What is CUSD Doing to Protect Employees, Students, and their Families?
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Dear CUSD Colleagues, Students, and Families:
As of this Monday, January 3, 2022, neither parents or staff have been advised of the CUSD’s plans to adjust and/or increase its COVID mitigation efforts or actions (i.e. associated with the current OMICRON surge and increased rate of transmission.)
Districts across the region have invested much time and effort repositioning for the current surge. Several have announced clear and proactive modifications to their COVID protocols, designed to ensure the SAFETY of students, staff, and District families.
But here in CUSD, we’ve heard no such thing.
And this time, the CUSD’s inaction is clearly not about either a lack of money or time to prepare; two conditions that District leadership routinely allege.
On December 22, 2021, California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, announced new actions to protect our community from COVID-19:
* At-home test kits to be distributed statewide for students returning to public school
* Hours to be extended at testing sites with increased demand
* State to require health care workers to get boosters by February 1, 2022
Here’s a link to the announcement, with more detail therein.
Beyond reminding unvaccinated employees of previous expectations to test, Union leadership asks the CUSD to clarify the proactive modifications it is making to its COVID response. We ask that this is done prior to reopening the CUSD in the midst of the most recent surge.
When and where will these State funded test-kits be distributed to students and employees?
If the CUSD chooses not to engage in this recommended action, what justification or rationale does it provide the thousands of Carpinterian families who will be at increased risk as of January 6, 2022; when students and employees return to in-person instruction?
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* C.A.U.S.E. – Yes We Can ! *
Posted on
CAUSE SURVEY [update]
RE: District Leadership Performance Surveys
We take matters of CONFIDENTIALITY very seriously.
[ District retaliation is a legitimate concern. ]
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CUSD Colleagues,
Thank you to the many who have reached out to CAUSE with their questions and concerns. CAUSE Leadership understands that many CUSD employees genuinely fear administrative retaliation if they share survey feedback that contains criticisms, concerns, negative marks and/or observations about our District leadership.
It is true that Superintendent Rigby, with the support of the School Board, has pursued an atmosphere that threatens dissenting employee voices and has illegally punished those who have engaged in Union activities. Fortunately, the State of California recognizes this also. Recently, this was again demonstrated by important legal decisions confirming CUSD’s attempts to discipline employees for engaging in protected Union activities.
With this in mind, we want to assure our District colleagues, CLASSIFIED and CERTIFICATED, that the Union takes the CONFIDENTIALITY of survey participants VERY SERIOUSLY.
Here’s how:
1.) The Union will not release any survey responses or data in association with any single respondent’s name or identity.
2.) Where, due to respondent pool size, a small pool of respondents could be easily identified; Union Leadership will not publicize said data alone. Instead, we will collate that data with larger data-sets. Feedback from our smaller elementary schools or programs will be collated with Site-Principal or Supervisor data from the larger school-sites & programs they work administer.
examples…
(A) SUMMERLAND data is collated w/ALISO data
(B) CFS data is collated w/ CANALINO data
(C) RINCON HS data is collated w/ CHS data
3.) Confidential access to comprehensive survey data is limited to a select few (No more than 3.) elected CAUSE leaders. Similarly, respondent feedback is preserved on external computers and programs, which are encrypted, password protected, and inaccessible to the CUSD.
Moving forward, whether an employee works at either a large or small school-site/program, CLASSIFIED & CERTIFICATED employees may participate in the survey process with the confidence that CAUSE Leadership has thoroughly considered how it can secure and protect their confidentiality and well-being.
Similar to teaching and learning, CAUSE Leadership is painfully aware that little genuine engagement can occur until the SAFETY of those involved can be secured.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
~ j. Hotchner * CAUSE President
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* C.A.U.S.E. – Yes We Can ! *
Posted on
CAUSE SURVEYS
2021 Performance Surveys
District Leadership: Site Principals, Supervisors, Directors
Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent,
& the Human Resource Director
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Greetings District Colleagues,
On Dec. 1st, Union leadership released four (4) performance surveys, to be completed by District Unit-Members (i.e.Both employees who are and are not union members; CLASSIFIED & CERTIFICATED). We appreciate the participation of so many CUSD employees who took a few minutes to record their experience working with CUSD’s administrators.
Throughout this week, we have received many requests to extend the deadline we had previously announced (Dec. 10, 2021). As a result, CAUSE is extending the collection period.
Please make every effort to complete the surveys before the winter break gets underway. And encourage your colleagues to do the same, which can be done by simply forwarding this to their personal or CUSD.net email accounts.
Just follow the link below, which will take you to our CAUSE website where the surveys have been posted. [Go toMEMBER SURVEYS, and select from the scroll-down menu below.]
Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.
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* C.A.U.S.E. – Yes We Can ! *
Posted on
CAUSE ADVISORY
* HEARING UPDATE *
Re: CUSD’s Performance Evaluation Violations
The Union rests it’s case.
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Greetings CUSD Employees, Administrators, and District Families.
The Union is pleased to confirm that the legal hearings associated with the District’s contract violations have concluded. Not only did the Union effectively present its case regarding the District’s extensive and historic evaluation violations, but our efforts also expedited (without prejudice) the merits of the case.
By the time the hearing had concluded, CAUSE Leadership accomplished the following:
1.) Through stipulations, the District agreed with CAUSE about many relevant facts pertaining to the CLASSIFIED evaluation processes experienced by many employees. As a result, many witnesses were not required to be pulled out of the teaching & learning environment to physically provide their testimony, which was instead placed on the record via the stipulation process.
2.) Since the District stipulated a number of important facts it had previously refused to acknowledge, the hearing event was reduced to a single date (Monday, November 28, 2021). This saved the Union some anticipated costs, but much more importantly, it prevented the District from squandering even more public-monies in an attempt to defend its contract violations.
3.) Through testimony provided by the Union President, j. Hotchner, CAUSE was able to introduce the remainder of the important facts needed to further clarify the District’s performance evaluation violations. This testimony included a variety of now well documented employee experiences, including but not limited to: (A) the long-standing nature of the District’s evaluation violations under Superintendent Diane Rigby, and (B) the District’s well documented (i.e. by state agencies/boards) retaliation and targeting of Union Leadership and CUSD employees seeking Union advocacy.
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The next phase in this process involves the submission of legal briefs to the judge, which is scheduled to take place in February, 2022. We hope to have a decision from the neutral state arbitrator by April, 2022; a timeline that allows the District to implement (and the Union to monitor) any improvements and directed remedies before the end of the 2021-22 instructional year.
CAUSE Leadership appreciates the bravery and dignity demonstrated by so many CLASSIFIED employees who worked with the Union and refused to accept the violations thrust upon them by CUSD leadership. In choosing to demand their contractual rights, their sacrifice brings benefit to their students, their colleagues, and the families they serve; all the while, improving the professional culture and (perhaps even) the ethical expectations of District management.
In Unity,
~ CAUSE Leadership
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* C.A.U.S.E. – Yes We Can ! *
Posted on
CAUSE ADVISORY
About Today’s Arbitration / Hearing:
Re. CUSD’s Performance Evaluation Violations
Why Evaluations Matter?
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Greeting CUSD Colleagues & Families,
Today, as a result of the recent decision by a neutral state arbitrator, CUSD and CAUSE will be in hearings throughout the day. In these hearings, we’ll be exploring the District’s now well documented violations associated with CLASSIFIED performance evaluations.
Meanwhile, we wanted to help District employees clearly understand the contractual process they are both required and entitled to participate in. Developing a strong record of high quality professional growth and performance is an important part of your professional experience and record.
Here’s why evaluations matter:
1.) The Evaluation processes, as contained in the CERTIFICATED & CLASSIFIED collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) are a measuring tool for employee performance.
The evaluation process is an opportunity for site/facility administrators to work directly and constructively with the CUSD employees they supervise. The evaluation article and process are designed to improve employee performance. The contract article (again, attached) is designed to serve as a growth-oriented process (i.e. versus a disciplinary process, which is also contained in the CBA.)
2.) The evaluation process provides all District employees an opportunity to both demonstrate their professional competency.
3.) The evaluation process provides both employees and the District with a formal record of their high-quality performance; the documentation being maintained and preserved in each employee’s personnel file. This formal record may impact a variety of future and/or other professional matters, such as…
It may be used to inform promotion decisions.
It may be used to investigate past performance, to contest or in the face of fabricated disciplinary allegations.
In both external (ex. PERB, State courts, etc.) and internal (ex.. meetings with the Human Resource Department, Site-Meetings, etc.) environments, performance evaluation may be used to establish a pattern of professional and ethical conduct and performance.
4.) The evaluation process is not intended or designed to serve as a disciplinary process. These are two distinct processes in the CLASSIFIED CBA, which are not to be confused or conflated. The evaluation process is not to be used by CUSD administrators to either play “Gotcha’!” with previously unannounced performance concerns, or as a retaliatory tool when supervisors take offense with an employees gender, race, ethnicity, Union affiliation, medical condition, age, or for any other discriminatory reason.
Union leadership looks forward to providing further updates as the arbitration process continues. Your attention, engagement, and support are appreciated.
Greetings CAUSE Members, District Employees, and Community Members,
The Union Wins an Important Legal Victory !
Recently, CUSD’s employee Union, CAUSE, won a significant legal decision by a neutral state (of California) arbitrator; see attached. Not only did the Union win the legal action, but the arbitrator affirmed the Union’s position on every point the Union charged. As a result, CUSD must arbitrate upon its extensive CLASSIFIED EVALUATION violations.
Background:
After many attempts to resolve this issue informally, the Union submitted a formal grievance in Autumn of 2019. When the District failed to recognize and respond to the grievance, the Union continued to process it through to the arbitration step, which provide the parties a contractual opportunity for an external third party (working with the State of California, CMCS & the Public Employee Relations Board / PERB) to both review the merits of the Union’s grievance and direct Superintendent Rigby & the CUSD to respond; as was their legal obligation. [ If you would like to review the extensive effort associated with the grievance process provided, see ARTICLE 4 * Grievance Procedures * CLASSIFIED Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)]
Although both Superintendent Rigby and District leadership spent the last two years, and considerable public-monies, trying to avoid, delay, and obstruct this arbitration, the sheer determination and tenacity of Union leadership has secured a pathway to resolve the harm and conditions created by the District. In the arbitrator’s recent decision (follow link: http://cause2216.org/wp-content/uploads/2021.10.26.Arbitrator-Ruling-on-Procedural-Arbitrability778041.1.pdf ), she recognized the delays and obstruction engaged in by the District. As a result, an arbitration hearing on the merits of the grievance is now set November 29th and Nov. 30th, 2021, here at the CUSD District Office.
At the upcoming hearing, a State designated arbitrator will examine three specific violations engaged in by the District:
1.) The District’s failure to provide and/or complete required annual performance evaluations of CLASSIFIED employees.
2.) The District failed to use the agreed upon evaluation [CEPA] form for evaluations, as designated and provided in the CBA * Article 10.
3.) In some cases where performance evaluations were completed, the District played “Gotcha’!” and rated CLASSIFIED employee as “not effective” without following contractual expectations cited in Article 10.1; including…
(A) the failure to provide prior written notice of the performance issues
(B) and/ or the failure to provide specific directives for improvement when performance failures were documented
(C) and/or the failure to provide specific assistance/training better support the employee’s performance
(D) and/or the failure to provide employees with a reasonable time frame for improvement and/or feedback meetings.
Moving forward * Have you also been impacted? :
CAUSE Leadership will continue to pursue the second phase of this legal victory; the upcoming formal hearings with the neutral arbitrator.
That said, and although the Union has already secured several CLASSIFIED employees to testify to the conditions (1-3) listed above, we are aware that many other CLASSIFIED employees (i.e. support staff) have been subjected to similar evaluation experiences. If you have also been impacted by these conditions, please contact us immediately. It is the Union’s goal to resolve any CUSD evaluation violation experienced by District employees, but we can’t advocate for you if we aren’t aware of your specific experience. If you are unsure if your evaluation processes have been conducted correctly under the contract, we’d be happy to review your experience and confirm one way or another.
In Solidarity,
CAUSE Leadership
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* C.A.U.S.E. – Yes We Can ! *
Feel free to visit our CAUSE website:
https://cause2216.org/
Your feedback and interest are appreciated!
* In the event you received this email and are not either a District Administrator, Board Member, or Union Member, please contact us immediately. We will remove you from this email grouplist. *
