Information on potential schedule changes
On Thursday, Diane Tavenner notified us that site leaders may begin talking about potential schedule changes for next school year in the coming weeks. In August of 2019, Unite Summit and Summit created this document that essentially lays out Summit’s existing process for making schedule changes (we believe everyone has an interest in getting this figured out before the end of this school year, so the dates in this document might not be relevant).
We encourage you to engage in discussions about how we can change the schedule next year to best meet the needs of our students and ourselves as we work to recover from a very challenging year and a half.
As a reminder, once we have our union contract in place, the schedule will be determined by the contract. In our last proposal, we laid out a process for sites to have autonomy (with some parameters, like meeting instructional minutes requirements) in making decisions about schedules. We also proposed ending every day at 4pm, which is also in Summit’s last proposal.
COVID-19 Relief Funding
On Friday, representatives from Unite Summit met with Diane Tavenner and Joyce Montgomery (Summit’s CFO) to get a financial update.
We focused particularly on the large amount of COVID-19 funds from the state and federal governments. Some of the initial money has already been spent (on things like air purifiers and technology for students and teachers). However, an estimated $4.9 million has not been spent yet and is to be used over the coming years (the amounts of money may fluctuate slightly based on a variety of factors, and different pots of money have to be used on different timelines). This spreadsheet lays out how the money has been spent so far and how much more Summit is expecting to receive.
We know that even before the pandemic, our students needed more supports, especially our English Learners. COVID-19 has only exacerbated these issues, which is why the government is giving schools so much additional funding over the next few years. Our last support services proposal in bargaining contained a pilot project for temporary positions (which could be paid with by COVID relief funds) to provide extra support for our students. Each site would have the ability to determine what types of position would best support their students — English Learner teachers, mental health professionals, intervention teachers, etc.
We encourage you to talk with your EDs about what your students need in order to recover from the pandemic. Knowing that Summit will receive a significant influx of money is important context — we can be creative and think big because we are not limited by our normal budget constraints.
Summit Board Meeting
Summit is holding a special board meeting on May 27 from noon-1pm. We believe that the Board will be voting on Summit’s plan for what to do with a specific pot of money — the Extended Learning Opportunity Grant. The ELOG plans are due to the state by June 1.
We continue to be disappointed by Summit’s practice of holding board meetings at times that are inaccessible to students, staff, families, and other stakeholders. We will share the agenda and zoom link to the meeting as soon as it’s published — we encourage you to attend if you can and make your voice heard.