Update and Message

Members, 

It has been wonderful visiting sites and meeting members.  If I have not yet been to your site, please contact your site representative to set up a site visit.  

Bargaining Update:
Your VTA Bargaining team met with the district April 12th to begin bargaining the 2022/2023 contract.  The district made proposals for articles 12: Salaries, 18: Teachers’ Duty Hours, 20: Class Size, and 30: Special Education.  VTA shared their proposals for articles 12, 13: Unit Member Benefits, 18, and  20. We will make our proposal on article 30 at the next bargaining meeting with the district.  We will respond to the district’s proposals following collaboration and direction from our VTA Executive Board. We will meet with our executive board on Monday April 18, 2022.  

The district offered a 0% salary increase and rejected the 6% increase your bargaining team proposed.  6% is a reasonable starting point given the current projections for COLA.  It is unfortunate that the district is feel’s that they have met their goal regarding salary at this time and has not addressed inflation or cost of living increases that directly affect their staff.  

Please keep a look out for future bargaining updates.  What can you do now?  Let the board members know how you feel about a 0% salary increase and what that does to your ability to help you provide a quality education for your students.  

Here are some talking points:

• How has inflation and increases in gas prices affect you?
  
• How have the cost of living increases affected your budget?
  
• How do you serve your students on a daily basis?
  
• Do you worry about being able to afford living in or close to the community you serve?
  
• If you live in Vista, how does this make you feel given the current economic climate and that there is a lack of moderate affordable housing in Vista?
  
• Are you or have you thought about applying to neighboring districts?
  
• That you stand behind our bargaining team and that 0% is unacceptable.  
  

Continue to wear your VTA shirts on Thursdays (or your site's VTA Shirt Day). and on all bargaining days.  

We return to Bargaining on April 27th.  Wear your shirts on that day and post  a pic on social media of you and your VTA Family wearing your shirts.  
#strongertogether, #wearevta, #vistaTA, #local1088, #westandbehindVTAbargaining

Be ready to come out to the May 5th Board Meeting.  More information will be coming.  Make sure you keep an eye out for future emails these next few weeks.  

The One-Time and Retro Pay
What we know is that the one-time is anticipated to be in the April pay warrant and the Retro pay will hopefully be on our May or June warrants.  Human Relations will have more accurate information.  We encourage you to email HR to ask when we will receive these payments.   

RSVP for April 30th

• Community Service with Rotary Club and VTA at the Vetern’s Wall by VMMS (9am - 12pm)
  
• Family Lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack (1:30pm - 2:30pm)
  
• Karaoke Night at Smitty’s Downtown Vista (7:30pm - 10:30pm)]
  

Link to RSVP

Elections
The election timeline has been extended and we have a position open on EBoard for Middle School Rep.  If you are interested in running and stepping up into VTA Leadership please fill out a declaration HERE and get it to the VTA office by 4:00 pm on April 22.  Elections for High School rep, Middle School rep and Secretary will take place April 25-May 4 at your school sites.

Question of the Month
There is still time to answer the question of the month for April.  If you had a superpower what would it be?  Just respond to this email with your answer.  Please include what site you are at.  The site that has the most responses will win a pizza party.  Congratulations to our March winner Empresa!