A False Choice — Layoffs or Pay Freeze?

June 26, 2020

This morning, the Unite Summit and SPS bargaining teams met for the second time to negotiate compensation for the 2020-21 school year. 

We proposed earlier this week that 1) SPS compensate all teachers according to the salaries described in their 2020-21 compensation letters and 2) in October Unite Summit would negotiate any potential cuts to compensation based on updated funding information.  We believe that this proposal is extremely reasonable because the State announced this week that there would be no funding cuts to schools, and we would commit to negotiate in a timely manner if cuts do take place. 

Diane Tavenner stated that they would not provide a counter proposal.  She stated that our proposal to delay cuts by a few months until we have a clearer picture of State and federal funding would create hardship for Summit staff and students. We believe immediate cuts to expected pay are an extreme hardship, as we heard so many teachers eloquently state at the SPS Board meeting earlier this week.

Let us be clear about Summit’s financial position. 

  • Last month, Summit received almost $7 million dollars from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (a low-interest loan that has the potential to become a grant). 
  • Summit hired an “Entrepreneur in Residence” in April, who makes $400,000 a year.
  • Summit’s CEO is the highest paid K-12 public school leader in the state. 
  • SPS has estimated reserves of just under $50 million dollars. As part of their budget, Summit is committing $14 million from its reserves to continue operating, with 4.1 million going to CA schools. Making good on the 2020-21 salary raises would cost less than three percent of the remaining SPS reserves.
  • There are no cuts to state funding as part of the budget deal. The budget deal also prohibits teacher layoffs during the 2020-21 school year. While it is currently unclear if charters are exempt from this prohibition, the fact that SPS and school districts are receiving the same amount of money, yet Summit is threatening to lay-off teachers while school districts are prohibited from doing so is extremely troubling.

Delaying a pay freeze for our members for four months would cost less than $350,000.  This will not ruin Summit financially. But for our members, a sudden pay freeze could have severe financial consequences. Pressing “pause” on pay freezes for teachers (and, even though they are not in our union, for hourly workers) is a financially viable plan. It’s also the equitable thing to do.  

We were asked by Diane to present an alternative to teacher pay freezes. So, in less than an hour, our bargaining team developed three proposals which would redistribute about $970,000 from employees at the highest end of the pay scale to avoid teacher pay freezes. 

Most of our teachers, especially our younger teachers, are well below the low-income limit of $82,000 put out by the City of San Francisco. Essentially, our bargaining team knows that people on the lower ends of our spectrum will need to make extreme changes to adjust to a change in the expected income. They may need to move in with parents, find roommates, line up second jobs, and so forth. These teachers will be disproportionately affected by changes to their expected income.  We believe that employees at the highest end of the pay scale are best able to withstand a pay cut.  

In higher education, administrators are freezing/cutting their pay in order to help keep pay steady for professors, graduate teaching assistants, and hourly workers (for example, see “Pay Cuts for University Presidents, Coaches,” from Inside Higher Ed or “UC chancellors will take a 10% pay cut amid coronavirus-related budget crisis” from the LA Times). Administrators for at  least two other charters in our area are taking pay cuts and freezes so that lower-paid employees do not have to. We believe that this exemplifies leadership.  

When presenting our proposals, we emphasized that there are other parts of the budget that could be cut instead of reducing the salaries of the highest-paid employees.  We would welcome collaboration with SPS in identifying other areas in our budget to cut, for example in non-student-facing initiatives such as the Prepared Parents program. We also emphasized that in all our proposals, we would seek to bargain compensation as early as September 16th to respond to any funding cuts from the State or Federal government.  This would provide us with time to meaningfully engage in ongoing conversations and input with teachers.

Unfortunately, although our proposals sought to take a wider view of the budget and to focus pay cuts on the highest paid employees as a starting idea, Diane Tavenner continued to insist that $970,000 must be cut from California teachers.  As a reminder, these cuts are based on Summit choosing to pass a budget with an assumed 10% decrease in State revenue, even though this is NOT currently part of the State’s budget proposal. 

Tavenner announced that since we would not agree to immediate pay freezes,  she would choose to cut 10-14 positions from the Expeditions team.  We do not view any of our teachers as expendable — we view our Expeditions team members as an integral part of our organization. Tavenner’s proposal to cut 10-14 positions from that team would result in the inability of our organization to offer a quality electives program, which is a key selling point for our schools and a core aspect of our model. 

We are not interested in agreeing to layoffs. We are disappointed that we are being presented with a false choice: a pay freeze or laying off our coworkers. This “choice” indicates a willingness to view our teachers as expendable, which is not an acceptable attitude. As we have tried to repeatedly stress to Summit’s bargaining team, there is a third way that would allow time for collaboration and creativity in solving our potential budget problems and allow us to make these decisions based on more concrete information by delaying negotiations about cuts until September.

We are disappointed that Tavenner refused to discuss alternatives, as we felt our proposals were a fair attempt, given new information in an hour, to find cost savings in other areas of the budget that would not disproportionately affect those at the bottom of the pay scale. 

We are seeking a follow-up meeting on July 6, as SPS is closed next week. To reiterate, we believe layoffs would be harmful and unnecessary.  We will not agree to them. In the meantime, we will keep you updated on our plans to fight back against these unnecessary cuts. 

***

The following Unite Summit Bargaining Team members attended today’s meeting: Liz DeOrnellas, Expeditions; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Amber Steele, Denali Middle; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; and Douglas Wills, Tahoma. Daryl Hemenway and Ona Keller from CTA also joined the discussion, as did Unite Summit Treasurer Mrris Shieh. 

Our priority is to include your voice in our next steps. Your site representative will contact you within the next few days as we develop a plan to support each other and organize against proposed cuts. As always, reach out to us and your representative with all feedback, questions, and concerns. You can reach us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com. 

The following Summit Bargaining Team members attended: Diane Tavenner, CEO; Kelly Garcia, Chief of Staff; and Jimmy Zuniga, Everest Executive Director. 

A report on the SPS Board meeting and pay freezes

Today, Summit Public Schools held its board meeting and passed the 2020-21 school year budget.  At the meeting, which was attended by over 45 teachers, 12 teachers spoke eloquently about the negative impact of the proposed unilateral pay freeze.  They voiced concerns about paying essential bills; repaying students loans which they took out with the expectation of moving up the pay scale as described in their compensation letter; and about contributing to the wellbeing of their families.  Others shared that they see that this freeze is structurally classist and racist because teachers and hourly employees (who teachers also spoke up for during the meeting) are the lowest paid employees in the organization and are disproportionately folks of color.
 

The Summit Public Schools board chose to pass their budget which kept an assumed 10% cut in funding from the State (despite the most recent information from Sacramento that there will be no cuts to education) and was premised on teachers and hourly employees being frozen at their 2019-20 compensation. A recording of the meeting will be posted here. 

It is reasonable to feel alarm that a budget built on an assumption of freezing teacher salaries has been approved by the Summit Public Schools board.  It is crucial to understand that budgets are a “best guess” of anticipated funding and spending and that it would be illegal for Summit to implement the pay freeze which this budget anticipates.  

The passing of this budget does not mean that teacher salaries will be less than described in teacher compensation letters for 2020-21.  Without a formal agreement between Unite Summit and Summit Public Schools, the status quo pay scale for the 2020-21 school year is intact with legal protections.  If Summit Public Schools were to send July paychecks reflecting the 2019-20 pay scale, Unite Summit would file an Unfair Labor Practice.  Our union is organizing to prevent this from happening. 

As a union, we are taking the following steps to protect our pay.  

  1. Tomorrow at 9 AM, our bargaining team will be in bargaining again over compensation for teachers for the 2020-21 school year.  We will stand by our proposal to compensate teachers with the raises they were promised for the 2020-21 school year; and negotiate any changes if necessary in October. This remains an extremely reasonable stance: it prevents immediate financial hardship for our teachers while at the same time allowing for negotiations over any potential cuts to resume in October, when Summit has explicitly said they will have more concrete information about State and federal funding. Importantly, by moving discussion of potential cuts back to October (instead of coming to a hasty agreement in the middle of the summer), we will actually have the time we need to talk with our members and develop a democratically supported proposal. (For more details on our proposal, see our email from yesterday titled “Join us at tomorrow’s SPS Board Meeting!”)
  2. We ask that all teachers reach out to Diane Tavenner at dtavenner@summitps.org to share your perspective on the unilateral freeze to employee compensation.  You are welcome to use the talking points we provided in our email sent Tuesday, titled “Why pay freezes are unnecessary.”  Consider sharing how a salary freeze would impact you, our peers, students, hourly employees, and school communities.  We believe that the best decisions are reached democratically.

Tomorrow, look for a newsletter update from the bargaining team on our negotiations.  Our union will continue to organize if this is necessary.  We are committed to including all of our members in compensation decisions.  This is why we formed a union.  Please contact your bargaining team representative if you have questions or comments. 

Join us at the SPS Board Meeting June 25

In this newsletter, you will find:

  • An update on today’s bargaining session regarding the proposed pay freeze
  • Instructions on how to attend and comment at tomorrow’s board meeting

Today, Unite Summit presented the following counter proposal to Summit’s proposed 2020-2021 pay freeze:

  1. No pay freeze or any changes to the offer letters that were based on our compensation consensus process.
  2. Unite Summit and Summit Public Schools shall meet in October 2020 to revisit the need for any possible cuts to our bargaining unit based on the budget and financial information available at that time. 

Summit presented the following proposal: All bargaining unit member compensation increases are frozen at 2019-2020 rates. If the following are true when the budget is revised for October board approval, compensation will be unfrozen. Teachers will be retroactively compensated for the increases they expected based upon their March 2020 compensation letters for FY21.

Summit’s proposal is that all of the following would have to be true in order to restore teacher salaries to the agreed upon levels:

  1. California must have an approved budget in place that does not cut Summit school revenue from the 2019-2020 school year. 
  2. The Federal Government has passed aid bill(s) that distribute the amount of aid to California that is assumed in the approved California budget, and regulations for distribution of that aid ensure that Summit receives an amount assumed for the first bullet point to be true.
  3. The PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] loans have converted to grants.
  4. No state or federal funding to Summit is reduced because they received PPP loans or grants.
  5. Summit is receiving full funding for 2020-2021 enrollment and ADA.

Diane insisted that the SPS Board has directed her to submit a budget that incorporates a 10% cut in revenue. Although the Governor did originally propose such a cut back in May, the current agreement between the Governor and the Legislature restores school funding and the SPS Board could easily and realistically pass a budget based on no cuts to funding (or much less substantial cuts to funding). 

It is illegal for Summit to unilaterally impose a pay freeze without a negotiated agreement with our union. Diane agreed that this is true; however, she insisted that the Board’s desire to pass a budget that incorporates a 10% cut in revenue might necessitate layoffs if we do not agree to an immediate pay freeze.

We’d like to note that the best path toward maintaining fiscal fitness for Summit and maintaining a high-quality education for our students does not include laying off teachers. A few facts to consider:

  1. There are about 16 people at Home Office who earn $150,000 or more a year.
  2. We have yet to fill (or announce the intention to fill) the superintendent position, which last year earned a salary of $262,080.
  3. Summit has still not determined what to do with an estimated $500,000 in reserves from Rainier.
  4. Summit is currently spending over $6 million on the Marshall Street initiative, whose many parts go beyond support of our campuses and include Summit’s expansion into parent education following the publication of Diane’s book.
  5. The $450,115 salary of Summit’s CEO is among the highest in the state, as noted in this Forbes article. 

The following bargaining team members attended today’s meeting: Amber Steele, Denali Middle; Evan Anderson, Everest; Joey Hughes, Expeditions; Liz DeOrnellas, Expeditions; Hillary Odom, Shasta; Sarah Rivas, Denali High; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Doug Wills, Tahoma; Dan McClure, Prep; Ona Keller, CTA; Daryl Hemenway, CTA; Diane Tavenner, CEO and Kelly Garcia, Chief of Staff.

At Summit’s request, the bargaining team agreed to meet again on Friday. 

ACTION YOU CAN TAKE: Attend the Summit Board meeting tomorrow (June 25) at noon

We encourage you all to attend this meeting where the Board will be voting to approve the budget for next year. The more teacher voices and faces seen and heard, the better. It is imperative for the Board to learn about your perspective on compensation, given that the anticipated budget cuts being pushed by Summit leadership do not reflect the reality coming out of Sacramento.

If you would like to speak at the Board Meeting you must fill out this form in advance (item 7 is public comment). 

This is the Zoom link to the board meeting, which starts at noon tomorrow (Thursday, June 25):

https://summitps.zoom.us/j/95509989188

State Budget Update Makes Pay Freeze Unnecessary

Dear Unite Summit Members,  

Today, representatives from 11 sites met to discuss Summit’s proposed salary freezes.

Summit’s budget still presumes a 10% cut in funding, but this is based on out-of-date information because this week Governor Newsom announced that there would be no funding cuts to schools, though there may be some deferrals.

This means there is NO REASON to freeze teacher salaries at this time. Additionally, freezing teaching salaries without negotiating with our union is illegal and we expect SPS to respect the procedure and our legal right to negotiate over these decisions now and in the future. 

The SPS Board is meeting Thursday and will be adopting a budget for next year. We HIGHLY encourage those of us that can attend the SPS Board meeting to attend — while also understanding that shelter in place (and our summers) puts pressures on individuals and families. If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to your site representative.

The SPS Board is meeting on Thursday, June 25th, from 12-4 pm. Open Session is slated to start at 1 pm but if you would like to speak we suggest you are on the call from the start, as the meetings often run ahead of schedule.  Below is the zoom link to the board meeting:

https://summitps.zoom.us/j/95509989188 or
Dial in number​: 1 669 900 6833 Meeting ID​:​ 9​ 55 0998 9188

Here is a link to the Board agenda.

If you would like to speak at the Board Meeting you must fill out this form in advance (item 7 is public comment):

If you would like to share your perspective on the pay freeze, consider including the following talking points:

  • Summit’s proposed budget assumes that schools will receive a 10% cut, based on the Governor’s May budget revise. However, this week, Governor Newsom announced a budget deal with the legislature which contains no funding cuts to schools. This means there is NO REASON to freeze teacher salaries at this time.
  • Unilateral pay freezes are not equal.  They are proportional to income. Our site staff, including teachers and hourly employees, are the lowest paid in our organization. It is not equitable to implement a unilateral freeze because they are disproportionately affected by a unilateral freeze.
  • The freeze is not equitable between teachers.  Some teachers would lose a higher percentage raise than others given their experience stipends, and given that some teachers are moving between STEP lanes.  Our staff used a consensus process to decide what is equitable for this year based on their experience and education, and we still believe in the specific compensation we agreed to.
  • We believe that the quality of our organization depends on the staff.  Our staff committed to this year and agreed on our compensation. It is the most basic level of respect for our staff to provide the compensation we agreed to through our consensus process. 
  • One of the main reasons that we formed our teachers’ union, Unite Summit, was to ensure that teachers are represented in decisions about our school.  During COVID 19, we have committed additional hours and care to our students.  We learned three versions of virtual schools.  We actively collaborate with each other and with our administrations on how to better support students during this time.  We rely on compensation for our families, for our futures, and for continuing to care for ourselves.  We will continue to provide exceptional dedication and quality work for our students, and it is not unreasonable to expect compensation that we formally agreed to.  It is disrespectful to make this type of decision that would impact us, our families, and our jobs while intentionally excluding our perspectives. 

Our bargaining team has offered to meet with Diane and the SPS bargaining team to negotiate over the proposed salary freeze, which, again, we believe is unnecessary given the updated budget information from the State.

Please contact your bargaining team representative if you have questions or comments. 

Pay Freeze Statement

Dear Unite Summit members,

Today, we all received a notification from Summit that our salaries would be frozen.

To put it very plainly, this was illegal. 

Summit absolutely cannot unilaterally freeze our pay — any changes to pay must be negotiated with our union. One of the reasons we unionized was so that decisions like this could not happen without teacher agreement. 

Our bargaining team and elected site reps are having an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss next steps, but we wanted to first assure you that any freeze in pay would not happen without negotiations. 

We also believe a pay freeze would be unnecessary. Summit is building its budget around the Governor’s May proposal to cut education funding by 10% — even though the Senate and Assembly passed a budget last week with no cuts to education funding. This week, the legislature and Governor are in budget negotiations. 

Additionally, as the  New York Times reported last week, Summit received an almost $7 million forgivable loan from the federal government under the Paycheck Protection Program (which is intended for small businesses who are facing economic hardship due to COVID-19).

We sent the below email to Summit’s bargaining team informing them that our pay cannot be frozen without negotiating with us and requesting additional financial information. 

If you have additional comments or concerns, please reach out to your site rep or bargaining team. 

We also encourage you to attend the SPS Board meeting via zoom at noon on Thursday, June 25. 

Dear Diane,

Bargaining is absolutely required to freeze salaries in our bargaining unit — keeping the salaries at current levels is not the status quo. The status quo against which an employer’s conduct is evaluated must take into account the regular and consistent past patterns of terms and conditions of employment. California State Employees Association, CSU Division, SEIU Local 100, AFL-CIO v. Public Employment Relations Board (1996) 51 Cal.App.4th 923, 937; Pajaro Valley Unified School District (1978) PERB Decision No. 51. Under the “dynamic status quo” concept, a change can be a normal part of the pattern of conduct between an employer and a union, and changes consistent with such a pattern are not modifications of the status quo. Regents of the University of California (1996) PERB Decision No. 1169-H, at p. 4. Summit has already sent offer letters for next year based on the compensation consensus process (which in and of itself was part of the dynamic status quo) which includes a 2.98% across the board raise, a 4% step raise (depending on teacher performance and when they were hired), and a Summit experience stipend. Absent bargaining, Summit is required to maintain pay raises consistent with its past practice and must therefore honor the compensation outlined in the offer letters sent out earlier this year

Furthermore, we believe it is unnecessary to agree to any pay freezes for our bargaining unit at this juncture given that state and federal funding for next school year remains so unclear. As you know, the Governor and the State Legislature are currently in budget talks with the hopes of passing a state budget in the coming days. The assumption of a 10% cut in state funding is unreasonable at this time.

Additionally, before engaging in any bargaining, we will also need substantially more information including:

  • The proposed budgets for each California school
  • The size of the budget deficit with and without the pay freeze for our bargaining unit
  • The cost of the bargaining unit pay freeze
  • A list of any other cuts or freezes to  non-bargaining unit members
  • A clarification of the makeup of the home office reserves. What portion of those reserves is from public funding? Is the over $2 million of home office reserves being transferred to the Marshal Street project from public money or philanthropy?
  • How does the almost $7 million in Paycheck Protection Program money impact the deficit? How much of that money is being used on salaries?

We expect that you will not conduct any further communication with our members regarding any potential pay freeze and that you will not send out new offer letters that reflect this unilateral change.

We continue to be available to meet and negotiate, and believe those negotiations will be less speculative once we have a clearer picture of education funding in the coming month. 

Sincerely,

US Bargaining Team

Black Lives Matter

Dear Unite Summit Family,   

We write in solidarity with the Black community and the fight for justice and liberation. We stand in solidarity with George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and others that have been killed by racist violence. It is impossible to separate their murders from the systemic racism and oppression that is embedded within our country. We stand with those fighting injustice.

Teachers, students, and community members are grieving, angered, and in pain. We believe that in making a commitment to anti- bias, anti-racist work, we have work to do as a staff and organization. We acknowledge that because bias and racism are entrenched in society, today and every day moving forward we must use our roles to address racial and social justice.  Within professional development, curriculum, and at our sites and larger community, we must specifically respect and support our Black communities and Black political power.  

We believe that we must show up for our students to provide genuine support and action. We serve predominantly Black, Latinx, APIA, and indigenous students.  Every one of us has the power to teach about the activism, leadership, and accomplishments of Black communities and political power — today and in history.  We can provide opportunities for students to explore activism as it relates to their own experiences and in solidarity with each other.  We can support students in recognizing discrimination in our criminal justice system — both in policing, and in the prison-industrial complex.  And, we can teach students to recognize systemic injustice broadly, including in wealth, housing, healthcare, and education access. It is imperative that we help students develop their own voices in fighting for their own vision for racial and social justice.  We ask for professional development and support for these priorities.  Our students deserve teaching that supports their identities, politics, and whole lives.

To teach is not enough.  Our organization must acknowledge that our Black students disproportionately experience trauma, food and housing insecurity, and health care  access because of institutionalized discrimination.  Children of color in our cities have consistently experienced higher rates of discipline and suspension, and are more likely to have an incarcerated family member.  These are dehumanizing outcomes of racial inequality and discrimination.  We must address that our students are traumatized.  We need to deepen training for mentoring and holding circles because our students carry stories about trauma.  We also need to improve our professional health care programs: all students need regular access to high-quality mental health care and social-emotional support services. 

Finally, we believe that we have a collective duty to change all forms of systemic racism expressed in any school practices and communities.  We ask that each site advocate for professional development; restorative justice; health services; social justice programming and initiatives; and all other forms of programming and reflection you believe will best support racial and social justice in the context of your site.  To our white community: educate yourselves on how to be a better ally and take responsibility for educating other white people.

Summit’s vision statement includes that we support students in becoming contributing members of society. We hope that this fall, Summit teachers will be given the opportunity to provide collective input and leadership on how to work for racial justice.  We ask that our organization prioritize this in the future.

In solidarity,

Unite Summit

Bargaining Update #7

Bargaining Update
Unite Summit and the SPS bargaining team held their seventh contract negotiation meeting yesterday.  

We began by discussing the announced summer school policy. Unite Summit is arguing that Rainier teachers should be eligible to work summer school in order to ensure that all our students, many of whom are not transferring to a Summit school, will have the opportunity they need to get support from their teachers in a timely manner before they are forced to carry failing grades on their transcripts. SPS claims the summer school policy is aligned with policy from past years; the union believes the closure of Rainier changes the status quo and creates a need for change. Diane promised to check in with her administrative team and get back to us early next week. Please reach out to her if this is an issue that affects you and your students!

Unite Summit presented its last original proposal:

Leaves of Absence: This proposal includes an expansion of family leave and the right to a sabbatical after four years of continuous employment; we feel these moves would help incentivize longevity for our teachers and provide growth-based learning opportunities for our veterans. 

The following Unite Summit Bargaining Team members attended today’s meeting: Liz DeOrnellas, Expeditions; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Amber Steele, Denali Middle; Sarah Rivas, Denali High; Hillary Odom, Shasta; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; Douglas Wills, Tahoma; and Isela Mosqueira, Rainier. Daryl Hemenway and Ona Keller from CTA also joined the discussion. 

The following Summit Bargaining Team members attended: Diane Tavenner, CEO; Kelly Garcia, Chief of Staff; and Jimmy Zuniga, Everest Executive Director.

Downtown College Prep Unionizes!

About 100 educators at the four Downtown College Prep charter schools formed a union earlier this month called South Bay Educators United. We welcome them to our growing movement of unionized charter educators!

Check them out online and watch their introductory video.

Bargaining Update #6 and Union Election Results

Union Elections
We’d like to announce the election of our Unite Summit leadership!

Officers
President: Fuchsia Spring (K2 HS)
Vice President: Sarah Rivas (Denali HS)
Treasurer: Morris Shieh (Tahoma)

Site Reps
Denali Middle School:  Tristan Matlock
Denali High School: Sarah Rivas
Everest: Kennan Damon
Expeditions North Loop: Phoenix Lawson
Expedition South Loop: Joseph Hughes
K2 High School: Miguel Gravelle
K2 Middle School: Alyssa Montantes
Prep: Dan McClure 
Shasta:  Emily Ryan
Tahoma: April Carrera-McGuire
Tam High School: Iris Lopez
Tam Middle School: Ernesto Umana

Thank you to everyone who ran for office and everyone who voted. We are so excited to have a full slate of representatives to start the 2020-21 school year off strong! Please reach out to your site rep if you’d like to help us close out the year and get ready for next year. 

Bargaining Update

Unite Summit and the SPS bargaining team held their sixth contract negotiation meeting today. 

We reached a tentative agreement (meaning our bargaining teams have come to an agreement but nothing we’ve agreed to will be implemented until we’ve finished negotiations and our members and the SPS Board have voted on the entire contract)  on the following proposals:

  1. Assignability
  2. Savings and Effects of Agreement
  3. Negotiation Procedures

Unite Summit presented original proposals on:

  1. Class Size and Caseload – this proposal aims to increase sustainability by setting limits on class size for our teachers and caseload size for our Education Specialists
  2. Assessment and Curriculum – this proposal aims to increase student accountability to deadlines and to provide more teacher voice in revision plans and give teachers a way to get paid for summer school work without adding extra weeks to the school year
  3. Hours of Employment, Work Year and Job Duties – this proposal aims to decrease mandatory work hours and protect time such as prep periods and duty-free lunch

SPS also presented counter proposals on:

  1. Recognition – our remaining point of disagreement centers on the right of the union to represent teachers at expansion schools (should one open)
  2. Leadership / Management Rights – disagreement persists on the definition of “emergency” and what limits remain on management’s ability to make emergency changes to our agreement

The following Unite Summit Bargaining Team members attended today’s meeting: Liz DeOrnellas, Expeditions; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Amber Steele, Denali Middle; Hillary Odom, Shasta; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; Douglas Wills, Tahoma; and Isela Mosqueira, Rainier. Daryl Hemenway from CTA also joined the discussion. Denali representative Sarah Rivas was absent due to end-of-year duties. 

The following Summit Bargaining Team members attended: Diane Tavenner, CEO; Kelly Garcia, Chief of Staff; and Jimmy Zuniga, Everest Executive Director.

Our next bargaining team session is scheduled for May 29. Unite Summit aims to present our last original proposal: Leaves of Absence.  

If you have questions, please reach out to your site rep or contact us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

Bargaining Update #5

Union Elections!
Today, our elected bargaining team approved our union bylaws, so we are now ready for elections! Liz DeOrnellas (Expeditions), Sarah Prabala (Denali MS), and Eric Doan (K2 MS) stepped up to serve as our elections committee. 

Nominations for our union’s leadership are now open — including for president, vice president, treasurer, and reps for each site. Fill out this form to nominate a coworker — or yourself! And see below for more information about the positions. Nominations close at 11:59 pm on Sunday, May 10.

Bargaining 
Unite Summit and the SPS bargaining team held our fifth contract negotiation meeting today. 

Summit presented original proposals on:

Unite Summit presented original proposals on:

  • Compensation – this proposal seeks to align to the current salary schedule, with the addition of stipends for extra duties and a revised salary schedule calculator that more accurately takes into account the daily pay rates of our competitors
  • Benefits – following member feedback, this proposal aligns to the current compensation proposal
  • Shared Governance – this proposal delineates decision-making responsibilities and processes, with the goal of returning increased autonomy to our school sites and teams
  • Calendar – this proposal aligns to our previously presented proposal regarding the 2020-21 school year, with the goal of reducing required meeting minutes and increasing job sustainability without extending the school year. Unite Summit is continuing to advocate for a separate agreement that would apply to next year as we feel this is important to our teachers and their families; SPS leadership has refused to discuss next year’s calendar separately from the rest of the contract. 

Unite Summit also presented counter proposals on: 

  • Union Rights – this counter proposal seeks to preserve our rights under the Educational Employment Relations Act, especially concerning the union’s right to communicate with its members
  • Negotiations Procedure – this counter proposal largely accepts Summit’s latest proposal, with the stipulation that negotiations should not default to remote video conferencing unless necessary due to emergency circumstances
  • Recognition – this counter proposal aims to more clearly define the bargaining unit, as well as to codify union expansion rights 

The following Unite Summit Bargaining Team members attended today’s meeting: Liz DeOrnellas, Expeditions; Sarah Rivas, Denali High; Amber Steele, Denali Middle; Hillary Odom, Shasta; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; Douglas Wills, Tahoma; and Isela Mosqueira, Rainier. Ona Keller and Daryl Hemenway from CTA also joined the discussion. K2 representative Fuchsia Spring was absent due to AP test prep duties. 

The following Summit Bargaining Team members attended: Diane Tavenner, CEO; Kelly Garcia, Chief of Staff; and Jimmy Zuniga, Everest Executive Director.

Our next bargaining team session is scheduled for May 22. 

If you have questions, please reach out to your site rep or contact us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

Responsibilities and Time Commitment for Positions up for Election

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.

Union Elections!

Elections
We are holding elections for Unite Summit leadership! Our elected Bargaining Team will stay in place through contract negotiations, but we will also be electing a President, Vice President, and Treasurer before the end of the school year in order to formalize our structure and improve communications. We will also be electing a representative from each building and team (including separate representatives for middle and high school faculties). 

Here is the timeline for elections:

  1. Elections committee: Create a three-member elections committee (please email if you’d like to volunteer to be on the committee —  volunteers cannot be running for any position) by Tuesday, May 5. 
  2. Nominations: Nominations open on Tuesday, May 5 and close on Sunday, May 10.
  3. Candidate statements: Nominees will be notified of their nomination no later than Monday, May 11. Nominations must be accepted or declined by Friday, May 15; short candidate statements are also due on May 15 and will be released to members to read over the weekend.
  4. Voting: Ballots will be released on Tuesday, May 19; voting will be open through Thursday, May 21. (Voting will be virtual.) Results will be released on May 22.

If you would like to volunteer to be a part of the elections committee, please email us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

Look out for further information regarding nominations before May 5. 

Responsibilities and Time Commitment for Positions up for Election
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.

Bylaws
In preparations for elections, we are also formalizing our bylaws. These bylaws outline election procedures and delineate officer duties. You can read the draft bylaws here. If you have questions or comments, please send them to bylaws@unitesummitteachers.com. Our elected Bargaining Team will be voting on these bylaws on Monday, May 4. 

Bargaining Update
Our next bargaining session is Monday, May 4. Our aim is to present our remaining original contract proposals and to present a counter proposal regarding the calendar for next year.  Summit’s current proposal for next year’s calendar includes a 21-day extension of the school year. To be clear, our bargaining team will not agree to any extension of calendar days for next year. We will continue to push for a reduction in required meeting times in order to increase sustainability. See previous update for more details. 

We will send out a bargaining session summary on Monday evening.

Virtual School Concerns?
If you have any concerns related to the implementation of Virtual School that you would like to bring to our attention, please reach out to us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com. We want to make sure that we are advocating for teacher and student needs now and planning ahead proactively for the fall semester.