Union Elections

Union Elections!

We are holding elections for Unite Summit leadership! Our elected Bargaining Team will stay in place through contract negotiations, but all of our other union positions are up for re-election; they have one year terms. 

A huge shoutout to all of our site reps and officers who have been working hard to build our union during this truly unprecedented year. We are proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish and look forward to continuing to grow!

Here is the timeline for elections:

  1. Nominations: 5/6-19. Please nominate yourself or your coworkers using this form. Nominees will be notified of their nomination on a rolling basis. You can nominate as many people as you want!
  2. Acceptance of Nominations: 5/20-21. Nominations must be accepted or declined by Friday, May 21; short candidate statements are also due on May 21, if a candidate wants to submit one. 
  3. Voting: 5/24-25. Ballots will be released on Monday, May 24. Voting will be open through Tuesday, May 25 at 11:59 pm. (Voting will be virtual.) Results will be released on May 26.

Responsibilities and Time Commitment for Positions up for Election

Site representatives from each building/team:

  • Attend one hour-long virtual Rep Council meeting once a month. 
  • Meet in-person 1-2 times per year. 
  • Keep their sites informed and involved in our union and bring any site concerns to our union’s leadership.

President, Vice President and Treasurer:

  • Attend one hour-long virtual Rep Council meeting once a month.
  • Attend one hour-long Executive Board meeting once a month.
  • Meet in person 1-2 times per year. 

President:

  • Act as the chief spokesperson of our union.
  • Prepare agendas for meetings.
  • Conduct other duties as necessary.

Vice President:

  • Step in if President is unavailable.
  • Keep updated and accurate list of members and their contact info.
  • Distribute information (newsletters, etc.).

Treasurer:

  • In charge of the union’s finances. 
  • Since we won’t be collecting dues (and thus won’t have any money) until we ratify our first contract, the Treasurer’s duties are minimal right now. You will have plenty of training and support once we actually start collecting dues.

Please nominate yourself or your coworkers by May 19 using this form.

Bargaining Update

On Wednesday, we sent our comprehensive proposal to Summit (see here for the main proposal and here for the appendix). This is our proposal for our entire union contract packaged together. We expect the next step will be for Summit to take time to consider our proposal and let our team know if they are able to make movement from their last proposal that would move us closer to an agreement.  We will keep you informed as we hear more. 

CBA Update #25

Bargaining Update

On Wednesday we had our 25th bargaining session with Summit. A summary of our and Summit’s proposals are below. 

We notified Summit that we will be sending them a comprehensive proposal for the full Collective Bargaining Agreement by close of business on Wednesday, May 5. If Summit is able to make substantive movement then we will welcome that and will be happy to set up another bargaining session.  If Summit is unable to make substantive movement, then, based on the proposals Summit gave us on Wednesday, we believe it is time to move on to mediation. 

Mediation is another step in the negotiations process. If we move forward with mediation, a mediator from the State will be sent to help us try to reach an agreement. A mediator has no power to make SPS or US agree to anything; they are a neutral party whose goal is to help facilitate the bargaining process. Almost every first contract for union charter schools ends up using mediation; it can be helpful to have a neutral person from outside our organization offer a fresh perspective and new ideas — especially since we’ve been at the bargaining table for over a year. If we move to this step, Unite Summit looks forward to working with SPS and a mediator to come to agreement on the proposals we could not fully align on at this time.


Unite Summit Proposals

Grievance and Arbitration

Unite Summit’s proposal on Grievance and Arbitration outlines a clear and transparent process for filing and resolving grievances in the workplace. Summit communicated concerns around the duration and resources needed throughout the process outlined in our proposal. Unite Summit made movement to address these concerns by adding language that clearly states the intent of both parties to resolve every grievance at the lowest possible level so that each grievance is resolved fairly, quickly, and resourcefully. 

Employment Status

For Employment Status, Unite Summit’s proposal outlines discipline and dismissal requirements for probationary period and non-probationary period unit members. For probationary period members, the proposal explains that unit members are not guaranteed employment for the next school year; communication of non-renewal for the next academic year must be provided no later than April 15. In addition, if a unit member who is still within the probationary period is let go without cause, they will be ensured a severance in the amount of 2 months salary and benefits.

Discipline and Dismissal

Within Discipline and Dismissal, Unite Summit continues to prioritize just cause and progressive discipline. Our proposal has clear and specific conditions for discipline and dismissal. 

Evaluation

Unite Summit’s Evaluation proposal continues to present a clear and transparent process for coaching and evaluation of teacher performance of all unit members. Our proposal aligns with much of Summit’s views in regards to a multi-tiered process, clear communication and supports, and the basic expectations that each unit member may be evaluated on.

Summit Proposals

Summit proposed this document. There were two major changes from their last proposal. 

  • Calendar/Work Year: Summit agreed to Feb PD being remote, but is still sticking to 212 work days. After a year of negotiations, we are still baffled as to why Summit wants to add almost three weeks to our work calendar. 
  • Class size: stronger language that holds Summit to class size averages, though some schools/content areas can go above those averages

High Tech High Organizes!

Congratulations to charter educators at the High Tech High schools in San Diego who filed for union recognition last week! The High Tech Education Collective will represent over 400 teachers at 16 schools.

CBA Update #24 and COVID-19 Relief Funding

SPS Proposals

Summit’s team presented all of their proposals again in a big document — look for the words in blue to see changes in their proposals. 

Assignment and transfer

We have reached a tentative agreement with SPS for Assignments and Transfers! Summit has agreed that there would be no involuntary transfers and has created a system to allow for teacher advocacy and input into teaching placements. Before May 1st, EDs should notify teachers of which courses will be offered and teachers will know by the last day of instruction what they will be teaching for the following school year. 

Evaluation

SPS proposed a tiered system of evaluation where a teacher with a poor evaluation may have compensation withheld. We fundamentally disagree that evaluation should be tied to compensation. However we do think that both Summit and our union agree that there should be a fair and clear process for teachers to be let go for poor performance. We are continuing to work on the details of that process. 

Discipline and Dismissal 

SPS streamlined their list of actions that would result in discipline. SPS also proposed that a teacher receive at least a written warning before being fired except in egregious circumstances 

Unite Summit’s Proposals

Compensation and Class Size Package Proposal
We are mostly aligned with Summit on class size, though we are still advocating for smaller mentor group sizes. We also want a mechanism to enforce class sizes, whereas Summit’s proposal is really just a guideline. We agreed to Summit’s proposal for a 1.08% across the board salary increase for the upcoming school year, but believe that the school years after that should include raises that reflect the rising cost of living in the Bay Area. 

Hours, Work Year, and Job Duties
We made significant movement on this proposal today and added four extra work days by adding back in February PD.  We asked that February PD follow a similar format to what happened this year, offering remote and diverse PD options. We agreed that the work day should last until 4pm but want to continue to allow sites to have autonomy on creating bell schedules. 

Support Services

Did you know that Summit will receive substantial federal and state funding which must be used to address the extra supports students need as a result of the pandemic?  We proposed that for the next two years, every campus is given funds for mental health clinicians, English language development teachers, or other certificated staff depending on the needs of the school (2 new positions for high schools, 1 for each middle school). 

We think this is a sensible use of the money, which the government has designated to spend on things like mental health counseling and mitigating learning loss of homeless and other heavily impacted student groups like English Learners. Even before the pandemic, teachers expressed frustration with Summit’s bare-bones staffing and the lack of student supports. Now, as we prepare to return to in person school next year after 18 months of being virtual, we know these needs will be even greater.  We believe it’s extraordinarily important to invest this additional federal and state money into more staff so that our students can have more caring adults in our schools. 

CBA Update #23

Bargaining Update

Today we had our 23rd bargaining session with Summit. Summit’s team presented a document with all of their proposals, which you can view here. They made movement on the below three proposals. 

Summit Proposals

Class size

Summit’s most recent proposal aligned with our proposal for class sizes in most areas. Core content courses: 27 students. Electives, Expeditions, and others: 29 students. Educational specialist caseloads: 27 students. The only area we are not aligned is for mentor group size. We will continue to negotiate to reach an acceptable number for our unit members.

Compensation

Summit’s compensation and benefits proposal added a 1.08% increase for the second school year (the 2022-23 school year). Additionally they have added commuter benefits and full coverage of life and disability insurance. SPS continues to push for teachers to receive raises based on performance but we will continue to push back on this practice which has been shown not to work. We also believe this goes against our collective philosophy that teachers always need to be improving. 

Work year 

Summit continues to propose extending the work year to 212 days, up from the current 196 days with no additional pay (an 8% increase in days!). This would take us all the way to the end of June (students would end earlier). Summit’s reasoning was that teachers work over the summer regardless — with planning, meetings, etc. — so they would like to formalize it. We are holding firm that the increase is not acceptable and will lead to increased turnover and burnout. We will continue to fight to maintain the current calendar obligations

Our Proposals

Evaluation

Today, we presented our proposal on Evaluation including a more specific outline of the coaching/assessment process. Our proposal discusses a collaborative goal setting process between the unit member and their coach that informs a unit member’s observation and feedback process. This proposal included a clear and transparent tier system that requires several levels of teacher observations, coaching supports, and process documentation between the coach and unit member.  

Discipline and dismissal

We also presented a proposal on teacher discipline and dismissal. Unite Summit is advocating for transparent, clear, and progressive discipline to provide due process to our members. SPS wants “flexible discipline” which we do not believe is transparent, clear, or equitable. We remain hopeful of a movement towards a compromise with steps that include investigation and timely action for the safety of staff and students. 

Assignment, Transfer, and Re-Assignment

Our goal is for teachers to be assigned a course which aligns with their professional goals and skills, and have time to prepare for their course before the school year starts so that teachers are prepared for students.  We have proposed that there is a consistent process every April for teachers within each content area (English, Math, Sciences, Social Sciences, Expeditions/Electives) to agree on course assignments for the following year.  EDs would have the final decision.  Summit seemed to believe that this would limit the ability of EDs to change a teacher’s course assignment over the summer, and we’re waiting to hear back about what timeline and process for course assignments they believe are reasonable given that if a teacher likes their assignment and has time to prepare, they can teach better. 

Legal Update

This week, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) dismissed part of Summit’s Unfair Practice Complaint (UPC) that was filed against our union in August of last year. The PERB attorney found that our union has the right to communicate with our charter authorizers about Summit’s actions. This is an important decision and acknowledges that our union has free speech rights and that we can communicate with our democratically elected officials. Unfortunately, the PERB attorney did allow part of Summit’s UPC to move forward – this included allegations that our team bargained in bad faith by caucusing excessively, among other things. We are confident that we have followed the law and bargained in good faith and that Summit does not have sufficient evidence for these allegations. As we stated when the UPC was first filed, we believe the UPC is unfounded and suspect Summit filed it in an attempt to distract us from their own possible violations of the law. We will keep you updated as this issue moves through the legal process.

Reopening Agreement Reached

Unite Summit and Summit Public Schools have reached an agreement on school reopening! For the rest of the school year, school leaders will have the option to open campus as a workspace for a limited number of students.  All the teachers responsible for supervising these workspaces will be volunteers.  

This newsletter will help you understand the agreement for reopening campuses, including the process to volunteer; the potential for a stipend; and what decisions are made by site leadership.  Reach out to your bargaining rep with any remaining questions.

These last few weeks of negotiations have been so hard for us, as teachers.  We are in this profession because we care about young people — and we have all grappled with the imperative to provide a workspace for students who need one, when we know that many teachers would risk their lives and lives of their loved ones by being in a classroom.  We have always known that teachers deserve self-determination in this decision.

We are excited about this agreement: it provides profound relief for teachers who faced enormous challenges in a potential mandatory return, provides the ability for our students to learn in a safe space, and puts in writing a point that seemed crucial to Summit admin — that we will be returning to school in person next school year barring any public health orders (something that we have never disputed; we very much hope to be teaching our students in-person next school year!).

We came to this agreement because of your tireless work in supporting our bargaining team and reaching out to admin and families.  

This is why we formed our union: to protect teachers, but also to give students what they need.   By fighting for this agreement, you helped  ensure that students who need to be in the schools will be able to return as soon as possible.

Voluntary Return

Teachers told us that a voluntary return was the most important non-negotiable in Unite Summit’s negotiations with SPS leadership. Due to your advocacy, Red Team support, and continued pressure, SPS’s bargaining team backed off their demand that teachers should be required to return to campus.

In the signed agreement, teachers have the ability to choose for themselves if they want to come to campus, and when. SPS will send out a survey to your school email to gather volunteers for each phase of opening. Expedition teachers can indicate at which site they will volunteer if they choose to do so. Currently, the relevant dates are:
 Phase 1: No sooner than March 31st (teacher) and April 1st (student) Please fill out the survey before March 24th to indicate your willingness to return in Phase 1.
Phase 2: No sooner than April 21st (teacher) and April 22nd (student) Please fill out the survey before April 12th to indicate your willingness to return in Phase 2.
Phase 3: No sooner than May 5th (teacher) and May 6th (student) Please fill out the survey before April 26th to indicate your willingness to return in Phase 3. 


Sites must have 2 weeks with no new positive COVID cases resulting from in-school transmission before moving to the next phase.

Stipend   

IMPORTANT: We want to make it extremely clear that while the stipends listed below are a possibility, they are not guaranteed. The stipends are contingent on a site by site basis and depend on Summit receiving reopening grants from the State. In the event that an individual school does not qualify for the grants specifically due to not having enough volunteers to open, volunteers at that site would not receive a stipend.  If a site does not get funding for some other reason, then volunteers will still receive a stipend. Please note that we did inform Summit that the lack of guarantee around a stipend and the relatively small stipend amounts could shrink the pool of volunteers

Stipend Payment: If a school qualifies for the grants, volunteers at that school will be paid their stipend in their last paycheck for the year. This would be June for new hires and teachers who chose the 11 month pay cycle, and July for teachers who chose the 12 month pay cycle.

Stipend Amount: The one time stipend amount is as follows:

  • Start Phase 1: $1,000
  • Start Phase 2: $500
  • Start Phase 3: $250

What would volunteers do on campus?

THE COHORT MODEL: You and one other teacher share supervision responsibilities for a maximum of 14 students.  You may have fewer students depending on the size of the room.   You and your co-supervisor decide who supervises when; the only requirement is for one teacher to be in the room at all times. In other words, you will not be required to be in the same room at the same time as the other teacher and your student cohort.  You will each have a second workspace for when you are not supervising.  You are not guaranteed protected prep time or lunch break.   Site-based plans (TBD): what happens if a teacher is absent, and substitute plan. Supervision coverage for lunch.

THE PHYSICAL CLASSROOM: Students will be six feet apart. The room will have a HEPA air purifier appropriate for the capacity of the room.  All student desks will have a visual of safety protocols and procedures attached to it.  The room will be equipped with sanitizing and cleaning supplies.

HEALTH PROTOCOLS AND PROCEDURES: Cohorts will enter the building and move to the classroom along an assigned route. Cohorts are not allowed to mix. Students will be provided with masks that meet CDC guidelines.  Teachers will be provided with masks, face shields, and gloves.  All will be expected to follow masking guidelines.  Site-based plans (TBD): how to address students if they break any health guidelines.

FOOD AND DRINK: When eating and drinking, it is not required to wear a mask.  Site-based plans (TBD): there is no requirement as to where lunch is held, and therefore sites have leeway to designate eating areas in a way that minimizes COVID transmission, such as outside.

THE SCHEDULE: Teachers will supervise Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday 8-3:20 and are not required to be in the classroom for after-school meetings.  Wednesdays will be fully remote.

Site Decisions

The following are all dependent on each site. Please contact your site leadership for more clarity on the following:

  • Safety Protocols (including what happens if students break a safety protocol)
  • Substitutes
  • Student cohort assignments 
  • Bathroom and break time rules
  • Eating/drinking within the classroom/outside (if in room, must be 6 feet apart)

2021-2022 School Year

We do want to remind members this agreement is for the 20/21 school year. Unless state or county guidelines or orders change, the expectation is that all teachers will be returning to their respective campuses next school year. 

Thank you for all you do for our schools and our students. Your work is valuable and appreciated. We are excited for our school buildings to be open soon!

Reopening and CBA Update

Thank you for responding quickly to our survey about returning to campus!  Your responses allowed us to propose to reopen all campuses on a voluntary basis on March 31st.   

Today, we met with Summit leadership, and Unite Summit brought an alternate proposal that would allow us to reopen schools quickly but give us time to continue negotiating. We proposed that each school open up on March 31st (Phase 1) only with teachers who volunteered to go back as a pilot program while we continue to bargain for Phase 2 and Phase 3. 

The spirit of the pilot program is to hit the ground running with teachers who are volunteering so we can serve some students as soon as possible. It would allow sites to see what reopening would look like on their campuses and allow teachers more time to get vaccinations. US and SPS agree that if Phase 1 goes well, it would help set an example for our community and raise our collective spirits. 

Summit leadership accepted the voluntary nature of Phase 1 BUT said they would stand by the mandatory return of teachers in Phase 2 and Phase 3 by lottery or of ALL teachers, with the exception of those with legal exemptions, Because Summit would not agree to a voluntary Phase 1 without a mandatory Phase 2 and Phase 3, we were not able to reach an agreement today that would have opened our schools on April 1. We are disappointed that we weren’t able to come to an agreement that would have allowed volunteers and students to return to buildings on April 1 while we continued to work on Phases 2 and 3. 

We believe that mandatory return to schools is inequitable. Thank you for sharing openly with us about your circumstances. Because you all responded so quickly, we were able to accurately demonstrate to SPS that we teachers need the choice to return to be voluntary. As a union of teachers who love their students, we trust that families, teachers, and administrators could find an equitable, compassionate solution if we were to begin working on voluntary site reopening plans.

Summit leadership stated that they would explore their managerial rights in regards to reopening. We will continue to fight for the safety of our members, students, and families.

Please reply to unitesummitteachers@gmail.com to give us your input. We need to hear your voices to make informed decisions and to equitably represent our members!

CBA Bargaining March 17, 2021

In addition to negotiating reopening schools, Unite Summit and Summit reviewed several proposals related to the CBA. Below are highlights of what was presented:

Leaves (Unite Summit Proposal)

Unite Summit’s proposal guarantees all teachers be provided with four weeks of paid family leave.  Our proposal also guarantees teachers who have already accrued weeks of leave to not lose those weeks. We believe we are largely in alignment with Summit on this article!

Hours of Employment, Work Year, Job Duties (Unite Summit Proposal)

Unite Summit presented our proposal on “Hours of Employment, Work Year, Job Duties” including changes to weekly schedules and Education Specialists’ job duties. 

For work week schedules, Unite Summit proposed a mandated work week of 40 hours on site including a 30 minute duty free lunch period. Sites will have discretion over what the specific schedule and meeting time will look like within those parameters. Our hope is that each site will come up with a schedule that works best for their staff. 

For Education Specialists, Unite Summit proposed that Education Specialists have the option to be mentors or co-mentors but shall not be assigned other duties unrelated to Special Education services. Education Specialists shall also be granted a minimum of ten hours per month for IEP preparation. Additionally, each member will be offered compensatory minutes, self-directed preparation time, or compensation at the hourly rate if meetings related to administration of an IEP or 504 plan deprives self directed preparation time.

Technology, Resources, and Curriculum (Summit Proposal)

Summit presented their proposal on “Technology, Resources, and Curriculum” with very few changes to their position from their last proposal, other than a change to the timeline for providing missing/inadequate technology or materials.

CBA Bargaining March 3, 2021
We’d also like to report on our CBA bargaining session from March 3. 

Summit proposals:

Summit presented a package proposal on Employment Status, Discipline and Dismissal, Evaluation. This proposal had some positive forward movement. Summit management’s team is finally starting to respond to our opposition to at will employment and our need as teachers for stability, job security, and respect. They have proposed a five year probationary period, which is three years longer than all district teachers and almost all unionized charter teachers. We believe our proposal of a two year probationary period gives our site admin more than enough time to determine if a teacher is a good fit for Summit. We will continue to push for employment status, discipline and dismissal, and evaluation proposals that ensure our teachers are supported, treated fairly, and held accountable.  Summit also made a proposal on Effect of Agreement (basically the length of the contract.)

Unite Summit Proposals:

We presented a package proposal of class size and compensation and benefits 

Our proposal increased the mentor size and case load size for Education Specialists to 27 students, a one student increase from our previous proposal. 

We also combined our health and welfare benefits and compensation articles into one, and made some adjustments to come closer to Summit’s position. 

Reopening Bargaining Update #4

We want to reopen schools because we know that the pandemic is negatively affecting many students socially, emotionally, and academically. This cannot happen at the expense of the health and safety of our teachers or our students. We need to reopen in a way that makes sure everyone in the building is safe and taken care of. 

Physical Reopening Bargaining Session #4

Today, March 10th, we continued to negotiate physical reopening. Summit presented their second proposal which includes:

  • Teachers can volunteer to work in-person BUT this proposal also includes a lottery to backfill positions if there are not enough volunteers. Teachers with accommodations from Human Resources are exempt from the lottery.
  • Specific dates at which the number of students/staff on campus will increase
  • Several of the safety protocols that we had proposed
  • Eating and drinking happens inside the workspace (explicitly allowed)

It does not include:

  • voluntary return
  • a stipend/hazard pay
  • time for learning specialists and teachers supervising students to collaborate

Summit also included the following timeline:

Phase 1 (10%)Phase 2 (25%) Phase 3 (50%)
Teacher Return DateMarch 31April 14April 28
Student Return DateApril 1April 15April 29

Unite Summit will continue to advocate for our biggest teacher need: a voluntary return to the school building. As we have heard from teachers across the schools, a voluntary process which allows teachers to return the building is the only way to make sure teachers feel safe and comfortable being in the building and at their best to support their students online and in the classroom.  


Teachers cannot be required to return to campus without a signed Memorandum of Understanding (an agreement about short-term circumstances).  If you have input or feedback to offer, please complete our survey (if you have not), reach out to your bargaining rep, or reach out to unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

California Charter Educators United Rally

On Wednesday, March 10th, four charter unions around California came together in a rally with keynote speaker Dolores Huerta. Over 200 attendees shared a space of solidarity over the common struggles we are fighting in our schools over job security, increase in teacher voice, and greater support for students. 

Please check our instagram soon for video clips from the rally!

@unite_summit

Reopening and Rally

Building Reopening
Yesterday, we had negotiations over site reopening with Summit. Unite Summit presented our counter proposal to Summit’s first proposal over reopening sites.   

Any agreement we come to on reopening buildings would only apply to this school year. We believe the fall will be significantly different (in terms of our understanding of COVID, vaccinations rates, etc.) and expressed interest in negotiating a separate agreement about next school year. 

We believe it’s crucial that our agreement for the rest of this school year allows for voluntary return. We want to ensure that teachers who want to return to buildings are able to do so, under the safest possible conditions, and we want to ensure that teachers who want to stay home, because of safety, family concerns, childcare concerns, pedagogical concerns, or any other reason, are allowed to do so. We do not yet have complete data on how many families have expressed interest in their students returning, so we don’t know how many teachers would be necessary to volunteer for each phase of reopening buildings.  

Highlights Summit made a revision to their first proposal after speaking to RED team over their thoughts regarding Wednesday as a remote or in person virtual learning day. Keeping Wednesdays remote was also deeply important to our members. Summit proposed that Wednesdays would stay as a remote learning day. Unite Summit verbalized alignment with this change.
Unite Summit’s proposal aimed to meet student needs while also maintaining safety. Within Unite Summit’s proposal, here are some major highlights:

  • Site EDs will have discretion over if they are to reopen.
  • Unit Members will be able to choose whether or not they will return to in person virtual learning at their sites
  • There will be 3 phases in reopening sites. The first phase will allow 10% of priority students back on sites. The second phase will allow 25% of students back on site. The third phase will allow 50% of students back on site. Moving between phases will be determined on a two week period of zero COVID cases during the previous phase. Priority students are based on state criteria (such as students with IEPs and English Learners).
  • Teachers who work in person will receive a stipend of $200 a week to incentivize returning back to sites and cover the numerous burdens associated with some individuals going back in person
  • Expedition members site assignments will be agreed upon by the Executive Director of Expeditions and the teacher.
  • Teachers will collaborate with their admin to create student cohorts
  • Teachers will be physically present at school from 8:30-3:20 (except Wednesdays) and will not be expected to provide supervision during lunch and prep times
  • There will be two teachers assigned to each 14 student cohort. The teachers will not be expected to be in the same room at the same time. 
  • Strict protocols around health and safety, including providing masks to staff and students and developing protocols for students who don’t follow mask and other safety rules. 
     

After presenting our proposal, Summit verbalized that there was alignment with key parts of our proposal. The main dispute arrived from a disagreement around teachers voluntarily coming back to in person virtual school learning. We will likely have another negotiating session about this topic next week. Again, your survey responses have been incredibly helpful during these negotiations, so please fill it out if you haven’t already!

Statewide Charter Zoom Rally!

A reminder that our union is joining with other charter unions from around California for a historic statewide zoom rally featuring Dolores Huerta!
 
The rally will be March 10 from 4:30-5:30pm. You can register here: https://tinyurl.com/CCEURally2021.
 
Our union will be joining with teachers from St. Hope (Sacramento), Gompers (San Diego) and Alliance College Ready (Los Angeles). We’ve all been fighting for first contracts that provide more support for our students, establish job security for our teachers, and increase teacher voice in decision making. We hope you’re able to join us, make connections with other charter educators, and show Summit and other charter management organizations that we are united statewide in fighting for a fair first contract.
 
This rally is also not limited to our members, so please feel free to share the below flyer far and wide!

Town Hall re: Building Reopening

Building Reopening/Physical Return to School Bargaining
Today we had another bargaining session about the physical return to school. We want to again emphasize that there will be no physical return to school until we have signed an MOU with Summit.

We shared the first half of our proposal today with Summit; this half specifically addresses how teachers will return to buildings. It specifies that teachers can opt-in, delineates a phased reopening for teachers as well as students, and contains a stipend for those that choose to return to buildings. We believe it is crucial for teachers to have a choice as to whether or not they return to buildings.

We are still working on the second half of our proposal, which will detail teacher working conditions if they opt-in to returning to school in-person. We are bargaining again later this week.
We will be hosting two Town Hall zoom meetings on Tuesday, March 2nd. The first will be at 12:00 – 1:00pm and the second will be 3:30 – 4:30 pm — link here. Please come to ask questions, voice your input and be involved with this major decision. 

A reminder to fill out our survey on the physical reopening of school. Thank you to the many folks that have already filled it out; the results so far were helpful for us in bargaining today!

Building Reopening

February 26, 2021

Today, Summit shared with us their proposal for returning to in-person learning. In explaining their proposal, Summit outlined all schools continuing with virtual school while families will have the option to have their students return to building as workspaces and teachers working from an assigned space with a cohort to supervise.

The proposal has a number of problems, including that it would force teachers to return to school in person. 

We want to make one thing very clear: there will be no physical return to school of any kind until our union has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Summit. This is a matter of life and death for our members, our families, and our students. We believe it is crucial to get this right and will not be pushed to speed up by arbitrary timelines or deadlines. Your health — our community’s health — is the most important consideration. For the sake of transparency, and to move the conversation forward, we have already communicated to Summit’s bargaining team that we cannot accept forcing teachers to return to work in person. 

There are a number of values reason behind this:

  • Teachers have the right to make the decisions to protect their lives
  • Teachers have a variety of personal reasons in the name of protecting their lives, livelihoods, families, and the people they live with to not come back. 
  • Teachers were informed by their admin that we would be in virtual school for the whole year. Teachers made a variety of financial and life decisions based on being told we would stay virtual and having pay frozen over the summer and the beginning of the year. We cannot ask teachers to uproot their lives for the last three months of school. 

If Summit truly believes in leading with empathy and kindness, then Summit should show empathy and kindness to their employees as they make their own decisions. If Summit truly respects the voice and professionalism of teachers, then Summit should allow teachers to make the best choice for their lives, the lives of their families and those they live with, and in the interest of meeting their own needs so they may show up with their best self for their students. 

Here is a link to the Summit’s proposed MOU for teachers returning to school sites.

Here is a link to Summit’s proposed Reopening Manual Draft.

Unite Summit will continue to bargain over school reopening Monday, March 1st from 2:30 – 5 pm. We will also be hosting two Town Hall zoom meetings on Tuesday, March 2nd. The first will be at 12:00 – 1:00pm and the second will be 3:30 – 4:30 pm — link here. Please come to ask questions, voice your input and be involved with this major decision.