Dear District Colleagues,
Today, just as scheduled, the Union met with the District’s bargaining team (composed of only the CUSD Human Resource Director and a District lawyer). The Union submitted its most recent counter-proposals, which addressed the following contract articles:
* Article 13: LEAVE
* Article 15: SAFETY
* Article 6: COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
More specifically, these counter-proposals have been amended to address the following changes…
* Article 13: LEAVE *
( CAUSE LEAVE Proposal (Counter Proposal) Jan 11.2023 )
The Union included proposals that reflected several insights gathered from this week’s weather event / “natural disaster” and unnecessary hardships experienced by many District employees and families. Teacher and support staff responses to the Union’s recent “Roll-Call” & SURVEY (Here’s a link if you missed it – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SafetyRollCall ) did much to inform Union Leadership on employees’ experiences and the District’s response directly impacted our members, students, and their families.
Our amended LEAVE proposal reflects an effort to educate District Leadership on the impact of the CUSD’s administrative response, or lack thereof. However, always striving to be a constructive partner, the Union’s bargaining team provided remedies and clarified expectations that would minimize future dysfunction and promote the increased safety of District personnel, students, and their families in the future.
* Article 15: SAFETY *
( Counter-Proposal too large to upload.
Please check email ADVISORY for PDF. )
District Surveillance: The Union also reiterated the importance of developing contract language around the District’s extensive and thoroughly opaque increase of audio & visual surveillance systems across the District. Our proposals focused on the need (both legal and professional) for increased accountability measures regarding the use and sharing of surveillance data by District Leadership. CAUSE is determined to support the District as it performs its SAFETY reporting obligations. Therefore, we have provided proposals that would establish timelines and expectations that actually increase employee and student SAFETY.
On a more granular level, our proposal encourages the District to maintain, inventory, and communicate SAFETY resources (per site & facility) in a more effective and legal manner. The Union proposed that the CUSD contractualize a variety of surveillance practices, including but not limited to:
(A) clarifying the number & location of surveillance systems across the District
(B) clarifying the hours CUSD’s surveillance systems are utilized
(C) clarifying the types of media used for the CUSD’s surveillance systems
(D) clarifying the specific purpose of CUSD’s surveillance systems
(E) resolving issues of employee & public access to the District’s surveillance systems and administrative recordings
(F) clarifying and developing policies regarding the monitoring (by District administrators, supervisors, and directors) of the CUSD’s surveillance systems
(G) confirming issues associated with data retention and sharing, related to the District’s surveillance systems
(H) providing employees and students clear “Opt-out” & “Opt-in” permissions, associated with these surveillance systems
SAFETY Related Resources: Industry experts have confirmed that standard SAFETY practices are most effective when employees responding to personal, medical, environmental, and/or other SAFETY related events are well aware of the resources available for these routine and/or predictable events.
Therefore, CAUSE also proposed that the District inventory, update, maintain, and communicate the status and location of SAFETY resources available when employees are required to respond to SAFETY related events. CAUSE agrees with industry experts who encourage school district’s to assume this level of preparedness on an individual site & facility basis.
* Article 6: COMPENSATION & BENEFITS *
( Counter-Proposal too large to upload.
Please check email ADVISORY for PDF. )
The Union reiterated the primary details of our compensation and benefits proposal. Today, CAUSE proposed changes to a variety of previous proposals, so as to get the bargaining partners (CAUSE & CUSD) to a productive agreement.
Specifically, we proposed the following:
- Amendments to the “Responsibility Level” (aka. RL) value schedule, which is both out-dated and professionally unrealistic.
- Amendments to the proposed BCLAD/Bi-Lingual stipend; by reducing our proposed value from $5,000 to $4,000,annually.
- Amendments and clarifications associated with our MULTI-YEAR salary agreement proposal, which would remove retroactive increases for the 2023-24 school year, but maintain those retroactive increases for the current year.
- Reiterated the Union’s desire for a MULTI-YEAR calendar agreement, so as to provide the community, District administrators, and District employees an opportunity to plan more effectively and efficiently into the future.
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Beyond CAUSE’s submission of the three Union counter-proposals cited above, the District did not review or submit either a proposal or counter-proposal at any time during today’s collective bargaining session. That said, the Union will continue to accept future District bargaining proposals when presented in official meetings legally established for that purpose.
Due to schedule conflicts and the limited availability of the CUSD and CAUSE bargaining teams, the next collective bargaining session and opportunity to submit proposals /counter proposals is scheduled for February 1, 2023. Union Leadership looks forward to discussing the process, CAUSE’s proposals, and member interests between now and then. We will release a schedule of upcoming Site-Meetings soon.
Your attention and participation are both needed and appreciated.
In Unity,
~ CAUSE * CERTIFICATED Bargaining Team [2022-23]
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* C.A.U.S.E. – Yes We Can ! *
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