Unite Summit

Strike Vote TODAY, March 31, Cesar Chavez Day!

Background
Last Thursday, after two year and over 170 hours in bargaining and mediation sessions, we were released into the next step of the bargaining process. When an agreement is not reached with the help of a mediator, the process moves into fact-finding. While we have made more progress in the past two months than we have over the past two years, there are still some outstanding issues that we are still far apart on.
These include:

Probationary Period. We have proposed a 2 year probationary period, with the option for an Executive Director to add a third year. Summit wants a 3 year probationary period, with the option for the Executive Director to add a fourth year. All district schools and most union charter schools have a two year probationary period. During a probationary period, a teacher can be fired for any or no reason. After their probationary period is over, a teacher can only be fired for cause (ie the member poses a safety risk to students) or performance and there is a clear, transparent, and fair process to do so. We fail to see how Summit’s proposed lengthy probationary period shows respect for teachers or helps with retention.
Management Rights. Summit wants the power to suspend our contract in cases of emergency. Not only is this a waiver of our rights under the law, we also have two examples to demonstrate why this power is unnecessary.
The first is the pay freeze from 2020. Summit claimed there was a fiscal emergency and that if our union didn’t agree to a pay freeze, they would lay off teachers. Only a short time later, Summit said there wasn’t a fiscal emergency after all. We refuse to put our members through that situation again.
The second is our response to COVID 19. Summit has said the right to suspend our contract is critical for responding to emergencies like the pandemic. However, at the start of the pandemic, our union had the right to bargain over working conditions and we were able to quickly make changes to serve our students. We believe having teachers be partners in decision-making — especially during an emergency — is critical for providing the best environment for our students.
English Learners. We are so excited that, after two years of bargaining, Summit has added support for English Learners into their contract proposals. Summit management has recognized how important this issue is to our members. Unfortunately, we believe Summit’s proposed student-teacher ratio for EL classes is still too high, especially given the past few years and the lack of services they received. We know Summit has the money to provide EL students appropriate class size.
Term and Ratification Bonus. The final two items are about when the contract would go into effect and a bonus for ratifying our contract. Summit does not want the contract to actually start until July 1, 2022. We don’t think it makes sense to wait. Charter school contracts typically go into effect on the date they are ratified (when both sides vote to accept the contract). We also believe teachers deserve a ratification bonus, especially given what we’ve all been through during the past two years.

Unfortunately, instead of acting with urgency to address the teacher retention crisis and provide appropriate services for English Learners, Summit’s CEO Diane Tavenner informed our Unite Summit bargaining team on March 18 that she was leaving the country, and for the next 17 days would be unavailable to even respond to emails and would not delegate authority to anyone else on Summit management’s bargaining team to make decisions while she is gone.

This is unacceptable. We cannot allow SPS management to continue perpetuating the teacher retention crisis that our schools suffer from each year by not addressing the needs of our students and valuing our educators for all the work and dedication they pour into our schools. We need a fair contract now.

On March 31, Cesar Chavez Day, Summit teachers will be voting to authorize a strike. This is a serious decision that teachers do not take lightly. We have informed Summit management’s bargaining team what it will take to settle our contract and we remain available to negotiate. But we have gone two years without a contract. Our students and our schools cannot afford to wait any longer.

To learn more about how you can support Summit teachers in our fight for a fair contract, please visit tinyurl.com/SupportUniteSummit

Doubling of internal sub coverage, mediation update

Dear Summit Staff,

You have been the frontline workers to provide our students with a safe learning environment, and we want to sincerely thank you for the tireless effort you have given to our communities. Currently, as COVID cases have risen again, we know you have heightened concerns over the safety of students, their families, your own families, and yourselves. Acknowledging these rapidly changing circumstances, SPS and Unite Summit have been meeting and working collaboratively to respond and best meet the needs of our school communities — we are pleased to share some updates from the past month.

COVID Meetings

From our meetings with Diane and Kelly, we received clarity around testing, access to masks, and threshold for school closures.

Sites are continuing to test 25% of unvaccinated students and staff, as well as anyone who is showing any COVID symptoms. Since the Omicron surge, site-based testing supplies have been limited, but SPS expressed that school sites are in a good place with their supply and demand.
Staff are entitled to 2 PPE masks (surgical masks and KN95 respirators) per week when requested.
The threshold for school closures is 25% of teachers are out, with no external sub coverage and no deans/directors available (admin subbing a class would count as unavailable), or by the order of a county health official.

For any specific site-based concerns, we encourage you to communicate with your site-based admin and your site rep.

Internal Sub Coverage Pay Increase

In response to the growing demand for sub coverage this year and in an effort to demonstrate an appreciation for the time teachers continue to invest in their students and supporting their colleagues, we have agreed upon increasing internal sub coverage pay to double the current rates. Teachers who have subbed this year will receive retroactive pay for all classes they have covered as long as they have submitted the SY22 Internal Coverage Payment Request form by Monday, January 31st, 2022. Doubled internal sub coverage pay will continue until the end of this school year.

Mediation Updates

Last week we had another mediation session and came to a tentative agreement on class size.

Highlights include:

No teacher will have an average class size above 29. If this average is exceeded, there is a formula to compensate teachers for each additional student above the average
Mentor groups are capped at 28 students
Education Specialist caseloads are capped at 27 students

We’re excited to have reached this tentative agreement with Summit. (Reminder: none of these tentative agreements go into effect until we have agreed to the entire contract.) It is in alignment with Summit’s small school model, allows flexibility in scheduling, and brings some relief to teachers, such as 9th grade teachers and Spanish teachers, who have traditionally faced higher class sizes.

We also reached two tentative agreements back in December on union rights and recognition.

While we’re encouraged by these tentative agreements, we continue to be deeply concerned about the amount of time it has taken to get them. At least 15 teachers Summit-wide have quit since the start of the year. This startling number represents an intensification of Summit’s teacher retention crisis — only 32% of teachers currently working at Summit have been with our schools for more than three years. Summit must treat the teacher retention crisis like the serious problem it is and work with urgency to settle our contract.

Testing Resources

As a reminder, in addition to testing in our schools, there are also increasing resources for accessing rapid tests. You can go to https://special.usps.com/testkits to get 4 rapid antigen tests per household via the US mail. Additionally, insurance companies are now required to reimburse or provide eight tests per month per person on your health plan.

Career Matrix

Please, if you haven’t done so already, fill out this short, five minute Unite Summit career matrix survey to help us in our contract negotiations with Summit. We want to hear from you — what will make you more likely to come back next year? What will make you less likely to come back next year?

Mediation and Legal Updates

Mediation Update

Unite Summit and SPS met Wednesday with our PERB appointed mediator. The mediator emphasized that they are neutral and impartial and their job is to encourage both parties to make movement in their proposals. We are hopeful that in this next step in bargaining, we will make significant progress with SPS in creating an agreement.

It is important that we demonstrate to Summit that teachers are united behind the core goals of our contract — reducing teacher turnover, increasing teacher voice, and increasing supports for our students (read our full explanation of all our goals here). To show your support, please wear your Unite Summit t-shirt during our next mediation session on Tuesday September 21. If you need a shirt, please ask your site rep!

Legal Update

You may have seen two notices from the Public Employment Relations Board that Summit emailed and posted at our schools a few weeks ago.

These are the result of decisions concerning two Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) our union filed.

One ULP was about Summit’s conduct when we filed to form our union back in 2019. The judge found that Summit admin failed to provide our union with basic information we requested (like a list of employees and basic job descriptions). Their delay/refusal to give us the requested information violated our rights. The judge ordered Summit to stop failing to provide our union with necessary information and stop interfering with and denying our rights to represent our members. You can read the judge’s full ruling here.

The second ULP was about a threat Summit made to close Rainier. Teachers were told that they needed to stop organizing for changes at their school or that it would close, even though Summit admin was already planning on closing the school. The judge found that this threat was illegal and violated our rights. You can read the judge’s full ruling here.

Our students and faculty deserve schools that are held to high standards – this includes Summit Home Office following the law. These decisions are a positive step forward in holding Summit accountable for its actions. Ultimately, our best avenue for holding Summit accountable is through a strong first union contract that addresses the core needs of our students and teachers.

Issue by Issue Breakdown of Negotiations

What will we continue to advocate for in our contract?

Unite Summit was organized and approved by the teachers of Summit Public Schools to address major issues facing our staff and students alike. We believe in our schools and are advocating to improve upon current systems because we want what is best for our students and families. While we have come to agreement in six areas (or “articles”), there are vital differences in our positions on 19 other articles.

Some major highlights of what we are continuing to advocate for in the CBA:

Job Security – We believe that after an initial phase teachers need reasonable job security to continue to grow, experiment, and contribute to school communities. We want Summit to recognize the dedication of teachers who have stayed and value their contributions as experienced educators.
Work year (196 days) – SPS continues to advocate for an additional 16 days of work to the teacher work calendar (to a total of 212) when Summit teachers already work additional days when compared to other schools. We firmly believe this will hurt teacher morale and desirability of SPS to new hires.
Support services for ELLs, students with disabilities, and mental health – SPS refuses to respond to our requests for increased supports for our English language learners, students with disabilities, and mental health. We believe that SPS is neglecting these mandatory obligations to our students. With millions of new dollars coming in from the federal and state governments, much of it specifically earmarked to provide greater support for students as we recover from the pandemic, we know that Summit can afford to invest in these vital services.
Class size caps and compensation for large class sizes – We believe that teachers need class size and mentor group caps to be effective teachers, especially with the skills-based project-based-learning approach integral to the Summit model. Summit’s proposal has voluntary caps, which can’t actually be enforced.
Shared governance – We are advocating for increased teacher voice in making decisions in order to create better, personalized school decisions for PD, school schedules, and other school-based decisions. We believe that each school site has different needs and the one-size-fits-all model goes against the founding principles of Summit’s individualized learning model.
Fair performance evaluation – We believe that teachers need clear parameters of performance evaluation to know whether they are or are not meeting the criteria to be a Summit teacher with opportunities and documentation to receive feedback and improve.
Discipline with due process – The lack of clarity in Summit’s proposed disciplinary procedures allows too much latitude for discriminatory and unfair treatment.
Non merit-based pay – Within their evaluation article, SPS is proposing that teachers needing the highest level of support in their teaching practice do NOT move up the salary schedule if they are being brought back the next year. Merit-based pay has been proven to not work and opens the door to discriminatory and biased practices. We vehemently reject this proposal.
Cost of living based compensation – Summit’s proposal of a 1.08% increase in pay for the next school year along with no increases in SY23 and SY24 is far below the standard increases in cost of living due to inflation and is counter to Summit’s current practice.
Layoff procedure – We are advocating for greater specificity in who and how SPS will conduct layoffs and what rights teachers have to return to their positions. Coming out of the Rainier closing, we are committed to protecting teachers with clear and equitable systems for layoffs.
Health and Safety – We want all Summit schools to be sanctuary schools in order to protect the basic safety of our staff, students, and community. This is critical for any organization advocating anti-racism.
Facilities – SPS continues to ignore our calls for gender neutral facilities to protect our gender non-conforming students and staff.
Management Rights – SPS wants the ability to suspend our contract for up to 90 days if there is an emergency. As an example, if this provision was in place, parts of our contract could potentially have been suspended for three months when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Union Rights – SPS does not want to give our Union time to meet with members without Admin presence and wants to limit access to Union training and organizing.
Effect of Agreement – Summit wants to limit our ability to bargain over anything not specifically listed in our contract.

Tentative Agreements:

Here are the articles that we have made tentative agreements on (a “tentative agreement” is an article that we have agreed to, but isn’t final until our members vote to approve the whole contract).

Negotiation Procedure; Assignment and Transfer; Assignability; Organizational Security; Savings and Modifications; Technology, Resources, and Curriculum

Moving on to mediation

Dear Unite Summit family,

Yesterday, we began the process of requesting a mediator to help our union and Summit’s bargaining team continue to find common ground in agreeing to our first contract. The Public Employment Relations Board trains and assigns mediators to support contract negotiations and help employers and unions come to agreements. We have requested a mediator because we believe we cannot make any more progress in bargaining at this point — this is called “impasse.” We all want a first contract as soon as possible, but we also need a quality contract that reflects Summit teachers’ most important values and needs. We are hopeful that, with your support and the support of our broader community, we will make progress during this next stage of negotiations. In this newsletter, we outline the major values and items we will continue to advocate to have in the contract.

Why mediation?

We sincerely believe that having the assistance of a mediator will be helpful; at this point, we are simply not making substantial progress towards an agreement. Mediators are trained to help unions and employers find common ground and come up with new solutions that we can both agree to. We are optimistic and hopeful that mediation will help us reach a suitable agreement.

We are requesting a mediator now due to a stall in negotiations. We have been in negotiations for over fifteen months and have met 28 times — well over 90 hours. Our bargaining team has met for dozens of hours outside of this time to gather information and priorities from our entire Summit community and craft proposals that reflect that input. There are many core values and items that Summit teachers want, but that Summit administration’s bargaining team has not agreed to and in some cases has not responded to (see our issue-by-issue breakdown here). Because mediation is designed to help both bargaining teams understand each others’ values and help us explore solutions, at this point it is common and appropriate to bring in an outside presence to help our two parties come to an agreement.

Yesterday’s meeting illustrated that it is time to move onto mediation.

For example, the Summit Public Schools negotiating team presented an Hours of Employment, Job Duties, and Work Year proposal on April 21, 2020 which contained a substantial increase in work days (212 vs the current 196). Unite Summit countered on May 22, 2020. There were subsequently 11 more counters on this article between the parties, and while some movement was made on both sides, Summit continued to stick to its position of 212 work days. As another example, during Wednesday’s bargaining session, Summit presented a counterproposal on the Grievance Article which merely contained non-substantive formatting and language adjustments. It is clear that progress has stalled and that more bargaining sessions will not result in the settling of the collective bargaining agreement.

For an issue-by-issue breakdown, please click this link.

Stay tuned for next steps and ways you can support settling a strong contract!

CBA Update #27

We are now fourteen months into negotiating our contract! And while we have not agreed to a final contract, we continue to work for what we believe is most important: a contract that meets the most important needs of our Summit educators, seeks common ground with Summit’s bargaining team, and makes the concessions necessary to move forward. Today we met with Summit to present three proposals which are part of the CBA. Those proposals and highlighted points are found within this newsletter update. Summit’s bargaining team argued that the following proposals presented by Unite Summit did not consist of significant movement or concessions on our part. We know that we are setting boundaries around what Summit teachers need as well as following the bargaining process defined by state law.

Below is our response to Summit’s concerns as well as the proposals themselves:

With the idea of concessions, Summit is presenting this as a “quid pro quo”, “you give so we give”, and both must move proportionally. This is not how bargaining works according to the EERA or PERB decisions. Good faith bargaining in no way requires each party to make equivalent concessions on any particular item, article or issues. It does require that the parties be willing to negotiate, and in the overall context of an entire Collective Bargaining Agreement, be able to make movement towards an agreement. Each of our proposals has taken years of time from multiple perspectives and multiple points of view. We have bargained as close to our bottom line as we can while representing the views and experience of our members. There are places where a party may not want to move and that is okay. There are things that one party will give more on and things in which that party may not make any movement at all. As we have stated before, we value the conversations and us coming together to understand each other’s perspectives. At the end of the day, we may have the same goal- making the best educational communities we can possibly offer students so they may lead successful and passion driven lives. We are making steps, and what we feel are big steps, to meet you closer while holding true to what is important to teachers. We respect that we may not agree at the end of the day. These thoughts apply to all three of our proposals today. They each represent movement–some larger movement and some smaller, but taken together they involve concessions on important items. Especially with Grievance and Technology–the bargaining history shows movement from both sides, and the possibility of coming to agreements within the context of the CBA.

Unite Summit Proposals

Today, Unite Summit presented our Grievance and Arbitration proposal, which defines the process to resolve disagreements about how the CBA is carried out. We included an additional step in the grievance and arbitration process. If a grievant is not satisfied with a decision made at level 2 which includes a site administrator or Chief Executive officer, then a decision can be decided upon by a Grievance Committee composed of 2 members appointed by Unite Summit and 2 members appointed by Summit. If the union is unsatisfied with the final decision, the grievance can be submitted to arbitration for a final decision.

Unite Summit made this movement, along with the removal of mediation, to meet the needs and wants expressed in Summit’s last proposal. This proposal is meant to find resolution within any grievance in a fair way that considers cost and timeliness.

In Calendar, Work Year, and Hours of Employment, Unite Summit proposed a decision process in regards to each site’s bell schedule. We are still asking for a work day of 8 AM – 4 AM. Each site will use LT meetings to decide by consensus a bell schedule for the upcoming academic year no later than May 1st. If consensus cannot be reached, a ⅔ majority vote will decide the next year’s bell schedule. The COO will look through the agreed upon schedule and approve it, unless the schedule does not meet instructional minute requirements or does not meet facility agreements based on local district requirements.

Technology, Resources, and Curriculum was the last proposal presented by Unite Summit today. In an effort to make significant concessions in favor of Summit Public Schools, our proposal relinquishes a unit member’s ability to choose any technology that they deem necessary for their work with the promise that Summit will provide adequate technology, curriculum, and resources to perform teacher duties.

Also, Unite Summit decided to remove our interests in regards to “transparency on student data usage” and “teacher created materials” with the promise that Summit will allow teachers to use their individually created resources and curriculum elsewhere.

Again, these changes were made in order to make significant movement that our unit members felt strongly about in order to come closer to an agreement with Summit that still protects the interests of both Summit and our unit members.

We are waiting on word from Summit on whether they can make more movement and if so will schedule another bargaining session.

CBA Update #26

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.

Possible Schedule Changes, COVID-19 Relief Money

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.