Back at Bargaining!
SPS came back to the bargaining table with these proposals (all are in this document).
Recognition – Summit Public Schools made movement in this article to align with California law and automatically include any potential new Summit schools in our union. However, SPS still wants to maintain the right to use subcontracting to fill unit member (teacher) positions for “purely economic reasons.” Unite Summit believes that our work should not be subcontracted — our positions should only be held by teachers.
Grievance and Arbitration – SPS previously had resisted the inclusion of Binding Arbitration as the final step of any contractual grievance process for unit members. With their last proposal, they acknowledged the necessity of an independent body to settle rare contested grievances. While we are ironing out the differences to protect your rights to grievance and arbitration for contractual disputes, we remain optimistic by the movement we are making towards an agreement.
No Strike/No Lock-out – SPS presented a proposal that no longer included a “No Strike/ No Lock-out” section. Unite Summit believes that this is a positive change that now reflects our legal rights as a Union. We recognize the ability to strike as a great responsibility and while we hope to never use this right, we will always fight for what is best for our schools and our students.
Next week we will meet again to present our counter proposal. We are determined to stand in solidarity with our teachers for what is best for our sites and our students.
Congratulations to our newly elected Unite Summit leadership!
President: Janine Penafort
Vice President: Eric Jones
Treasurer: Justin Kim
Denali HS: Rhody Kaner
Denali MS: Allison Lee
Everest: Dean Caudill
Expeditions: Hannah Creutzfeldt
K2 HS: Kai Eckenrode
K2 MS: Jay Herington
Prep: Miles Bennett-Smith
Shasta: Emily Ryan
Tahoma: Marcus Kevorkyan
Tam HS: TBD
Tam MS: Morgan Allen
And a huge thanks to our outgoing leadership: President Fuchsia Spring (K2 HS); Vice President Sarah Rivas (Denali HS); Treasurer Morris Shieh (Tahoma); and site reps Kennan Damon, Miguel Gravelle, Alyssa Montantes, April Carrera-McGuire and Ernesto Umana. Not only was this the first elected leadership of our union’s history, but these folks also started their positions in the middle of a pandemic. We appreciate all of their hard work and extra time they put in during this difficult year and look forward to building on the solid foundation they laid this school year. Thank you!
Summit Board Meeting
Summit is holding a special board meeting on May 27 from noon-1pm at this zoom link. The agenda is here — the main topic is Summit’s plan for the Extended Learning Opportunity Grant, which is part of the substantial amount of money coming from the state and federal governments. This spreadsheet lays out how the money has been spent so far and how much more Summit is expecting to receive. We encourage you to attend and share your perspective with the board if you are able to.