• Who We Are
  • Member Benefits
  • Contract
  • News
  • CUTA Calendar
  • Documents and Videos
  • Awards & Scholarships
  • Contact
Chico Unified Teachers Association
  • Who We Are
  • Member Benefits
  • Contract
  • News
  • CUTA Calendar
  • Documents and Videos
  • Awards & Scholarships
  • Contact

CUTA News

Bargaining Update

10/24/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello colleagues,

Your CUTA bargaining team and the District met for negotiations on Thursday, October 22. We discussed issues related to the current MOU for the AM/PM model (modified traditional), and we began discussions on the MOU for the next stage: traditional model with safety protocols.

On Wednesday night, the School Board voted to remain in our current AM/PM model of instruction for the remainder of the calendar year if Butte County is in the red, orange or yellow tiers. This represents a willingness by the Board to slow down and give Chico Unified time to adapt to our rapidly changing teaching situations. In addition, they maintained their current position that if Butte County returns to the purple tier, school will return to an online-only model, but they reserved the right to evaluate the situation and change their minds. For example, if Butte County returned to the purple tier because of a major increase in cases at the jail, the Board might choose to remain in the AM/PM model because of the relative lack of connection to our school populations.

Safety Protocols

Based on the Board’s decision, we will be operating under the current modified traditional model MOU until at least January. We spent time working with the District to fix initial problems with the current MOU. We identified areas of concern from the survey responses and from members contacting CUTA directly. One of the largest areas of concern was the sense that many situations that arise at school didn’t have clear safety protocols in place. For instance, we identified the following broad scenarios to be addressed in terms of safety protocols:

  • Shared materials (science labs, art classes, computer labs, and many others)
  • Specific styles of classes involving singing or loud speaking (drama, chorus, band, and others)
  • Expectations for students in common areas (MPRs, cafeterias, gymnasiums, etc.)
  • Small group instruction (especially small reading groups in elementary)
  • Approved facial coverings
  • Dealing with “doctor shopping” for student mask exemptions

For the shared materials scenario, it is impossible to create step-by-step instructions. For example, the protocols for the use of shared materials would be exhaustive and eternally incomplete as we discovered new and different situations where materials might be shared: lab beakers, paint brushes, clay, keyboards, pencils, paper, folders, markers, glue sticks, scissors, and on and on. The first step for most affected members will be to talk with your site administrator if you are unsure of how to safely use a shared material. If you are unsatisfied with the result of that conversation, contact CUTA and we will follow up with the District. Students may be asked to clean up after themselves, and a certain degree of common sense can guide you as well. You may also choose not to use shared materials depending on your comfort level with the suggested solutions or protocols. I have sympathy for those of you whose subjects are so deeply impacted by the major challenges of shared materials. This is an even more difficult teaching time for you.

The District has protocols for classes like drama, chorus and band, and they will have these posted in the FAQs in the staff room on the District website or in another agreed upon area. Expectations for students in common areas is the same as for the rest of campus: facial coverings, social distancing to the extent possible, and established cleaning protocols. Small group instruction may take place, but teachers should evaluate their personal situation and see whether it meets the established safety protocols including facial coverings and social distancing to the extent possible. Again, a conversation with your site administrator is a great first step if you are unsure. You may also choose not to use small group instruction if you aren’t comfortable with it. The District is releasing enhanced information about approved facial coverings: bandanas, masks with valves and mesh or transparent masks are not approved. Finally, the District has a strong deterrent process in place for students who have doctor’s notes excusing them from wearing a facial covering. This process will be posted as well.

As the District gathers this information together, they will work to post it in a central, easily accessible location. One option discussed was to continue to use the FAQs in the staff room of the District website linked here. This document is already 24 pages long and continuing to grow, but unfortunately that’s the nature of the situation we all find ourselves in. If you are unsure of a safety protocol, please talk to your site administrator, explore the FAQs, and if you are still unsatisfied, please contact CUTA.

In our current situation, there is a requirement to test 25% of CUSD employees every two weeks so that 100% of employees are tested every two months. The District has been meeting with Christy Patterson of BSSP to establish the procedures. Our current understanding is that the tests will be issued with an employee name and barcode, and the employee will self-administer the test and return the swab(s) in a sealed, provided container. This will be required. Employees who do not get tested when assigned a test will not be allowed to return to work. Think of it like the TB tests required of us. I believe the District is leaning towards organizing this at the site level--including delivery of tests, self-testing and return of the test--rather than having the tests mailed to employees homes, but it is the District’s choice. We are still waiting for clarification for when and/or how long testing is required. Although we are teaching in a “red tier” model, Butte County has entered the orange tier. How that impacts testing is still unknown.

Another safety protocol listed in the MOU is that the District will change the air filter in a classroom HVAC unit if the class has a positive test. To be completely transparent, that language came to us in an example MOU from CTA that we used as a model document and was included in the MOU without much thought by either side. We basically missed it. We haven’t been able to find any state or health department recommendations concerning replacing a filter after a positive test. Currently, the District has upgraded all air filters to the high strength MERV 13s. They are committed to replacing them within their scheduled lifespans dependent on the American supply chain. Many of our filters are custom jobs and MERV 13 filters in general are on severe back order everywhere. The District believes they have a sufficient supply to maintain their scheduled replacements. They also have large orders awaiting fulfillment.

Other MOU Issues

We will be adding to the MOU the requirement for all teachers to maintain seating charts and adhere to them. Although we recognize some teachers like to give students the freedom of choice, we need to have the ability to contact trace in the event of a positive test in a classroom. Teachers must be able to document, within reason, who was sitting where. Please ask substitutes to adhere to your seating charts.

The District agreed in principle that secondary teachers may continue to use Edgenuity for the remainder of the school year, including January to June, if they choose. Teachers may also switch to their traditional curriculum without completing the District developed form. Teachers may also choose to use some combination of their traditional curriculum and Edgenuity.

Some members were struggling to utilize the District-provided childcare because the start and end times were the same as, or too close to, the start and end times at their own sites. The District worked with CARD to expand the childcare start and end times to 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively. The District has housed almost all of the children of members who requested childcare, but I realize this is cold comfort if you are one of the remaining few who have been left in an untenable position. Please contact Tina Keene regarding your position on the waiting list. You may also contact Kevin Moretti to determine your eligibility for 12 weeks of partially paid federal childcare leave.

Cleaning Concerns

We have heard from some members that they are concerned that it will be impossible for the District to accomplish the cleaning protocols established in the MOU. This has to be addressed in two ways. First, if cleaning does not occur it might be for one of two main reasons:

  • Systemic: the tasks assigned are too much to complete and so they aren’t happening enough or at all
  • Intermittent: usually due to an absent custodian with no sub available

Identifying which situation is occurring is important.

Second, the cleaning protocols are in the MOU and so the District must adhere to them. If they do not, it is grievable. The question becomes: what is the remedy for a member if the District and CUTA agree that a specific cleaning task was not completed? There is no simple answer. Obviously, the member wants a clean and safe work space. The best we managed as a possible remedy is that the member reports the apparent incomplete cleaning task to an administrator. When CUTA and the District agree that a cleaning task did not occur, the member will be provided an alternate teaching/workspace while the cleaning is completed. This could look very different in different situations.

For example, a member might arrive at school in the morning and notice that a cleaning task did not occur. The member contacts their administrator who checks and sees there was an unfilled custodial absence. The cleaning task is completed as quickly as possible. The teacher and class (if applicable) may meet for a few minutes outside of the room or they may be directed to another classroom or open area on campus.

In another scenario, the teacher may report an incomplete cleaning task, but there is no obvious reason why the task wasn’t completed and/or it is difficult to tell if the cleaning task occurred or not. In this case, the teacher would be expected to continue working in their usual space until CUTA and the District can come to an agreement one way or the other. If they agree, then the above described remedy would take place.

This is far from perfect, but we haven’t been able to think up another, more appropriate remedy. The District has agreed to this idea in principle.

Volunteer Hybrid Virtual Teaching: The Third Option

By far the most challenging issue we discussed was the so-called third option in which teachers volunteer to allow a student or students to join their class virtually, most often while teaching a classroom of in-person students at the same time. Both sides agree that this is an inferior method of teaching. Both sides also agree that it is untenable in the long term. The disagreement arises in defining the “long term”. The District would like this model to continue when we move to our next stage of instruction in the orange tier: when most or all students are back on campus in full classes for full days. Your bargaining team’s initial position is that the third option should end when most or all of our students are back on campus in full classes for full days.

The District is seriously concerned about students leaving Chico Unified if they are not provided this option. CUTA shares the concern of losing students. Declining enrollment is financially devastating for a school district. CUTA needs to know what the opinions of its members are, so we will be surveying you once again. I know this feels like the year of surveys, but we absolutely must get a feel for your positions when we have to make decisions on short timelines. Please take the time to fill out this survey when it comes out next week. As we only take bargaining input from CUTA members, please remember to include your name. Kevin has had to delete almost twenty responses due to a lack of identification.

Future MOU: Traditional Model with Safety Protocols

In some ways, this should be the easiest MOU to develop, since many of our usual contractual agreements will return to normal. In other ways, it will be very challenging. If Butte County remains in the orange tier, we will likely return to school in January with full classes and students staying for the full day. Other safety and cleaning protocols will remain in place including facial coverings and enhanced sanitation.

If Butte County’s status continues to fluctuate up and down in the tiers and this anticipated “full return” in January isn’t guaranteed, CUTA is arguing for a week of warning before another change in schedule occurs. We may go into winter break quite positive that we are making that full return in January, but if we don’t know for sure, CUTA believes teachers should have some warning before it happens.

At the secondary level, we are proposing that normal schedules, including previously approved waivers, go back into effect. At the elementary level, we are proposing the same, even while recognizing that schools on minimum day waivers did not get their minimum days for parent teacher conferences. The minutes weren’t banked for half of the year either, but the remaining minimum days on elementary calendars will stay in effect.

We are also exploring options for our elementary prep time providers, who would still be seeing between 700 and 1500 different students during a full rotation. Elementary teachers will get the amount of prep they are entitled to, but we are examining delivery options.

I don’t know how many times you can hear that we are living through unprecedented times and that your tireless work with students is deeply appreciated until it stops meaning anything. I hope you can hear it at least one more time. Thank you for all that you do for your students and their families. You are truly essential.

If you’d like to look at our contract, click here. Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.

Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chair
Chico Unified Teachers Association
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

9/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello colleagues,

Your CUTA bargaining team met with the District on Wednesday, September 23. We continued discussions concerning the instructional model and schedule to be used when Butte County exits Tier 1: Purple and enters Tier 2: Red. Currently, in Tier 1: Purple, in-person instruction may not take place with certain exceptions made for special education (subject to legal requirements from the state) and “bubble” cohorts of no more than 16 total people. When Butte County is in Tier 2: Red, in-person instruction may take place with safety protocols including enhanced cleaning, facial coverings, and social distancing to the extent possible. This model is called a modified traditional schedule. The process for putting this schedule into place will be the same as for the online learning model. Members will be surveyed during the negotiations, E-Board will approve a final MOU with the District, and membership will vote on the MOU using the same online voting tool used on the previous MOU.

Modified Traditional Schedule

Both the elementary and secondary proposed schedules involve cutting classes in half. CUTA is advocating for class sizes of no more than 50% of your contractual class size max. For example, in secondary, the class size max is 38; CUTA has proposed a class size max of 19 so that teachers don’t end up with extremely uneven splits (26 students in the AM and 12 in the PM, for example).

The proposed elementary schedule has two blocks of teaching time, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with a block in the middle during which lunch, room cleaning, and some extra education services (special education, Title 1, speech, etc) could take place. Special education, Title 1, and speech services would also take place during the blocks, and these members would not be expected to have more or less student time than other members, though some use of online meeting platforms might be utilized. Classes would be divided into an AM and a PM group, and teachers would see ½ their class in the morning block and ½ their class in the afternoon block. In this proposed schedule, teachers would be responsible for assigning independent coursework for students to complete outside of class, but teachers would not be responsible for interacting with the half of the class that is not on campus. The amount of coursework to assign would be enough to equal a full day of instructional minutes. For example, if a 4th grade AM class was in class for 120 minutes, the teacher would assign roughly 120 minutes of coursework to equal 240 minutes total, which is the state-reduced required daily instructional minutes for 4th grade. If the teaching blocks were longer, the amount of coursework assigned would be reduced accordingly. Please take time to fill out the survey sent by Kevin Moretti to share your thoughts on this schedule and related items. The deadline for the survey will be Monday afternoon, September 28, at 5 p.m. Here is the elementary link.

The schedule proposed for secondary that is currently under the most serious consideration is also an AM/PM model. In this schedule, the periods would flip each day to ensure that students remain in the AM or PM and to ensure that teachers have a prep each day. For example, on Monday, teachers would see their AM students (before lunch) for periods 1, 2 and 3 and their PM students (after lunch) for periods 4, 5 and 6. On Tuesday, teachers would see their AM students (before lunch) for periods 4, 5 and 6 and their PM students (after lunch) for periods 1, 2 and 3. The schedule would continue to flip back and forth every day. There are two other proposed schedules. Please take time to fill out the survey sent by Kevin Moretti to share your thoughts on this schedule and related items. The deadline for the survey will be Monday afternoon, September 28, at 5 p.m. Here is the secondary link.

Additional Items Related to the Modified Traditional Schedule

The District is struggling to see how they can continue to provide childcare to members in the modified traditional schedule. With students back on campus, the rooms used for childcare will be unavailable and the CSEA members used for supervision will return to normal working duties. CUTA knows this is a major concern for many members. We have struggled to come up with ideas, too. The less-than-ideal solutions CUTA has suggested include:
  • Allowing members to bring their children into their own classrooms during the AM or PM slot, when their child is not in class
  • District-provided subs so groups of five members can form “pods” to provide childcare: five teachers would form a group and the District would provide one sub day per teacher each week so that the teachers could rotate through providing childcare at home for the other four teachers
  • Utilizing the high school students in PV’s Career for Kids and similar classes to provide childcare

None of these options are good, and, in any event, the District is still considering whether to agree to any of them or not. Both bargaining teams know this is a critical component of the modified traditional schedule.

Additionally, in our current online learning MOU, we have language that protects your sick leave in the event that you cannot work due to Covid-19 related reasons, including positive diagnoses, required quarantining, and others. CUTA has shared that this is absolutely critical to include in an MOU for the modified traditional schedule. This leave protection is in part linked to federal legislation that is set to expire on December 31. Any MOU we vote on will have a December 31 expiration date, as well.

Another factor in an AM/PM model is the allocation of aide time in elementary, especially in TK-2. It’s difficult to see how aides could be shared equally between AM and PM classes because of the challenge in finding and scheduling classroom aides. The District is trying to resolve this issue, but like many challenges faced in these unique scheduling scenarios, there may be no good answer.

Other issues have arisen that we are attempting to solve. For example, the scheduling of RSP, Title 1, speech and SDC in elementary school is very complicated in this model. At the least, CUTA can say that these members will not be expected to work more than their classroom colleagues.

There is no way that we will anticipate, much less solve, all of the possible problems in a modified traditional schedule, which is why both CUTA and the District will have the right to reopen the MOU for negotiations at any time for any reason.

Other Ongoing Topics

While Butte County is still in Tier 1: Purple, the possibility of elementary waivers for in-person instruction continues to be explored. CUTA’s position is that we don’t want to get in the way of teachers who wish to pursue this possibility, but no teacher should be forced into participating. The District shares this position.

California directives regarding in-person instruction during Tier 1: Purple mandate in-person instruction in special education in certain specific situations. The District is maintaining that they are trying to only use volunteers for special education in-person instruction, but they may be faced with situations in the future where they have to assign special education teachers to in-person instruction. While clearly this is inequitable, CTA has advised us that we can’t fight these assignments and that teachers that will not, can not or should not be exposed to in-person instruction would have to explore leave options. CUTA is encouraging the District to hold the line on parent requests for in-person special education instruction unless it is absolutely required legally.

California has also released guidelines for the use of student cohorts during Tier 1: Purple. These cohorts must consist of no more than 16 “bodies” (some combination of students and adults) who cannot mix with any other cohort, although there are provisions for students in a cohort to meet for one-on-one services such as speech. These are entirely voluntary, and some CUTA members wish to pursue forming cohorts. CUTA and the District have agreed on a waiver process, to be approved by E-Board and the District, to allow members to form cohorts. CUTA has an interest in the waiver having an exit clause so that it can be ended by the teacher, CUTA or the District, although the timeline is still being negotiated. Forming a cohort is entirely voluntary. If you feel pressured by an administrator or colleague to form a cohort, please contact your president, Kevin Moretti.

It goes without saying that these are strange, challenging times for all of us. Please find ways to take care of your mental and physical health. Things won’t always be this way, but we need to support each other more than ever right now.

If you’d like to examine our contract, click here.

Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.

Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chair
Chico Unified Teachers Association
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

9/18/2020

0 Comments

 
​Hello All,
Your CUTA Bargaining Team will meet with the District this coming Wednesday.  One of our main topics is bargaining the working conditions for members to be put in place when Butte County enters Stage 2 (which is now called Red?).  This is will happen some time in the future when students come back in some kind of AM/PM model.

The process for approving a new MOU to cover this stage will be the same as the process for the first MOU that covers on-line learning while we are in Stage 1 (Purple?) in that you will all vote on the new MOU for it to be approved and put into effect.

Your bargaining team will be reaching out to you for feedback.  It may be best to do this as a survey monkey.  I just want to give you a preview of some of the topics we are discussing so you can start thinking about it before the survey comes out.

Nothing is in stone.  We are just talking possibilities and there may be much better ideas out there we have not considered.

Elementary
AM/PM - Two hour block in the am say 8:30-10:30 / two hour block pm 12:30-2:30.  In between is lunch and prep while rooms are cleaned.  
Issues/questions with this model.
Where do teachers go when their room is being cleaned?
When do SLP, Title 1, RSP, etc. see students?  If they see the am kids in the pm block do parents pick them up at 10:30 and bring them back at 12:30?

Secondary:
AM/PM-Day 1 Half your kids in periods 1,2,3,4,5,6 Day 2 the other half, but 4,5,6,1,2,3.  AM kids go to 1,2,3 on Day 1 and 4,5,6 on Day 2.  Teacher gets their prep each day.

Impossible to clean between classes or even at lunch.  If can't clean at lunch, should we shorten lunch to 30 minutes to get kids off campus?  Should we shorten passing periods?  If we do, does that give teacher enough time for a restroom break?

This is just a sample of what we are trying to figure out.  I will try and develop the first survey today or this weekend.  I'm guessing there will need to be several surveys as we move forward.


Kevin Moretti
CUTA Chapter President
530-343-0226/530-828-9803
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

7/30/2020

0 Comments

 
​Hi Folks,
Your CUTA Bargaining Team met with the District yesterday.  While we are not yet finished and will meet again this coming Tuesday, the teams did agree on several issues.  You are not going to like the first one, nor do we.  It was a compromise we were willing to make.  You have the absolute right to disagree with us and vote this down.   
Items agreed to so far either in writing or in general concept with further details being worked on are for Stage 1 on-line learning.   I spoke with Jim Hanlon this morning.  We should be sending out exact language of everything agreed to so far, as well as items still being discussed, some time this Monday. 
  • Three hours of the teacher’s work day will be provided on-site.  The District will determine when those three hours are delivered within the pre-COVID workday for that site.  Example: Chico High teachers pre-Covid workday was 7:45-3:10. Your 3-hour block on site will fall with-in that time frame.  For most members, this would be the first 3 hours of the day, though special education, Title 1, ELD, counselors and others might be scheduled at later times within the workday. The 3 hours must be contiguous; the District can't give you a "split shift".  
Your CUTA Bargaining Team’s rationale:  We had to choose between a compromise or playing hardball, as will you when this all comes to you for a vote.  The hardball option: stick to our position that teachers will be given the choice to work from home or school as we did in the spring.  If the District sticks to their position and there is no agreement when school starts August 17, existing contract language prevails and all educators are on campus for the entire day.  I’m not sure if they could contractually force you to use Edgenuity at the secondary level as that is an independent study program and members can not be involuntarily transferred or reassigned into an “alternative program”.  I imagine they could require you to teach your lessons in some form accessible to the students within your workday.  I’m unclear how that would work.  My guess is both sides would be breaking out the lawyers.  On the other hand, the District may “blink first”, see it from our point of view, and let teachers choose to work from home or school.  If we take this course, I imagine that they will not be as willing to agree to other parts of the MOU that we like (that I’m sure they are not crazy about).  With school this close and the chaos playing hardball may cause for all, we chose the compromise.  You do not have to and can vote no when we have finished the entire MOU. 
 
  • The Elementary day is the 180 minutes on site doing (I can’t describe it here, but that info will come out very soon) plus 60 minutes of (I can’t describe it here, but that info will come out very soon).  The remainder of your work day is prep time.  The 60 minutes and the prep time may be completed where the member chooses 
  • The Secondary day is five 30 minute on-line “periods” (I can’t describe it here, but that info will come out very soon) plus one 30 minute prep “period” during your 180 minutes on-site plus an additional 130 minutes of (I can’t describe it here, but that info will come out very soon) delivered from home or school during your “normal” workday. 
  • The District is working on providing childcare options for members (details still being worked out) 
  • Members will receive paid leave and not be docked sick leave if they can not work due to COVID illness (details still being worked out) 
  • Members who must be quarantined will be reassigned in a way that they can work from home so as not to be docked sick leave (details still being worked out) 
Again, there is a multitude of other details I am not including.  We started with a 21 page safety document that CTA proposed in Marin County and have been editing it to fit our needs.  You should get that Monday to look at as we continue negotiations.  We meet with the District again this coming Tuesday.  


I am aware you will have many questions.  Would you please wait until the proposed MOU language comes out on Monday?  


Take Care,
Kevin



Kevin Moretti
CUTA Chapter President
530-343-0226/530-828-9803
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

7/26/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello colleagues, 
Your CUTA bargaining team and the District met last Thursday to continue negotiations related to the reopening of school for the 2020-2021 academic year. With COVID-19 cases increasing in Butte County, we need to negotiate an MOU encompassing several pieces: safety protocols at school sites, working conditions for online/distance learning, and working conditions for a hybrid/modified schedule. Butte County is now on the state watch list, which means we are almost certainly going to begin the year in an online/distance teaching model, so we have started with a focus on safety protocols and online/distance learning.

Although we discussed many issues related to reopening, one major issue arose immediately. The District believes that teachers must be on campus daily during the regular work day to teach in an online/distance model. In addition, the District believes that teachers with children should not be able to bring their children to their classroom during the work day. CUTA believes that teachers should have the option to work from home or go to their school site in an online/distance model.

In an effort to alleviate the obvious issues of child care that their stance will cause for teachers with children, the District is developing childcare options for members’ children. The exact parameters of this child care option are still in the works.

Additionally, CUTA feels very strongly that the District needs to recognize the same leave language that we agreed upon in our spring online/distance learning MOU, namely that if a member is diagnosed with COVID-19 and is unable to work, that member will be entitled to paid leave for the entirety of the COVID-19 related absence that does not come from their own accumulated sick leave.

There is a caveat to our position. CUTA feels strongly that the above leave language should be included in any agreement with the District for teaching models in which members are required to go to their school sites. To be clear, if members have the option to teach from home during online/distance learning, we don’t think the District should have to honor that leave language. But if members are required to go to campus, either during online/distance learning or when we return to school sites later during a hybrid/modified schedule or a traditional schedule with safety protocols in place, we feel that leave language should be honored.

There are many, many complicated pieces to these negotiations, but this is central to our return to school. CUTA is aware that a letter writing campaign has begun organically among members to address this issue with the District. Kelly Staley has said she wants to hear from members. Please email her and Jim Hanlon if you have questions about the policy of teaching online from our school sites, whether or not you have children.

We have a lot to get done in a very short time, and any MOU we create with the District will be subject to a member vote. CTA has provided secure, anonymous voting technology so that we don’t have to vote in person. In addition, CUTA plans to survey members about various issues in the coming weeks. Please keep an eye on your email if possible.

Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.

Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chair
Chico Unified Teachers Association
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

6/19/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello colleagues,
​

Your CUTA president, Kevin Moretti, and I have been meeting weekly with the District since the middle of May. Our meetings have also been in consultation with the rest of the CUTA bargaining team and E-Board. We are trying to stay on top of the rapidly changing situation as it relates to bargaining issues surrounding reopening school in August. Because things are changing so quickly, this update may feel vague, but at the very least CUTA wanted you to know that we are continuing our close relationship with the District through the summer months.
​

First and foremost, the District is committed to following any and all health and safety requirements from Butte County and from the state. Currently, many of the suggestions from the state for reopening schools safely have been just that: suggestions, or they have been so qualified as to be almost meaningless as directives. The state guidelines are riddled with phrases like as practical or if possible. This is the result of being part of a huge state that is experiencing the pandemic at very different levels in very different places. Governor Newsom’s recent directive to wear masks statewide in public spaces is one of the strongest directives I’ve seen so far, but even it doesn’t mention yet how it will be enforced in local communities.

Many of you know that the District sent surveys to parents and CUTA members to gauge interest in various instructional models for reopening school. The District plans to send surveys out again since they recognize people’s opinions and thoughts may change as the overall situation develops in Butte County. Please check your email so that you can share your most up to date thoughts about reopening.

Speaking very generally, the surveys indicated that a large majority of parents and teachers wanted to return to traditional school or some hybrid version of traditional school in August, and that a minority, though still substantial number, of parents and teachers were not comfortable returning to school sites in the fall. Even this is not without caveats. Some parents and teachers likely believed that traditional school, as referred to in the survey, would include social distancing, temperature checks, masks, or some combination of these and other protections. The reality of instituting these kinds of protections is unknown, and they are not currently required by the county, though that, like everything else, may change.

This is all to say that we are working with so many unknowns. When you couple this with potentially substantial budget cuts to education, you can imagine how challenging it is to plan anything. Still, the District is making a valiant effort to get prepared for all eventualities. There are large teams of teachers and administrators working on possible elementary and secondary schedules.

Currently, the District plans to expand its online teaching program for students whose parents are planning to not send their children to school sites. There are online curricula for both elementary and secondary students, and the District believes that they can train teachers to use them in one or two short training sessions, which they plan to offer later this summer. One option being explored is to enroll students of concerned parents in online learning and selecting and training teachers who are concerned about returning in the use of these curricula. CUTA and the District have agreed in principle that teachers who attend one of these training sessions would be excused from one of the “teacher-choice” district wide staff development days during the school year or be paid $100. (The District may also offer voluntary training sessions for distance learning in the event that we have to close school sites again at some point during the year; these sessions would be compensated in the same manner as above.)

Matching students who won’t return with teachers who don’t want to return in an online teaching program presents a problem. What if there are more teachers interested in this online teaching option than students to fill the spots? CUTA shared an agreement reached in San Juan that established how to select teachers in this scenario, and, although we haven’t reached an official agreement, the District felt the model was likely to work in Chico Unified. In this model, the District would establish pools of interested teachers for elementary and for secondary. These pools would be chosen from in the following order of priority:
  1. Members with a medical condition making it unsafe to return to traditional teaching due to Covid-19 (documented with a doctor’s note)
  2. Members with a cohabiting family member with a medical condition making it unsafe to return to traditional teaching due to Covid-19 (documented with a doctor’s note)
  3. Members who are concerned about returning to traditional teaching, but don’t have a documented condition
Tie breaking would be satisfied by way of seniority.

There are multiple potential problems with this scenario on which we are still working. For example, what if the school year started smoothly in the traditional setting and large numbers of students exited the online teaching and returned to the traditional classroom? What happens to all of those teachers? Additionally, imagine this model lasted for one year, and everyone was returning to the traditional setting for the 2021-2022 school year. Although I believe the District would make the best effort possible to return members to their original site and teaching assignment, pre-Covid-19, CUSD would never be able to guarantee this. Members opting for the online teaching model would have to realize that due to unforeseen circumstances, including declining enrollment, they could end up in a different assignment on a different site upon return to traditional teaching.

In addition to this model, which likely only applies to approximately 10% of students and members as of current survey data, we have to figure out what school will look like for the other 90% of students and members. We have a lot of work to do and a constantly changing situation to contend with. In the end, much will be dictated by the directives received from the county and state.

As for possible state budget cuts to education, the District is working up multiple scenarios to reflect the various possible state budgets, including major cuts, no cuts, mid-year cuts, etc. If you ever wondered what the District did during the summer months, rest assured they are working extremely hard to try to protect Chico Unified, its students, and its employees. This is an unprecedented situation we find ourselves in, and we will all have to take a lot of deep breaths this summer and wait for more information as it develops.

Try to relax and enjoy your summer holiday as best you can. CUTA will keep you informed of significant developments during the summer. Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.
​

Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chiar
Chico Unified Teachers Association
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

2/28/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello colleagues,
 
Your CUTA bargaining team and the District met for negotiations on Wednesday, February 26. We continued our negotiations about special education, innovative scheduling at the high school, and compensation, and we discussed confusing contract language about the student-to-counselor ratio.
 
Special Education
 
We continued to work on establishing the parameters of the blended model of RSP students and mild/mod SDC students at the secondary level. In this model, mild/mod SDC secondary teachers could volunteer to become RSP teachers. Additionally, the District will no longer identify students as RSP or mild/mod SDC when they enter secondary; all students will be identified as mild/mod students.
 
CUTA believes teachers should have a full understanding of what the new model will look like so that teachers interested in volunteering can make an informed decision. We moved closer to a full understanding this week. RSP teachers, both existing and new volunteers, would teach four classes and have a prep period and a case management period. CUTA and the District are moving towards an agreement on a total student contact number in a day, rather than a maximum class size. This is in part to allow teachers to volunteer to teach five classes instead of four to lower their class sizes throughout the day. The District is also wary of setting a maximum class size too low for a brand new program, although they have expressed concern with any class sizes above the low twenties for this program, and they expect most class sizes to be much smaller.
 
The main development this week is that the District is willing to proceed using a memorandum of understanding (MOU) instead of contract language. Since an MOU is not permanent contract language, current SDC teachers could volunteer to try the new position next year, and if the program did not meet their expectations or other aspects of the program were renegotiated in the final contract language, they could return to their SDC position. Because of the unknown movement of students in a new program like this, it is impossible to guarantee that a teacher choosing to return to SDC would remain at their same site.
 
In addition, the District has not settled on a final date for SDC teachers to volunteer to make the change, but they plan to push it back as far as possible. E-Board would need to approve the MOU we develop, and teachers will still need to see the final details before deciding.
 
Innovative Scheduling at the High Schools
 
At our last negotiations session, the District brought the best offer they felt they could afford for the maximum student contact number. CUTA shared that number with members--204--and many people shared their frustration because they felt it would be impossible to convince two thirds of their colleagues to vote for innovative scheduling with that high of a student contact number.
 
After further discussion, it appears that CUTA and the District weren’t communicating clearly with each other. The District felt pressured by CUTA to provide a final offer on innovative scheduling. That was not CUTA’s intent. The procedures we developed to govern this process don’t have specific dates or deadlines. More meetings are scheduled to continue the innovative scheduling discussion. We will not be rushing to hold the vote at the sites yet. We will share information as it becomes available.

One new piece of information: The District has agreed that RSP teachers in a block schedule would teach five classes, two preps (like all other teachers), and a case management period. CUTA thanks the District for their willingness to listen to special education teachers' concerns. 
 
Compensation
 
CUTA and the District continue to share an interest in the stability gained by a three-year wage agreement. However, according to the District, the raises over the last three years, the state-mandated increases to the District’s STRS contributions, and increasing program costs, including special education, have pushed the District into a deficit. With many unknowns about the state’s budget this year, including a potentially positive change in the way special education will be funded, the District is hesitant to reach a long-term wage agreement at this time. Because of the District’s transparent and honest communication in negotiations, CUTA is willing to keep working on a wage agreement--for next year and the out years--into the fall so that the District can experience greater certainty about the impact of the state budget.
 
CUTA recognizes the District must remain financially secure by addressing deficits in their budget, and one option that we shared for a three-year compensation agreement involved splitting the new money from the state as part ongoing compensation and part one-time money. CUTA would like to continue using the per-ADA percentage increase to identify compensation increases. For example, in this option, if the per-ADA percentage increase were to be 3% for next year, CUTA would receive 1.5% as an ongoing compensation increase, and CUTA would also receive 1.5% in one-time compensation. This allows the District to use their healthy reserves to cover the one-time money, and they would be able to use their half of the ongoing increases to address their deficit over the life of the wage agreement. The District expressed cautious interest in this idea. We will continue our discussions.
 
Student-to-Counselor Ratio
 
Lastly, we examined confusing contract language that is meant to describe the caseload for secondary counselors and how and when the District is obligated to add additional counselor support. Both CUTA and the District agreed that the current contract language is confusing, but more importantly it doesn’t match current practice. We will try to write new language that correctly describes the current practice.
 
If you’d like to see the current version of our contract, here is the link.
 
Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.
 
Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chair
Chico Unified Teachers Association
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

2/13/2020

1 Comment

 
Hello colleagues,

Your CUTA bargaining team and the District met for negotiations on Thursday, February 13. We continued our negotiations revolving around special education, innovative scheduling at the high school, and compensation.

Special Education

The District held a voluntary informational meeting about the plan to merge mild/moderate SDC students and RSP students at the secondary level with secondary mild/mod SDC teachers being given the option to become RSP teachers. The District responded to many questions from our members, and the discussion at the meeting informed our negotiations at this session.

The District agreed in principle to putting the “teach four” schedule into the contract, in which an RSP teacher in the blended model would teach four classes and have one prep period and one case management period. This is current practice at the high schools in the RSP program, but it is not consistently practiced at the middle school level. CUTA would like to see a maximum class size for RSP classes in the planned blended program, but the District is concerned about potential “bubbles” in the program. Without abandoning this initial request for a maximum class size, CUTA proposed a maximum daily student contact so that any one teacher would not be faced with multiple oversized classes.

CUTA also proposed a lower caseload of 26, in part to recognize that all parties involved agreed that the case management for mild/mod SDC students is, in general, more challenging. Although the District did not find this proposal appealing, they agreed to consider the possibility of setting a caseload max of 26 with the option to place a certain annual percentage of teachers at 28 to allow for natural fluctuations in student populations. This will be a difficult idea for the District to agree to.

We also discussed how to write language that would guarantee no teachers would be laid off as the secondary programs were blended, and we agreed in theory that teachers who wanted to leave the blended program would have first rights to move to an open special education position in the District outside of this program.

CUTA and the District are negotiating in good faith, and CUTA encourages its mild/mod SDC secondary teachers to wait until the particulars have been negotiated before volunteering.

Innovative Scheduling

The District came with the best offer they felt they could afford for the final negotiable items relating to innovative scheduling at the high schools. It is summarized in the table below. CUTA will now organize and run the vote at the high schools. This will be a private, “double envelope” vote, and secondary teachers may vote yes, no or abstain. Abstentions will not count in the final vote tally. Two-thirds of non-abstaining teachers must vote yes at each site individually to send the innovative scheduling on to E-Board for approval to add it to the next tentative agreement.


Item
Status

Start time
This will be dictated by the new law saying high school must start at 8:30 or later. If the new law does not go into effect, start times at both schools will likely not change. 

Prep time for general education
A teacher will receive two preps during the eight period block; the preps will be on different days unless mutually agreed to by the member and the administrator.

Prep time for special education
Special education teachers will also receive two preps during the eight period block.

Maximum class size
38: We will continue to follow the language in the secondary class size MOU.

Total student contacts
204: This is an average class size of 34; teachers may volunteer to teach additional students (up to 210) and be paid $500 per added student per semester (as described in the secondary class size MOU.

6/5ths language
If a teacher agreed to teach a seventh class because of site need, he or she would receive pay commensurate to 7/6ths of his or her salary. If a teacher agreed to teach a seventh and an eighth class, he or she would receive pay commensurate to 8/6ths of his or her salary.

Teaching minutes in a day
I believe the following is the latest schedule:
  • Regular instructional minutes: 352 
  • Passing period minutes: 15
  • Break: 10
  • Lunch: 43
  • Wednesday collaboration day would have a 40 minute collaboration with 15 minutes subtracted from regular instructional minutes (leaving 332 minutes), no break, and an earlier start time

Collaboration
The scheduling of collaboration time would be embedded in the contract language for the block schedule with the existing waiver language describing the purpose of collaboration time and the fact that it is teacher-driven.

Transfer language
If the block schedule becomes a reality, high school teachers at PV and Chico High would have first rights to transfer out of comprehensive high schools to other open positions that they are credentialed for and an interview process would govern decisions in the case of multiple candidates.

Sunset clause
Innovative scheduling would have a five year sunset clause, which means that after four years, it would automatically reopen for negotiations. CUTA or the District could choose to end innovative scheduling at that time, or they could negotiate for it to continue.

Flexible implementation year
If innovative scheduling was adopted, the District could delay implementation for one year (from 2021-22 to 2022-23) if required by budgetary constraints.

Finals schedule
The final schedule will be handled individually at each site, and there are enough minutes built into the proposed schedule to handle a finals schedule.

Although portions of this may not be what was hoped for, CUTA recognizes the very real budget constraints and pressures felt by the District, including pressure from CUTA for compensation increases. CUTA recognizes the hard work of its members in developing this proposal and educating members for the last several years.

Compensation

CUTA and the District are going through the IBB process to develop as many possible options for compensation increases as possible. The projected ongoing dollars coming from the state for next year are not large, and CUTA recognizes the District’s need to address all three of their priorities: deficit reduction, compensation and programs. We believe there is a way forward to continue to address all three. We are negotiating while also waiting for more information about the state budget.

If you’d like to see the current version of our contract, here is the link.

Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.

Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chair
Chico Unified Teachers Association
1 Comment

Bargaining Update

1/31/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello colleagues,
 
Your CUTA bargaining team and the District met for negotiations on Thursday, January 16. We continued discussing special education, innovative scheduling at the high school, compensation and a host of other issues as well.
 
Special Education
 
We continued discussing the District’s plan to allow mild/moderate SDC secondary teachers to volunteer to become RSP teachers. In this plan, all of the mild/moderate SDC and RSP students would be blended into one group of students simply called mild/moderate students when they exit elementary school and enter middle school. Any mild/moderate SDC secondary teachers who wish to remain in their positions would be able to with no changes to their job. Those who volunteer to become RSP teachers would have a caseload of 28 students from the blended pool. Current RSP teachers could be impacted in terms of the classes they teach and the sizes of their classes.
 
CUTA is negotiating specifics of the District’s plan, including maximum class sizes, potential changes to caseload maximums, and a guarantee of protection for teachers who don’t volunteer for the change. The District will continue to hold voluntary meetings for potentially impacted teachers, and these meetings have already generated excellent questions, which CUTA shared with the District yesterday
 
The District has not shared a date when they would ask for teachers to make the decision to volunteer, because they recognize that more planning and information is needed. CUTA believes the specifics of the new model need to be negotiated before members should volunteer. We will continue negotiations in February.
 
Innovative Scheduling at the High Schools
 
We began to work on the negotiable issues related to the proposed block schedule at the high schools. Once the negotiated issues have been settled, the final plan will go back to the high schools for a vote to approve or not. If the final plan achieves a two-thirds approval vote at both high schools, the plan will go to E-Board for approval. If E-Board approves the plan, it will go into the next tentative agreement along with other negotiated items unrelated to innovative scheduling, which will be voted on by all members.
 
Negotiable items discussed on Wednesday included (in no particular order):
 
Item
Status

Start time
This will be dictated by the new law saying high school must start at 8:30 or later. If the new law does not go into effect, start times at both schools will likely not change. 

Prep time for general education
A teacher will receive two preps during the eight period block; the preps will be on different days unless mutually agreed to by the member and the administrator.

Prep time for special education
CUTA advocated for special education teachers to receive three non-teaching periods during the eight period block; negotiations are continuing. 

Maximum class size
Still negotiating

Total student contacts
Still negotiating

6/5ths language
If a teacher agreed to teach a seventh class because of site need, he or she would receive pay commensurate to 7/6ths of his or her salary. If a teacher agreed to teach a seventh and an eighth class, he or she would receive pay commensurate to 8/6ths of his or her salary.

Teaching minutes in a day
Still negotiating

Collaboration
The scheduling of collaboration time would be embedded in the contract language for the block schedule with the existing waiver language describing the purpose of collaboration time and the fact that it is teacher-driven.

Transfer language
If the block schedule becomes a reality, high school teachers at PV and Chico High would have first rights to transfer out of comprehensive high schools to other open positions that they are credentialed for and an interview process would govern decisions in the case of multiple candidates.

Sunset clause
Innovative scheduling would have a five-year sunset clause, which means that after four years, it would automatically reopen for negotiations. CUTA or the District could choose to end innovative scheduling at that time, or they could negotiate for it to continue.

Flexible implementation year
If innovative scheduling was adopted, the District could delay implementation for one year (from 2021-22 to 2022-23) if required by budgetary constraints.

Finals schedule
Still negotiating
 
We will continue our discussions in February at our next session and after the two voluntary informational meetings scheduled for February 3 (CHS Lincoln Hall at 3:15 pm) and February 10 (PVHS Library at 3:00 pm).
 
New Teacher Induction Program Costs
 
The state has increased the new teacher induction program from a one-year requirement to a two-year requirement and has also increased the tuition cost from $3,000 to $3,600, for a total cost to new teachers of $7,200. This is an extreme hardship for many new teachers, who are often already saddled with student loans.
 
Several years ago, the District offered to pay $3,000 towards the tuition cost. At the time, this covered the entire cost of the then one-year program. The District then offered to pay $1,500 of the cost “up front” to the new teacher induction program at the Butte County Office of Education to further help our new teachers.
 
I want to be clear that the District came to CUTA and made these generous offers, which we were happy to negotiate. This increased cost comes at an unfortunate time, when money is tight in the District. Nonetheless, we are working with the District to try to alleviate this burden on new teachers. When I talked to BCOE about the induction program, they said that they are sometimes able to get grant money to reduce the tuition cost, but it is not guaranteed. We will also be looking at how surrounding districts are managing this increased cost to new teachers.
 
If you’d like to see the current version of our contract, here is the link.
 
Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.
 
Charlie Snyder
Bargaining Chair
Chico Unified Teachers Association
0 Comments

Bargaining Update

1/16/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello colleagues,
 
Your CUTA team and the District met for negotiations on Thursday, January 16. We continued discussing special education, innovative scheduling at the high school, compensation and a host of other issues as well. 
 
Special Education
 
The District shared their vision for significant change in the secondary mild/moderate special education program. In an effort to provide what they feel is the best program for students and in an effort to save money in the long term, the District plans to combine secondary mild/moderate SDC students and RSP students into one large pool of mild/moderate students. As students leave elementary school, there will no longer be a distinction between the two groups of students. The students will still receive everything allotted them by their IEPs, but they will not be identified as mild/moderate SDC students or RSP students. They will simply be considered mild/moderate special education students.
 
As part of this new approach, the District will offer secondary mild/moderate SDC teachers the option to become RSP teachers. If a mild/moderate SDC teacher chooses to become an RSP teacher, she or he will have a caseload maximum of 28 (up from 20 in junior high and 22 in high school) and she or he will teach four periods and have on prep period and one assessment period. If a mild/moderate SDC teacher chooses to remain in her or his current position, nothing will change in terms of caseload, class size and teaching load; however, if some members of a site SDC team do choose to change and others don’t, it will necessarily have an impact on what subjects the remaining SDC teacher(s) will teach.
 
Secondary sites will identify what classes are needed for the broader pool of mild/moderate students, and all the RSP teachers will need to teach the classes determined to be needed. The District hopes that RSP teachers at each site will work together to decide how best to split up teaching responsibilities. If a significant number of secondary mild/moderate SDC teachers choose to become RSP teachers, it is very likely that current RSP teachers will need to teach different classes in the future than they are accustomed to. How this will impact co-teaching and push-in support is still to be determined.
 
The District first shared this idea with some of the affected teachers at a collaboration meeting a week ago, and they plan to hold more informational meetings in the near future so that mild/moderate SDC teachers can make an informed decision.
 
Although your CUTA bargaining team shares an interest with the District in increasing the efficiency of the special education program and in providing relief to our special education teachers, we are troubled by this approach. There are so many unknowns, and it will have a significant, potentially negative, impact on current RSP teachers. Whether the potential benefits to students will materialize is also unknown. If the majority of secondary mild/moderate SDC teachers choose to become RSP teachers, it will save the District money, because they will need fewer teachers to handle the student load. The District has assured CUTA that they plan to reduce teaching positions through attrition rather than through layoffs, and we will work on language to guarantee that. We will also negotiate an RSP maximum class size, which is currently not part of the contract.
 
Additionally, CUTA cannot stop the District from offering this option to secondary mild/moderate SDC teachers, and the District has the contractual right to reassign RSP teachers to different subjects/classes. If you are an affected member, and if possible, please attend the voluntary informational meetings when they are scheduled by the District. The union will have representation at these meetings as well, when possible, so that you can share your thoughts.
Innovative Scheduling at the High Schools
 
Below is an updated list describing the current stage of the process towards potentially changing to a new schedule at the high schools.
 
  1. On December 2, a committee of teachers and administrators will meet to approve a schedule to be sent to the high school teachers for a vote to approve sending the schedule on to negotiations. The main decisions here will be whether to have an anchor day or not and whether to have a plus period or not. The vote to send the schedule on to negotiations would be achieved with a simple majority of voting members at the high school sites. The recommended schedule to be voted on is an eight period block with no anchor day and no plus period. Discussions to add the plus period with a waiver after it has been more clearly defined will continue at one or both high schools. 
  2. If the simple majority is achieved, your bargaining team will negotiate applicable items, such as student contacts, class sizes, prep periods, etc. The simple majority was achieved. See vote totals below. This means your CUTA bargaining team is currently negotiating the particulars of this schedule including, but not limited to, prep time, student contacts, maximum class size, 6/5ths language, teaching minutes in a day (contract language), collaboration time, transfer language, five year sunset clause, flexible implementation year, professional development opportunities, and special education prep time.
           
Simple majority vote to send to negotiations: 
132 ballots cast
2 abstentions 
88 Yes 67.7%
42 No 32.3%
 
  1. This step is still to be determined by E-Board, but the current thought is that the high schools would vote to adopt the negotiated schedule at both sites with a minimum of 75% support from all affected members (one site can’t be at 60% while the other is at 95%--it has to be 75% or higher at both sites). E-Board settled on a ⅔ majority vote, which must be achieved at both sites. Kevin Moretti summarized E-Board’s thought process on this in a recent email.
  1. If this vote is successful, then, after further E-Board consideration, the innovative schedule would go into the next tentative agreement to be voted on by all CUTA members, which would pass within a simple majority of voting members.
  1. The schedule would be subject to a sunset clause, which means that after an agreed upon period of time (perhaps five years), it would expire unless renegotiated by and agreed to by both sides.
     

    It is important to note the fourth step listed above. If the negotiated schedule is approved by the high schools and E-Board, all members would need to vote to approve the new schedule in our next tentative agreement. Whatever the particulars are of a final negotiated schedule, this will be expensive. Your bargaining team shared a concern with the District that members may find it hard to vote to approve an expensive new program at the high school if there is no assurance that future wage increases will be addressed. 

    Compensation

    Now that we have reached the third and final year of our wage agreement with the District, we are discussing possible compensation increases for next year and beyond. The District has expressed a concern that their annually increasing costs for general expenses and existing programs have outpaced the money left after our recent raises, producing a deficit. They shared a detailed budget analysis that showed where some of these increasing expenses are. Overall, it appears that annual increases in general expenses and programs fluctuate significantly. In addition, the cost to maintain and replace Chromebooks throughout the District over time is not insignificant.


    Your bargaining team, at the behest of your E-Board, has continued to express interest in another multi-year wage agreement, although the District is more interested in a “reset” year in which they can address deficit concerns. The District feels that they have to balance three main concerns in their budget: compensation, programs, and deficit. They have addressed compensation over the last three years, and they feel they need to pivot to deficit reduction next year. One-time dollars instead of ongoing compensation was discussed as a possibility. Completing the salary schedule collapse, as described in the next paragraph, was also discussed as a possible option for next year..


    Currently, our salary schedule, starting in year 19, has two steps where salary is frozen for three years, two more steps where salary is frozen for two years, and three single-year steps: years 29, 30, and 31. We would like to see the salary schedule top out at year 30, with year 19 being a single-year step, and years 20-21, 22-23, 24-25, 26-27, and 28-29 being two-year steps. This would be handled in a way that members can only benefit from, and we would not be removing the highest step on the salary schedule; you would simply reach the highest step in 30 years instead of 31 years. We began this process several years ago, and we want to consider finishing this restructuring based on the cost projections we get from the District. This benefits everybody. Newer teachers will be able to reach the top faster and retire sooner. Veteran teachers get the same benefit.
     

    Voluntary Transfer
     

    CUTA has agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the District concerning voluntary transfers. This MOU goes into effect immediately, so it’s important for members to understand their rights. The MOU guarantees a member who applies for an open position will get an interview with the relevant administrator (by phone or in person), and the member is also guaranteed a written response within 5 business days if he or she is not chosen. If the member is not interviewed or is not notified in writing, the member is owed $250 from the District. To qualify, the member must respond to the human resources email announcing the opening. They may not just contact the relevant administrator directly. The MOU also allows the District to fly the position internally and externally concurrently, but administrators may not see the external pool of candidates until they have exhausted internal applicants via the process described above.

    If you’d like to see the current version of our contract, here is the link.

    Thank you for taking the time to stay informed.

    Charlie Snyder
    Bargaining Chair
    Chico Unified Teachers Association
0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    AuthorS

    Mary Schoenthaler serves as Vice President and Public Relations Chair for CUTA. 
    ​
    Charles Snyder is the Bargaining Chair and provides updates to our members.

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All
    Bargaining Updates
    Community Service

    RSS Feed

Chico Teachers Stand United!


Hours

2:30pm-5:00pm Monday-Friday
Summer Hours
1:00-5:00p.m. or by Appointment​
​Tuesday-Thursday

Telephone

530-343-0226

Kevin Moretti's Cell Phone
(530)828-9803

Contact Us

Fill out the contact form

CUTA Office
819 E. 5th Avenue
​Chico, CA 95926
​
Picture
Picture
  • Who We Are
  • Member Benefits
  • Contract
  • News
  • CUTA Calendar
  • Documents and Videos
  • Awards & Scholarships
  • Contact