Your LTA Bargaining Team met with the district on May 2, 2012.  The LTA team includes Polo Marquez (LMS 7/8), Sigrid Caballero (pre-school), Brian Guerrero (LMS 7/8), Ernesto Leon (LMSTA), Fidel Lopez (Moffett) and Jeff Good (CTA Staff).  The district team includes Brian Johnson, Lissett Pichardo, Scott Wilcox and Caroline Larson (from the accounting firm of VTD).

Your team made comprehensive proposals on Article 7 – Work Year and Hours of Employment and Article 18 – School Leadership (see the full text of the proposals here).  The district made no new proposals, but reviewed those that were previously “sunshined” for public comment at the March 6, 2012 school board meeting.  Additionally, there was a conversation about the district financial picture and the lack of certainty regarding the state budget; more will be known after the May revision of the governor’s budget proposal is released in late May.  Your team will make additional proposals at the next meeting for Article 3 – Association Rights and Article 9 – Class Size, as well as Article 21 – Individualized Educational Program (IEP) regarding the needs of special education teachers.  Our next bargaining sessions are tentatively scheduled for Friday, May 18 and Thursday, May 31.

Your team is committed to saving as many jobs as possible, protecting salaries & benefits, and improving learning and working conditions in Lennox.  We understand the seriousness of the state budget crisis, but the district will have to bargain in good faith and recognize the hard work and sacrifices we’ve made in the past, as well as the need to empower teachers to act as agents of progressive change in our schools.

Link to Bargaining Documents

LTA Proposals

Article 7 – Work Year and Hours of Employment:

LTA proposals seek to:

• Incorporate contract language addressing pre-school and LMSTA issues, where no language currently exists;
• Limit the district’s right to extend the teacher workday for meetings to 1 hour per week for pre-school, elementary, and middle school teachers, and 4 hours per month for LMSTA teachers;
• Create permanent contract language that provides teacher discretionary time on 3 minimum Wednesdays per month for pre-school, elementary and middle school teachers;
• Create contract language that makes permanent the 260 minutes of preparation time per week currently provided for LMSTA teachers;
• Eliminate adjunct duties;
• Release teachers at student dismissal on days when the lunch period is reduced to 30 minutes, such as inclement weather days;
• Prevent teachers from being required to write curriculum, or provide compensation when they agree to do so.

Article 18 – School Leadership:

LTA proposals seek to:

• Establish school leadership teams at each school site that provide oversight on budget, scheduling, curriculum, assessments, assessment calendars, professional development and other issues concerning the operation of the school, following the model of the leadership team that currently exists at LMSTA.

District Proposals

Article 3 – Association Rights:

• Reduce the vote threshold for contract waivers from 75% to 55%.

Article 4 – Grievance Procedures:

• Give the district the right to grieve LTA, or skip the grievance process and sue LTA.

Article 6 – Compensation and Benefits:

• “Negotiate salary and health benefit adjustments”; limit the retiree health benefits of newly hired teachers.

Article 7 – Work Year and Hours of Employment:

• Furlough days; the right to schedule mandatory meetings on Fridays; permanent language creating district-wide minimum Wednesdays for “collaboration.”

Article 9 – Class Size:

• Increase class sizes beyond 29:1.

Appendix A – Salary Schedule:

• Tie step advancement on the salary schedule to teacher evaluations.