RECENT CRISIS UPDATES
Crisis Update 05.06.10
Colleagues and Community:
You demonstrated your commitment to powerful education in VUSD at the mediation day rally when over 800 teachers, students and parents, all dressed in black, stood united and protested in front of the district office.
You demonstrated your commitment to powerful education in VUSD when over 900 of you stood united and signed the resolution of no confidence in Dr. Bales.
You demonstrated your commitment to powerful education in VUSD when over 500 of you stood united participated in the presentation of that resolution to the VUSD Board.
You demonstrate your commitment to powerful education in VUSD everyday through focusing and crafting lessons around your students’ needs.
The time has come once again to demonstrate your commitment to high quality education by participating in the “Save Our Students Rally” on Thursday, May 6th from 4-6 on the Vista Village Drive and 78 overpass. Come let the VUSD Board know that PERMANENT class size increases are not acceptable if they truly care about the quality of education for our children.
Let everyone you know about the rally and let’s continue to fight for our students.
Stay Active. Stay Informed.
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 04.30.10
Colleagues:
The purpose of this update is both to inform you about the most recent negotiation session on April 27th with VUSD Management and to let you know about our next steps in the fight for quality education in our community.
First, the negotiation session: the District has made no movement and the Board has not authorized any change to the permanent class size proposal already made. They believe the budget crisis problem is solved with their last, best and final offer.
They are right.
They are right that the unofficial agreement between VTA and the District to 2 years of radically increased class sizes closes the budget gap. They are right that our compromise on the class size issue solves that problem. But what they are not right about is that these class size increases should be permanent.
They could not be more wrong about that.
No serious educator can rationally argue that permanently raising class sizes to absurd levels is good for the education of our children. No parent would agree with that. No teacher would agree to that. And certainly no administrator should agree to that.
So let us fight for responsible class sizes on behalf of our own children, our own students, and our own community. Permanent class size increases are not acceptable.
Please join us in the first of many rallies and demonstrations protesting the VUSD proposal of permanent class size increases. Wear black on Thursday, May 6th and come walk with us from 4-6 p.m on the 78 overpass at Vista Village Drive.Signs will be provided. We need all teachers, parents, and students to help us fight for a powerful educational environment in Vista.
Stay Active. Stay informed.
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 04.21.10
Colleagues,
The purpose of this message is to provide objective information comparing the last best final offer proposed by the VUSD Management Team and the counter proposal put forth by your VTA Bargaining Team during the recent negotiation session on Wednesday, April 14th. The chart below details both the commonalities and the differences in each proposal. Please discuss the implications of each proposal with your colleagues. VTA believes that some contract proposal differences can be addressed by adopting some of the BAC (Budget Advisory Committee) recommendations.
Both the VTA Negotiation Team and the District Management Team recognized one another’s effort to reach agreement and scheduled another negotiation session for April 27th at the District Office.
Stay Active. Stay Informed.
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 04.16.10
Colleagues:
First, thank you to the over 950 out of 1,038 permanent status teachers who stood together to sign the “Resolution of No Confidence in Dr. Joyce Bales.” Such an overwhelming number of professionals demonstrating their lack of confidence in their leadership should be a wake-up call to both the Board and Dr. Bales.
At Thursday night’s board meeting, over 500 of those teachers stood behind VTA President Jan O’ Reilly as she presented the resolution to the VUSD School Board. As Jan read the resolution and a tsunami of signs stating “NO Confidence in BALES” moved toward the stage, everyone in the room could feel the frustration of VUSD teachers at the inability of Dr. Bales to effectively lead our district forward in the coming years. Our profession deserves better, our community deserves better, and our students deserve better.
Stay Active. Stay Informed
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 03.24.10
Colleagues:
The purpose of this update to VTA membership is to respond to several of the claims made by Dr. Lilly and Dr. Bales in their Sunday, March 21st article in the North County Times.
Citing VTA’s most recent email about the final mediation day negotiations, Dr. Lilly and Dr. Bales claim that to call the district management team’s mediation behavior as “irresponsible and irrational” was inappropriate and that “these and other statements are inaccurate and create angst and hindrances to future bargaining success.”
Let us look at these “irresponsible and irrational” and “inaccurate” claims more closely.
Dr. Lilly and Dr. Bales claim that VTA is promoting “inaccurate” information about possible class size increases and that in mediation the district offered snap back language after two years. According to the authors themselves, class sizes will snap back to “more than those in the current contract.” That is NOT a rational definition snap back; that is a permanent increase in class size. It is irresponsible to suggest otherwise and the VTA explanation is accurate.
Dr. Lilly and Dr. Bales claim that VTA is negotiating in the media, according to their published article…in the media, the North County Times. In fact, VTA has turned down offers from another newspaper to write a position paper about the current negotiations for the very reasons Dr. Lilly and Dr. Bales cite in their own article. The publishing of this article is, without a doubt, irresponsible.
Dr. Lilly and Dr. Bales claim that because of the current contract, VUSD class sizes are lower than comparable districts around the state. They are right. But the fundamental problem with this argument is that it suggests that there is something wrong with that. Independent of the fact that teachers in similar districts are compensated for their absurdly high class sizes with considerably higher salaries, how can any educational leader argue that smaller class sizes are not better for students? Both of these district leaders would be hard pressed to find parents who want their children in larger classes. It is irrational to believe so. It might be a reasonable solution if the board had no other options, but it does.
The VUSD Board must look more closely and accept some of the suggested cost savings priorities of the bipartisan Budget Advisory Committee. This does take political will on the VUSD Board’s part and it is not any easy task (some of the specific groups affected will understandably be upset) but the job the VUSD Board accepted is to make those difficult decisions. VTA has made a great many compromises on salary and class size in this process and it is time that the VUSD Board directs the district management to settle with teachers by accepting more of the BAC recommendations.
Please let VUSD Board members know that it is time to choose from the list of cost savings developed by the BAC. This way we can all get back to business.
Stay active and stay informed by visiting http://www.facebook.com and joining the Facebook group: support_vusd_teachers.
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 03.11.10
Colleagues:
The purpose of this is to update you on the current situation with negotiations.
In short, they want more. They want even more students in classes. They want more concessions in salary from teachers. They want to take more days from teachers. They want much, much more and they want it to be permanent.
The D.O. management has chosen to act both irresponsibly and irrationally in this situation, and because of this choice we are going to fact-finding. We are going to fact-finding by our own request because after an exhaustive day of negotiations, after providing option after option to close the budget gap in a rational way, and even after getting close to a resolution, we recognized the D.O. management was unwilling to make any reasonable movement in bargaining.
This should make you upset. This should make you very upset given the preposterous “concessions” they believe they made. This should make you very upset because they believe that we will give up.
Will you? Will you make them believe that they have won?
Come to the Board meeting on Thursday, March 11th to let the community know that we will continue to defend powerful teaching and educational experiences in VUSD. We are not done and we will continue to fight.
Wear black, be there at 6:30, and be prepared to fill the room with the power of our commitment.
Stay informed. Stay active.
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 03.09.10
Colleagues:
The purpose of this update is to inform you about the possible “vote of no confidence” as well as two important events this week.
Wednesday, March 10th: Mediation Day #2, VTA Office
The mediation will be held at the VTA office starting at 9:00 AM. Parent groups are organizing to spend the day there, but we would like you to involve yourself as well. Please come after school in black to line the halls and street with signs, letting the District Management know that we continue to be committed to pressuring them into a fair and equitable solution to the impasse.
There are three possible outcomes at this mediation. 1) A solution to the impasse is discovered which will be brought to the membership for approval. 2) The mediator decides to have a 3rd meeting next month. 3) The mediator decides that no resolution is possible and that the fact-finding process should begin.
Thursday, March 11th: Board Meeting, FoothillOakElementary School, 7:00 PM
We are looking for 100% of the membership to come to the board meeting to show our commitment to maintaining a strong educational experience in VUSD schools. The Board needs to look more closely at the Budget Advisory Committee list of recommendations and your presence at the meeting can help.
When the Board sees our numbers, it helps them to understand that they need to continue a dialogue with the Association if it is going to find a reasonable solution to the budget crisis.
Have no doubt-- you matter at all these meetings and rallies to keep them talking. Every person matters.
Vote of No Confidence: VTA Reps voted to pursue a dialogue with each school site about a vote of no confidence in our superintendent. More information will come in site rep meetings and in future emails.
Stay active. Stay informed.
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 02.15.10
Colleagues:
What a remarkable day. Thank you to the over 800 teachers, parents, and students who arrived early in the morning on Monday, February 15th to demonstrate our resolve and dedication to maintaining a high quality educational experience in VUSD. Our determination to let VUSD management know that we are willing to come out in huge numbers to support teachers and students is outstanding.
As it stands, after a full day of intense mediation, the district management made NO movement from their last offer. Although initially this may seem like nothing was accomplished today, it is important that you are clear on what impact your participation had.
•Our solidarity was covered by the media in a positive light.
•Our solidarity continued the process of enhancing community support.
•Our solidarity increased the number of parents and students directly participating with us.
•Our solidarity had an immeasurable impact on our bargaining team’s resolve.
•Our solidarity showed board members the effect their priorities will have on the educational experience of students if they do not consider reasonable alternatives to the budget crisis other than slashing only teacher salaries.
They thought today would be easy; it wasn’t.
This fight was never going to be easy for anyone, and it will NOT be successful without your continued participation in this process. It is critical that we continue to exert pressure on the board and the district to resolve the budget crisis fairly and with equivalent sacrifice.
That said, we need 50% of each school’s staff to come to the Thursday, February 18th Board meeting at Foothill Oak at 7:00. We understand that it is difficult to find the time to go to another meeting, but continued pressure on the board and VUSD management is critical. Make no mistake, you are fighting for a fair and reasonable resolution to this crisis and you have a lot to lose of you do nothing.
We need you to work even harder; you can do it. We can do it TOGETHER.
See you Thursday.
Respectfully,
Your Crisis Team
Crisis Update 02.08.10
Colleagues:Please come to the first Total Unit Member Meeting of the year on Wednesday, February 10th from 4-5 o’clock at TempleHeights. The purpose of this meeting for the entire VTA membership is provide an opportunity to hear from both VTA and CTA speakers about the “state of our union,” the state of the impasse, and the future state of education in California.VTA is committed to providing as many opportunities for you to inform yourself through as many media platforms as possible. Please participate as often as you can in these opportunities so you can help us maintain the powerful experiences of teaching and learning in the VistaUnifiedSchool District.Please take a moment to go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5JRGY35 to help us gather important information about your experience as a teacher in VUSD.Remember the following important dates for the month of February: Wednesday, February 10th: Total Member Unit MeetingMonday, February 15th: Mediation Rally (specific information to come)Thursday, February 18th: Board Meeting (specific information to come)Finally, the “YouTube Q&A with VTA President, Jan O’Reilly,” will be posted later in the week.Respectfully,Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 02.04.10
Colleagues,
Once again, thank you to everyone who came to the board meeting last Thursday at Roosevelt Middle School. Despite the fact that the venue is twice as big as Foothill’s, once again the seats were packed with hundreds of teachers dressed in black sitting along side parents, students, and community members who are concerned with the budgeting priorities of our district. It was powerful. Given the large number of teachers making signs, distributing informational fliers, and lining the entrance as board members and community members entered the meeting, it is clear that our membership is strong and committed to protecting the powerful educational experiences provided by teachers in our district.
Our next challenge is to support our negotiating team on the first mediation day scheduled for Monday, February 15th at 9:00am at the district office. More specific information on that event will come later, but please plan to attend the mediation in the morning and then in shifts throughout the day to let the district and community know that supporting teachers equals supporting students.
To prepare for this mediation and to provide more platforms for important information, VTA plans to have a “youtube Q & A with VTA leadership.” Please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FSGFYMM to submit questions to Jan O’ Reilly about the current impasse. At the beginning of next week, we will post a video of responses on youtube to the most frequently asked questions as a way of better disseminating information. Questions are due by Saturday, February 6th at midnight.
Please check your private e-mail accounts, the Facebook group (Support VUSD Teachers) and/or the VTA website at http://www.vistata.org/ for more information concerning activities at the upcoming Board meetings and mediation.
Again, thank you for your continued support and persistence.
VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 01.22.10
Fellow Teachers,
Thank you to the over 300 teachers who attended last Thursday night’s school board meeting in an amazing show of solidarity and resolve. Your Crisis Team is looking for your thoughts and input in an effort to harness the passion of Thursday’s meeting. Your Crisis Team is asking for your ideas to help us communicate our message of shared sacrifice and fairness in ways that can be displayed in a variety of media. We want you to add to our list of slogans that will engage the support of the public.
We have listed a few below to prime your creativity:
Teachers, The Real Success Makers
Shame on You (On the backs of Teachers Again)
Or (Sacrificing Vista’s Students Again)
Shared Sacrifice
Class Size Matters
Supporting Teachers = Supporting Students
The Crisis Team is moving swiftly and will need your ideas by Tuesday, January 26th so we can move forward on Wednesday.
Please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5S3H3RS and type in as many slogan ideas as you would like into the provided text box.
Respectfully,
Your VTA Crisis Team
Crisis Update 01.19.10
To all of our colleagues that were able to attend Thursday's school board meeting, "YOU WERE AWESOME"!!! Watching the gestures and eye movements of each school board member, it was obvious that they had never anticipated this level of teachers supporting one another.
I do not think these school board members or "their" superintendent ever expected this level of outrage! It is my belief that the District Office Administration had convinced the Board members that "we" would be more complacent. THEY WERE WRONG!!! Collectively, your voices rang strong, consistent and resolved to no longer accept whatever "they" might decide as "a reasonable" reduction to your salary.
There must have been in the neighborhood of 300 +teachers at this meeting! The seats and walls of Foothill Oaks Elementary had no voids and allowed for no hiding places for either School Board Members or Administration.
Every speaking member from each of our schools: elementary school, middle school, continuation school and high school demonstrated the unity of interest and concern for each other well being!
The speakers were eloquent, passionate and powerful in telling each of their stories as well as those stories of our teacher communities. They let the Board know the value of the teacher not as $Dollar figure but as value to students, their sites and even to our district. These speakers made it clear that the unseen and unreported value of each teacher is really that teachers' ongoing commitment to student needs while personal contributing both the teachers time and talents over and above their "regular" teaching time.
Make sure that you say thank you to all of those teachers who attended this school board meeting and those other teachers and staff that contributed to getting our concerns to the school board members!
Our challenge is now who will attend the School Boards' Work Study Session at 5:00 PM January 28th (location to be announced). We will need new and additional faces to show that this type of activity will be ongoing for the long haul and not just a momentary blip on the radar screen. We would especially like to have parents come and speak to the Board and show their support for teachers. If you haven't spoken to your PTA or parents please try to do so soon.
This meeting will most likely be the time and location where the school board members must determine and finalize the 2010-11 Budget and therein their priorities of how they "truly" values teachers. Please have as many teachers attend this meeting as possible! We are attempting to get the Superintendent and Board members to hold this next meeting at a larger facility (possibly Roosevelt or Madison Middle School) where there would be more seating for the audience members.
Again, Thank you all for the support and persistence in staying to support each other and your families!
The VTA Crisis Team