Thank you to our Negotiating team for all their hard work over the past year. Patty Peinado, Aaron Nesper, Tanya Guiremand and Richard Guiremand: you are truly appreciated. And a special thank you to Becky Masuda and Andrew Oman for all your help.

As Patty stated in her Friday email, it will take a little time before we have an informational meeting to discuss the changes to the tentative agreement. However, a few of the agreed upon changes will be in the form of Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) and are not in the actual Tentative Agreement. One such MOU, regarding In-Lieu time, has been attached to this email and will take effect starting today September, 20 2021. I will highlight a few points below, but please read through the entire MOU at your leisure. Also, as a reminder, when you look at your In-Lieu balance in the ESCAPE Portal, remember that an In-Lieu period is .83 of an hour and an In-Lieu day is 4.15 hours.

You can access the ESCAPE Portal from our FA website here.

Highlights:

1) Unit members who substitute for another teacher may continue to accrue In-Lieu time pursuant to the contract language, or you may NOW elect to be compensated at a rate of $55/period.

2) Unit members currently over the 15-day (62.25-hour) limit may choose to keep their current balance and not lose days over the limit.

3) All unit members have the option to cash out all or some of their In-Lieu balance at a rate of $55/ period. This cashing out must take place by November 30, 2021 for payment on December 30, 2021 and/or by June 8, 2022 for payment on June 30, 2021. More information will follow on this process.

4) After reaching the In-Lieu maximum of 15 days, unit members may continue to substitute for other teachers. However, they will not earn additional In-Lieu credit but will be compensated at a rate of $55/period.

5) Starting September 20, 2021, unit members over the maximum of 15 days and unit members who elect to be paid will be paid per the following schedule: If you substitute for another teacher between September 20, 2021 and November 30, 2021, you will be paid on December 30, 2021. If you substitute for another teacher between December 1, 2021 and June 8, 2022, you will be paid on June 30, 2022.

6) The contract currently states that unit members may only substitute during ONE of their designated prep periods. The attached MOU states that a unit member may substitute during BOTH of their designated prep periods and on the same day if they volunteer to take on such assignments.

If you do not have access to the Escape Portal, so you can check your In-Lieu balance, please contact Heather Fiscus at the District office. hfiscus@smjuhsd.org

Thanks,
Matt Provost
SMJUHSDFA President