Thank you to everyone who completed our recent SMJUHSDFA survey. I have attached the results and sent them to District Office personnel. Due to the personal nature of many of the suggestions and comments, I will not be making them public. However, I have shown them to Antonio, John and Kevin as I think it is important that they read your suggestions/comments. Also, I have asked John Davis if the District could make the results of their survey public.
As you know, the District is currently in the process of developing a model for reopening school that they will present to the Board on Tuesday, July 14. Although our survey slightly favored seeing our students twice per week, the District prefers their “Draft” model where we see our students once per week for 95 minutes. Their reasoning is that fewer classes per day will result in fewer passing periods, thereby having fewer student interactions per day resulting in a safer environment for everyone. We have taken our survey results and met with the District three times this week to let them know about the concerns of our members. The District was receptive to our concerns; however, there are topics that are guided by the State, County, and the California Department of Education (CDE) that we cannot control. For example, if the CDE says we need to wear masks when school starts, then we cannot alter that directive.
On Tuesday, the District will present a return-to-school model to the Board. If it is approved, we will bargain any part of it that is negotiable. Currently, the District and the FA are in agreement on most of the topics that are negotiable. However, with the daily changes revolving around the Corona virus, any such return-to-school model seems tentative and it is very possible that many changes could be made before school actually starts.
District Business
As Kevin Platt stated in his recent email (7/6/20), if you have health concerns about returning to school, please contact him by July 16 if possible. Additionally, the three documents attached to his email may answer some of your questions. I have uploaded those documents to our website (Attachment 1) (Attachment 2) (Attachment 3). There are now five trainings that we are required to complete each year. If you would like to start them now, you are welcome to do so; otherwise, you will be asked to complete them during our staff development time when we return to school. Here are the current links to these trainings:
Get Safety Trained – https://www.getsafetytrained.com/ – Mandated Child Abuse Reporting for Educators, Sexual – Harassment Training – 1 hour, Antimicrobial Pesticides
CDPR – https://apps.cdpr.ca.gov/schoolipm/ – the DPR101 Basic IPM for the Classroom and Office Environment training.
County COVID-19 Training – https://www.sbsipe.org/files/134425049.pdf
As the summer progresses, I will keep you abreast of important changes while being sure not to bother you with minor details that are subject to change at any time.
Have a great rest of your summer,
Matt Provost
President SMJUHSDFA