I hope everyone is doing well as we pass the first progress report of the 2020-2021 school year. I personally am enjoying having the students back in the classroom and my wish is that this will continue.

A couple of items to bring to your attention:

Negotiations
As you know we now have a Tentative Agreement with the District, and we must now have a ratification vote. Before we have the vote we will have an informational meeting to let everyone know of the changes and give an opportunity for clarifying questions. The meeting will take place on September 30 via Zoom. The ratification vote will take place immediately following the meeting using Simply Voting.
Be sure to keep an eye on your email for a Zoom link and a ballot from Simply Voting.

September Paycheck
Your September paycheck should include payment for the extra professional development day we worked in August. Please keep in mind that this is not a permanent increase to the salary schedule, but is a payment of your daily rate of pay for working the extra Professional Development day. We will also work an additional Professional Development day in January and should receive that payment in our January 2022 paycheck. The Board-approved School Calendar for the 2021-2022 school year is here along with the old calendar and other documents.

Observation Timelines

Are you being evaluated this school year? Here is the timeline from our current contract. If you are a new teacher to the district, please let me know if you have any questions.

TIMELINE: TENURED: NON-TENURED:
Pre-Observation Conference by October 31 by October 1
Observations October – April October-February
Final Evaluation by May 1 by February 15

 

Medical Insurance Open Enrollment
As you probably already know, there have been a few changes to our medical insurance. In addition to changes in pricing and the plans themselves, our classified and administrative coworkers will be joining us in CalPERS. All changes for health, dental, and vision will need to be made using the new Ease Portal and the deadline to make changes is Friday, October 15, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. You can make the changes on your own, using the Ease Portal, or you can meet with Monica Herrera during the scheduled times for each site. All changes will take effect on January 1, 2022. If you do not need to make any changes, there is no need to take any action. If you are currently enrolled in the Care or Choice plans, you will automatically be enrolled in the new Platinum plan. If you are currently enrolled in the Select plan, you will automatically be enrolled in the Gold plan. Here is the Health Benefit Memo sent out by the District Office. For enrollment assistance and questions, please contact Monica Herrera at the District Office. mherrera@smjuhsd.org

New Teachers

If you are a new teacher to the District, first of all you probably didn’t read this far, but if you did, please take a look at our SMJUHSDFA website and let me know if you have any questions. There is a lot of good information including your very important Weingarten Rights.