17.

Questions and concerns can be addressed to ycea.best@gmail.com

YCEA BEST is also on Facebook! Type “YCEA bargaining Emergency Support Team” in the Facebook search box and request an invitation to join.

Helping you keep informed,

YCEA BEST

YCEA BEST ALERT #3

Dear members,

The YCEA Negotiations Team met with the district on February 1, February 17 and March 1 and future dates are scheduled for April 8 and 15. Continued pressure on the district due to budget cuts combined with the district’s plan to lay off a large number of teachers have created quite a challenge for our bargaining team and require the solidarity of our members.

The good news is that this year’s negotiations, albeit difficult, have been conducted in a climate of mutual respect and fairness. The bad news (besides the school funding cuts) is that we are getting sporadic reports that some site level administrators have been creating discord with inappropriate statements about negotiable items.

Unfortunately, some our members report that some administrators are attempting to influence or interfere with negotiations by advising unit members that YCEA should agree to a specific number of unpaid furlough days. In some cases this interference is overt, with direct pressure applied to YCEA members. Mostly it is subtle and involves an informal conversation with a small group, or a vague reference in a staff meeting. Such tactics are considered “unfair” by the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB), the state agency that helps monitor and enforce laws governing public sector bargaining.

These administrative “conversations” are also strange considering we have not yet been able to bargain issues of financial significance since the bargaining team hasn’t received firm and final health insurance costs for 2010-2011. They may be in response to valid concerns that members have expressed about administrative changes for next year or they may be the rogue and random acts of a few site administrators acting independently of the district. Regardless, such tactics are unfortunate since they don’t promote an agreement and the misinformation leaves out the fact that there are many complex factors that must be considered and calculated in order to arrive at a settlement that is fair to all our members.

Bargaining this year will be hard enough based on the economic situation. We will have legitimate disagreements with the district over how to prioritize spending with limited resources. Coming off very difficult, but mutually respectful negotiations last year, we hope the district will not make a practice of interfering with the “good faith” that our team and the district’s negotiations team need to resolve issues on the table.

Sincerely,

The YCEA BEST

Negotiations Update

April 8, 2010 • Yucaipa Calimesa Educators Association/CTA/NEA

Fourth Negotiations Session, April 8.

The Association and the District met again on Thursday, April 8 for our fourth negotiations session.

Health and Welfare: The District’s insurance broker, AON, Inc., has provided an updated rate quote from Anthem/Blue Cross. The increase from current premiums has dropped from 19% to 15.2%, however this still represents a significant increase over current rates. The cost of keeping the Kaiser plan could go an additional 7.2% which will result in an additional monthly cost of approximately $90 to members. Anthem/Blue Cross provided some options that are highly encouraging, however YCEA needs further information and corrected quotes before pursuing these options.

Retirement Incentive: The Association is continuing to negotiate with the District regarding the SERP (retirement incentive) that has been offered to unit members. Unfortunately, the District is tying the district’s final approval of the SERP to YCEA agreeing to five furlough days.

Association Rights: The District and Association are close to agreement regarding language that would give the children of employees priority for placement at the member’s school site or nearby school site.

Collaboration Time: The District is seeking renewal of the collaboration MOU. YCEA will be surveying K-8 unit members regarding their concerns before further discussion of this issue.

Elementary PE Adult/Student Ratio: The District has proposed an increase in the adult to student ratio in elementary to 40 to 1 (currently it is 32:1 K-3, 35:1 4-6).

Future Negotiations Dates: April 19 (moved from April 15) and May 3.

Thank you for your continued support!

The YCEA Negotiations Team

Tom Herron Green Valley High

Monty Martin Yucaipa High

Yvonne Heaney Dunlap Elementary

Patricia Lindley Ridgeview Elem

Tara Bickford Chapman Heights

Cyndi Holman YCEA President

Ed Sibby CTA Staff

Negotiations Update

April 19, 2010 • Yucaipa Calimesa Educators Association/CTA/NEA

Fifth Negotiations Session, April 19

The Association and the District met again on Monday, April 19 for our fifth negotiations session.

Health and Welfare: The District and Association are continuing to work together to provide unit members with quality, affordable health insurance. In addition to revised quotes from AON, the District’s broker, a competitive quote was received from VEBA (a cooperative labor-management trust based out of San Diego) and quote are expected from a few other organizations that represent large groups of school employees.

Retirement Incentive: The District is continuing to assert that the retirement incentive that is currently being offered is contingent on either the Association agreeing to either five furlough days, a 4% salary roll-back, or freezing step and column AND reducing salaries by 2%.

Association Rights: The District continued to refine language regarding placement of members’ children within the district. The Association proposed minor changes to this language that would make the policy encompass both children as well as other dependents that the unit member may be responsible for.

Class Size: The District is continuing to seek language that would continue current staffing ratios but allow a maximum 4-6 class size of 37 and a 7-12 maximum of 38 with some financial compensation to affected unit members. The Association continues to believe that these classes are large enough and should not be subject to increases.

Elementary PE Adult/Student Ratio: The District is continuing to propose an increase in the adult to student ratio in elementary to 40 to 1 (currently it is 32:1 K-3, 35:1 4-6). The Association continues to believe that the current ratios should be maintained in order to have a safe and effective PE program at elementary school.

Collaboration Days: A considerable amount of feedback was provided by unit members regarding the Collaboration Day MOU. Before renewing this MOU, the Association is going to work changing the language and implementation of the days to address the many concerns that teachers expressed.

Association Offers Conceptual Package: In an effort to protect unit member jobs as well as address the increasing costs of health and welfare benefits, the Association proposed the following package to the District for the 2010-2011 school year:

Increase District Health and Welfare contribution to $10,650. It is currently $9,997.

K-3 Class Size Maximums of 24 to 1. Under current district plans, these would increase to 30 to 1

Language offering retirement protection to unit members retiring in 2010-2011. Members who retire in 2010-2011 would be given the option of working five days at per diem in order to protect their CalSTRS benefits.

Association members to take five furlough days for 2010-2011. These furlough days would come from current student contact days instead of prep days like happened this year.

The Negotiations Team believes that this represents the best balance that protects unit member positions, addresses health benefit needs and minimizes the financial impact to members.

Future Negotiations Date: May 3. Additional days may be scheduled if needed.