Unite Summit

Our 4th Bargaining Session

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

As part of the meeting, Unite Summit received Summit’s counter proposal on our calendar and schedule proposal for the 2020-21 school year. Here is Summit’s proposal. The proposal cuts after-school time from 300 to 200 minutes a week (ending each school day at 4 p.m.), but adds 21 additional work days at the end of the school year (extending the contract year until June 30). The SPS proposal also includes an additional 10 required school events (including up to 3 overnight events) plus mandated PLP hours completed after work hours.

For contrast, here is the formatted proposal and proposed calendar from Unite Summit. We expressed the need for a shorter work day and work year in order to make our jobs more sustainable and to decrease teacher burnout and turnover. We were surprised to see that Summit took that feedback and decided to shorten our daily schedule but add so many additional work days in June (which don’t clearly define what type of work we will be doing) along with multiple after-school activities.

We will continue to push to reach an agreement that offers a truly sustainable schedule and calendar for our teachers. We still have multiple questions about the implications of this proposal, but we ran out of time and will begin discussing this proposal during our next bargaining session.

Unite Summit also raised concerns today regarding Phase 2 plans for Virtual School. Based on our discussion, the following remain concerns:

How can we best adjust the schedule for our middle school teachers to account for their increased screen time relative to the high school schedule? In virtual school, middle school teachers have 220 weekly minutes of prep time for , while high school teachers have 340 weekly minutes of prep time. For a more complete look at the schedule times, here is a spreadsheet detailing the differences. Our ask is that lunch be extended and/or passing periods be lengthened. SPS says those requests do not align with the feedback they’ve heard. Please reach out (and have your middle school families reach out) to SPS leadership (dtavenner@summitps.org) and Denali Middle School representative Amber Steele (asteele@summitps.org) if you are also concerned about the schedule.
How can we best inform families of the available support systems? We are concerned that families do not understand how to access resources such as counseling sessions; our ask is that information be included in weekly newsletters to increase transparency for our families.
For students who have either chosen the Pass/No Pass or Step Back pathways, are there options for allowing them to pass if there are extenuating circumstances given the climate of the pandemic? We’ve been told this will be calculated on a case-by-case basis, but we’re hoping for more concrete guidance about how mentors can help facilitate such cases.
Is Summer School happening? SPS leadership expressed a willingness to consider Summer School as an additional support structure; we would appreciate a guarantee and more clear communication to our students and families.

In addition to discussing the calendar and Virtual School, Unite Summit introduced the following contract proposals:

Employment Status. Ends at-will employment. After a probationary period, teachers continue to be employed year-to-year unless there is cause to fire them.
Discipline and Dismissal. Lays out a clear, fair process for disciplining and dismissing teachers.
Evaluation. Proposes the creation of a committee of SPS admin and teachers to develop an evaluation process over the next two years.

We plan to present the rest of our original proposals at our next meeting, which will be held on May 4.

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; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; Douglas Wills, Tahoma; and Isela Mosqueira, Rainier. Ona Keller and Daryl Hemenway 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.

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

Our Third Bargaining Session

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

As part of the meeting, Unite Summit continued to advocate for a counter proposal from SPS regarding our position on the calendar and schedule for the 2020-2021 school year. Here is the formatted proposal and proposed calendar from Unite Summit. Today we asked SPS to generate a counter proposal by Friday, April 10. Here is the letter we sent outlining our legal reasoning for bargaining this proposal as a separate issue from the rest of the contract.

There were several new proposals and counter proposals presented today.

Unite Summit introduced the following contract proposals:

Professional Development (proposal)
Technology and Resources (proposal)

Unite Summit also presented the following counter proposals (in these documents, you can see the line edits made relative to Summit’s latest proposal on these articles):

Management Rights (counter proposal)
Savings (counter proposal)
Assignability (counter proposal)

SPS introduced the following contract proposals:

Employment Status (proposal) – the SPS proposal keeps the status quo of at-will employment; our counter proposal will include provisions to ensure that teachers are not fired without just cause
Negotiation Procedures (proposal)

SPS also formulated counter proposals to three of the proposals Unite Summit presented at our last meeting.

Unite Summit Bargaining Team (and friends!)

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

Our next bargaining session will be Tuesday, April 21. If you have questions, please reach out to your site rep or contact us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

Happy almost Spring Break from your Bargaining Team! We are enjoying the opportunity to use Zoom to advocate for y’all, and we look forward to the chance to unplug soon : )

Our Second Bargaining Session

Unite Summit and the SPS bargaining team held their second contract negotiation meeting today. We are still collecting perspectives through our input survey at tinyurl.com/USMarchSurvey, so please fill that out if you haven’t yet!

As part of the meeting, Unite Summit sought a counter proposal from SPS regarding our position on the calendar and schedule for the 2020-2021 school year. Here is the formatted proposal and calendar that we presented last week. We bargained over the schedule for this school year in the summer, and we believe it would be appropriate to negotiate over next year’s schedule and calendar now, knowing that the full contract will likely not be ready for next school year.

The position of Summit Public Schools’ bargaining team is that they do not wish to bargain over calendar or working hours for the 2020-2021 school year separately from the overall union contract. They did not present a counter proposal.

We will continue to push SPS to negotiate regarding next year’s schedule because they are legally required to do so. We know that this is an issue that is important to our members, and we want to push for steps that will address teacher burnout and help improve retention.

There were also several new proposals and counter proposals presented today.

Unite Summit introduced the following contract proposals:

Intellectual Property (proposal)
Facilities (proposal)
Assignments, Transfer, Reassignments (proposal)

SPS introduced the following contract proposal:

Leadership Rights (proposal)

SPS also formulated counter proposals to two of the proposals Unite Summit presented at our last meeting.
Here are the original proposals and the counter proposals:

Assignability: original proposal / SPS counter proposal
Savings and Separability: original proposal / SPS counter proposal

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; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; Douglas Wills, Tahoma; and Isela Mosqueira, Rainier. Ona Keller and Daryl Hemenway 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.

Our next bargaining session will be Thursday, April 2. We are planning to present proposals related to Professional Development and Technology and Resources. If you have questions, please reach out to your site rep or contact us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

Our First Bargaining Session!

3/20/2020

Today we held our first bargaining meeting related to our contract! Please read our opening statement if you’d like to learn more about the principles guiding this work.

Since improving support services for students is one of our top priorities, we led with our proposal on mental health, ELL, and diverse learner supports. We hope that proposal, along with the accompanying Health and Safety and Academic Freedom proposals, will lead to an increase in resources and protections for our teachers and a better environment for our students.

Unite Summit presented the following contract proposals:

Support Services proposal – This aims to increase mental health services, ELL services, and diverse learning supports.
Health and Safety proposal – This sets guidelines for safe, well-equipped facilities and procedures to ensure emotional safety at work.
Academic Freedom proposal – This aims to protect teachers who want to adjust their curriculum in accordance with their professional judgment and student needs.
Layoff and Reemployment proposal – This sets out the procedures governing any future layoffs.
Grievance and Arbitration proposal – This provides action steps to address any violation of the contract or other related law or regulation.
Recognition proposal – This defines our bargaining unit and governs any potential additions to our unit.
Union Rights proposal – This provides for the efficient operation of our union and its communication with unit members.
Assignability proposal – This ensures that our contract stays in place if Summit were to change its corporate structure.
Savings and Separability proposal – This guarantees that the contract as a whole stays active if a particular article needs to be renegotiated due to a change in the law.

Beyond the contract proposals listed above, Unite Summit also presented a proposal regarding working hours for the 2020-21 school year. Following member feedback, the proposal includes the conversion of February PD week to vacation time and a reduction in the required meeting hours per week for all teachers. It also seeks to return autonomy to sites regarding the daily schedule and meeting agendas. Here is that proposal and the accompanying calendar. (We also sent this in our newsletter earlier this week).

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; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; Douglas Wills, Tahoma. Ona Keller and Daryl Hemenway 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.

Our next bargaining meeting is set for Thursday, March 26. We will be presenting additional proposals from our Sunshine Document and hearing counter proposals from Summit. If you have questions, please reach out to your site rep or contact us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

And if you haven’t done so already, please fill out our latest bargaining survey about important topics like evaluations and job duties: tinyurl.com/USMarchSurvey

Bargaining Info and February PD Week

Thanks so much for stopping by our coffee / T-shirt table and attending lunch meetings last week – it was lovely to see everyone! Look out for our bargaining input survey in next week’s newsletter. We will be soliciting input on the following proposals: Shared Governance, Employment Status, and Discipline and Dismissal. If you didn’t get a chance to attend one of our lunch meetings, here’s a copy of our handout for you to review.

We are continuing to prepare for our first contract negotiation session, currently scheduled for March 20. This morning, we sent to following email to Diane, Kelly, and Jimmy in response to their latest email regarding bargaining:

We’re eager to begin bargaining, and we hope Summit’s bargaining team will work with us this spring to make as much progress as possible on our first contract.

Unite Summit officially launched in January 2019. Since then, we’ve worked to gather input, name a bargaining team, and draft contract proposals. We’re happy that the year of legal delays we faced in gaining recognition is over and that we are now moving into a phase where we’re all working hard toward negotiating a contract that will meet our three primary goals: improving support services for students, strengthening teacher retention, and providing an increased voice for teachers in decision-making.

Teachers have expressed frustration with the way in which consensus-based decision-making has been employed this school year, and it’s clear our faculty is not satisfied with the status quo. Our current use of consensus does not acknowledge the power imbalances inherent in our hierarchy; teachers have reported not feeling like their voices matter in the decision-making process. Due to these concerns, Shared Governance is one of the proposals we will be soliciting input on in our next survey.

We know all the issues that matter to our teachers aren’t encompassed in the compensation process, so we’re excited to start bargaining with proposals on subjects like support services for students and academic freedom for teachers. We hope opening up a wider discussion will address concerns and lead to meaningful change.

As we enter into negotiations, we’d like to reiterate that Unite Summit is the exclusive representative of our bargaining unit. Meeting as equals at the bargaining table means preparing for bargaining in a way that allows Unite Summit to function as the voice of teachers. We ask that you acknowledge that collective bargaining is a change in the way our organization operates — a change our faculty fought for — and that you respect our bargaining team’s role as elected representatives tasked with gathering input and shaping teacher-led proposals.

As always, if you have questions, please reach out to your site reps or email us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com!

Unite Summit/Summit Public Schools Agreement Regarding Rainier Closure

Unite Summit and Summit Public Schools have agreed to this proposal regarding the rights of Summit Rainier teachers following the closure of Rainier. As the proposal states, “In mutually agreeable language, Unite Summit will inform all of their bargaining unit members of their insistence that Rainier teachers be offered open positions for transfer before any other Summit teacher is considered.”

Inform: This proposal includes a month of health insurance for Rainier teachers who do not stay with Summit, as well as a specific rehire procedure for them which includes offering Rainier teachers open positions at other Summit schools for which they have applied for transfer before other Summit teachers.
Given the closure of Rainier, Unite Summit believes it is very important that Rainier teachers who want to stay in the organization have a guaranteed opportunity to do so, which is why they proposed this language in the proposal despite Summit Public School’s reservations. After engaging in a mutual bargaining process, Summit Public Schools has decided to honor this request.

If you have any questions about the proposal, please contact unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.

Updates on Rainier and Bargaining

Update on bargaining
We have sunshined our proposals and are prepared to start negotiating our first contract. Unfortunately, Summit has thus far refused to schedule bargaining until after the March board meeting. We are still pushing their bargaining team to begin discussions earlier, as we want to preserve as much time as possible before the end of the school year for negotiations on our key issues: teacher retention, student supports, and teacher voice in decision-making.

If you want more information about the legal rationale for starting bargaining now, see this FAQ.

News regarding Rainier
We are continuing to advocate for the needs of our Rainier students, families and teachers as they prepare for the closure of their school. We have helped to file a complaint with the Santa Clara County Board of Education to advocate for increased transparency in board discussions and address concerns regarding the failure of Summit to inform the community during the decision-making process regarding the closure of Rainier.

Following a public records request, we have documentation that deliberate decisions were made to keep discussions of Rainier’s impending closure off public board agendas and to avoid informing the Rainier community of the ongoing discussions related to San Jose facilities.

From the complaint: After ESUHSD Superintendent Chris Funk sent an email to Summit CEO Diane Tavenner asking if real estate negotiations should be disclosed on the September 12, 2019 ESUHSD Board agenda, Tavenner wrote in an August 20 email to executives from Summit and KIPP:
“My instinct is that we want to start discussions in September and that we do not want to make a formal request of the [ESUHSD] board (this would be a very bad strategy for managing the Summit community).”

Josh Lotstein, COO of Summit, responded to Tavenner:
“My instinct is similar and my wondering if whether a memo to the board is public. If it is, I think that would be very bad for the same reason a formal request would be unless we had a strategy for engaging the Rainier community between now and September 12. I don’t think we would want them to find out about this from a ESUHSD board meeting. If we think starting in September is best for the success of the swap and this will be public at the September board meeting, then I think we would want to prepare the Rainier community accordingly…”

This apparently deliberate decision to keep the Rainier community in the dark about the closure of their school in an effort to “manage” them shows a lack of respect for the law and for an important part of our Summit community. We want to ensure increased transparency for future board discussions on all important issues that affect our students, families, and teachers.

We are in continued negotiations regarding the layoff and transfer rights of Rainier faculty, especially for those who are seeking transfer to other Summit campuses for next year. We are also continuing to push Summit to provide transportation for students who wish to transfer to Tahoma (see our latest proposal here).

Rainier families have repeatedly requested that Summit provide busing; so far, Summit has stated the most it can do is to provide VTA (public transit) passes. It would take current Rainier students who walk, bike, or skate to school 1.5 hours one way on a VTA bus to get to Tahoma, versus 20 minutes on a private bus. Rainier families have repeatedly cited transportation as a primary factor in whether or not they wish to transfer to Tahoma next school year, and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that our organization is fulfilling its promise to provide support to all our San Jose families who wish to continue to attend a Summit school.