Divya’s E-Board Bulletin July 2023

/ Rank and File Caucus

Greetings fellow members of OEA!

My name is Divya Farias and I am a special education teacher at Oakland High.  On July 1st, I began my 2-year term occupying executive board Seat #1.  Having run on the Rank and File Caucus slate for this position, my objectives as a member of the executive board include increasing transparency and member participation in union politics and projects. In the interest of involving members at large in the proceedings of the executive board, I will be putting out monthly bulletins summarizing my notes and reflections following executive board (EB) meetings.  I hope you find this helpful!  Please do not hesitate to get in touch with ideas, comments, questions, and suggestions. 

Below you’ll find a bulleted list of topics discussed at the July 31st meeting, the first of this school year. Please note that all Rep Council (RC) and EB meetings are open to all members to attend.  I highly encourage you to come! Also note that all EB decisions, as always, are subject to approval by the RC. 

Highlights from the 7/31 meeting:

🚨CONTRACT ISSUES One outstanding issue from the new CBA negotiated during the 2023 strike is that OUSD is now claiming they cannot logistically come through on their offer to pay retired substitute teachers at the rate of their salary schedule cell at the time of retirement.  The OEA president and CTA co-executive director say they will negotiate a special daily rate for retired teacher substitutes on their behalf.  The substitutes have requested any potential agreement be brought back to the caucus for discussion before it is signed.  This year, OEA will pursue 4 re-openers on the recently-negotiated contract: special education, early childhood, and 2 more yet to be determined.

🗳️VOTES TAKEN The following items were approved:

📅DATES Here is the 2023-2024 OEA governance meeting calendar

📈REPORTS The 2nd VP led us through some framing of the year. One primary focus for the year is to implement the Community School language of the contract and develop a Community Schools Organizing Committee made up of members/parents/students from each of the 50 community schools. Of importance at the moment is the upcoming special school board election for District 5. OEA has endorsed Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez and is asking members to sign up for August door-knocking here. Also please note that there is a leadership conference on Saturday August 12th from 9-6pm and people are asked to sign up here. 

🧑‍💻MY 2 CENTS At the end of each of these bulletins I’ll leave some space to put any of my own thoughts, questions, interpretations, etc. This particular EB meeting was brief and simple. I do have one note of concern with regards to the re-negotiation of the substitute pay issue.  My understanding after speaking with a few substitute caucus leaders is that the special retired teacher pay was actually never a demand of the substitutes in the first place; far more important were winning benefits for substitutes and a proportionally appropriate amount of the $5K bonus that full time teachers received. The district seems to have offered the special pay as a sort of bargaining chip, and this does not sit right if they are now going to claim they can’t even make it happen. Though this issue may seem minor to some, our substitute teachers are absolutely essential to the functioning of our schools and many of them are beloved retired teachers. Some of our retired sub teachers were even the teachers of our coworkers when they were students in OUSD! I think we should stay vigilant to ensure they get the respect they deserve with the current MOU being negotiated and any re-openers or upcoming negotiations. 

Finally one other note is that EB this year will meet once monthly instead of twice monthly as has been past practice.  The next EB meeting is August 16 (Wed). Time and place/link TBA. 

Once again, please reach out – let’s discuss and build the union we want! My email is postmistressgeneral@gmail.com. 

In solidarity,

Divya

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