September 2025 Executive Board Report by Maura

/ Rank and File Caucus

Greetings fellow members of OEA!

My name is Maura McMichael and I am the Visual and Media Arts teacher at United for Success Academy (UFSA).  With the help of fellow Rank and File Caucus members, I will be sending out monthly bulletins to share with fellow members of OEA what is happening on OEA’s Executive Board. 

A special note about EBoard, there are two vacant seats and Declarations of Candidacies need to happen by 10/7 @6pm.  If you, or anyone you know would like to run here is the information:

Declaration of Candidacy form

Election Timeline

Please note that Rep Council (RC) and Executive Board (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. Below you will find my notes from the September 2025 OEA E-Board meeting. We once again only got the agenda a few hours before the meeting (while I was teaching) so I did not get to review it before the meeting. 

Highlights from the September 2025 EB meetings:

🗳️ NEW BUSINESS  

  • Committee Chair and Appointments were approved again
  • $250 to Street Level Health Project for translation services 

📈 REPORTS 

  • The President went over the plan for the September 24th PD Takeover
    • Parent Organizing Toolkit
      •  October meeting with parents. October 22nd
      • Goal to sign 2-3 families up for each site.
  • Vice President  gave a report on our August structure test
    • We have 56/89 sites participating in some way
      • 63% of sites sent pictures
      • OEADB data reflects 26% participation
  • 2nd VP Report
    • There has been a member survey put out by Mayra
      • The survey shows that the best ways to communicate in our union are emails and through Rep Council
      • It also shows that members want transparency from our union, and for release time to be distributed evenly amongst reps.
    • The standing rules are due by committee chairs in November
      • Voting will happen at Rep Council in December or January
  • Secretary’s Notes are here on the agenda

During the September 2025 meeting we also went into closed session. Two grievances passed unanimously, one for ECE Retro Pay and one for an ADA violation 

🧑‍💻 MY 2 CENTS 

How was your PD Takeover? 

On September 24th members were asked to do a PD takeover from 2:30-3pm. The webinar  was of all the units in OUSD, OEA+SEIU+ AFSCME+ BNG, going over the unaudited actuals, which is the true financial picture of the district.  Some schools were not able to participate because of their schedules and it fell on the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.  Did your site participate? Was your admin amendable or are you getting your pay docked? Please reach back out if your pay was docked. In discussion at EBoard we talked about the analysis of our power and the value of the content being presented to us in the webinar.  Of course our biggest debate with OUSD is over the $$$.  This is a classic Jane McAlevery structure test, where it is essential for everyone to participate because we are escalating our actions and tracking our ability to strike. Our next structure test is October 22nd with our parent meeting. 

Attacks on OEA Members, Education and Freedom of Speech

It is confirmed that we have multiple teachers under investigation right now for claims of anti-semitism. They seem to be random attacks from zionist outside of our community criticizing our social justice advocates of our union. These attacks on teachers threaten all of us to be able to do our jobs well and have critical dialogue with students.  This attack on educators is a larger battle happening on the state level right now. AB 715, which silences critical voices in our classrooms, has unfortunately passed the Legislature and is now on Governor Newsom’s desk. Now is the time to stand up for academic freedom in our classrooms. CALL AND SEND LETTERS to Gov Newsom’s office to urge him to “VETO AB 715, a dangerous and discriminatory bill to silence the Palestinian, Muslim, and other marginalized communities under the guise of antisemitism. 

☎️ (916) 445-2841 

📝 https://win.newmode.net/caircalifornia/newsomveto

“Labor unions should exist to organize workers as a class that can exercise leverage in society, which includes things like better working conditions and pay. Limiting themselves to *only* the latter, results in reactionary unions with an inward focus and no class or international solidarity.” -Robert Raymond, host of the Upstream Podcast

At the NEA RA this summer we passed a resolution for a May Day 2026 action and at Eboard we were talking about looking towards what we can do as OEA.  There is also a longer vision in the US labor movement, called for by UAW’s Shawn Fein, for a 2028 General Strike. Being organized enough for these strikes to have real impacts is going to take a lot of work; the danger being that they could end up just being symbolic with no material impacts.  

In the world right now we see Italy going on its second General Strike in the last week for Palestine, with Peru and Indonesia having uprisings that have working class demands. These countries’ governments are very conservative like our own, but the people have risen up from below.  It leaves me with questions about our own situation. What will it take to have an organized left in the United States with demands of International Solidarity? What is the role of unions in demanding a better society for all? 

I am proud of OEA for being a social justice union and including the ‘common good’ in our contract demands.  I hope that as we enter a contract year we keep grounded in the larger struggle of the working class. There are two rank and file projects happening right now in OEA that embrace these politics. The OEA Immigration Rapid Response Group and OEA for Palestine. If you would like to get involved in either of these please reach out! Our power as workers reaches way beyond our work sites.  

Correction on my August Report: 

Thanks to the many people who read my report and responded back to me. I love the dialogue that we are having about our union!  I am not aiming to be a perfect leader, but one that is humbly sharing news with you. Apologies for some mistakes<3 Corrections:

Many Leaders on Release

OEA has 7 people on release. We have 3 officers on full time release, and now we have 4 people out 1 day a week for special projects. 1 of these is an officer, Olivia Udovic, who won’t go on release until later in October, and 3 of them are leaders, David McKay, Susan Keen, and Cory Jung. 

Once again, please reach out – let’s discuss and build the union we want! My email is maura.mcmichael@gmail.com. The next EB meeting is on Wednesday, October 29th from 4:30pm-6pm in person at the OEA office. Who can join me?

In solidarity,

Maura

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