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Dear Educators,
Thank you to every teacher and community member who attended today’s bargaining session. Your presence matters! Today the district knows that teachers are watching this process even during the summer and several teachers were able to share their serious concerns with the district’s anti-teacher proposals. Be sure to click HERE to see the evaluation presentation given at the table today.
July 16th Bargaining Opening Comments
Clinton McCracken, CTA President
Good morning everyone. I want to welcome all our guests here today. As I’ve said, we’ve been sharing summaries of each bargaining session with members of our bargaining unit and teachers have been expressing enormous concern over the district’s proposals. Our educators, and the community are paying attention to what’s happening in these negotiations, even over this summer break. As you’ve seen shared on our social media, we have numerous local politicians, friends in labor, and community organizations supporting CTA’s bargaining pillars and they’ve been calling and asking me what’s going on as well.
The district has so far rejected many of the proposals we’ve made to try to improve working conditions for our educators.
Teachers in our bargaining unit are having difficulty understanding how the district’s proposal to gut the evaluations article and attempt to take away academic freedom help to make things better for teachers. These proposals are the exact opposite of the pillars our teachers have shared with you and we cannot see how the district proposals would help to recruit and retain teachers.
As we’ve mentioned on several occasions, our goal has been to reach an agreement before school starts. It is why we pushed for several bargaining dates over the summer. This is still our hope.
With that in mind, I sent an email to Dr. Vazquez weeks ago asking to meet so we could discuss things and hope to find some common ground. The invitation still stands.
Our union represents your 14,000 instructional bargaining unit and this unit is telling the district that there are things that need to be done to make things better for your educators. Instead, your proposals are an attempt to make things worse and remove our contractual rights.
I don’t personally believe that the School Board members are ok with removing teacher rights from our contract. I don’t believe they’ll be ok taking language from a contract that protects teachers long after they’re gone and long after current district leadership is gone.
I want to now share further explanation why the Evaluations Article is so important to our members and we’ll send this to the Superintendent and the School Board members in our follow up communication. We want the Board to know what is happening at the table. Click HERE to see the presentation.
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Here are a few reasons why joining the OCCTA can be beneficial for you:
- Advocacy and Representation: We ensure your voice is heard in important decisions affecting your working conditions, and compensation.
- Professional Development: Access a range of workshops and resources aimed at enhancing your teaching skills and career growth.
- Support Network: Connect with fellow educators, share experiences, and build a supportive community both professionally and personally.
- Legal Assistance: Receive expert advice and representation on work-related legal matters.
- Member Benefits: Enjoy various discounts and perks available exclusively to union members.
The district is trying to remove evaluation rights and academic freedom. Imagine how they will act without a union holding them accountable!
