SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Frederick Douglass(1818-1895)

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

Union Timeline 2009-10

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

Nov-Dec 2009 Jan–April 2010 May-July 2010 Aug to Nov 2010

•SDUSD budget discussions & initial District “spin”•SDEA bargaining cont.

•Possible Layoffs•SDUSD budget doom & gloom cont.•SDEA bargaining cont.

•Fighting back against bargaining concessions•Anti-union ballot measures•School Board election•Possible parcel tax•Bargaining cont.

•Layoff fight continues•District’s demands for bargaining concessions

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

News from School Board Budget Workshop - October 20, 2009

• 2010-11 Deficit: “The range of possibilities goes from bad to catastrophic”

• Next year’s budget hole could reach $200 million!

• Bill Kowba (Interim Superintendent): “There is no more low-hanging fruit.”

• James Masias (District Chief Financial Officer): “Most of our expenses are people, so it’s very difficult to make cuts that don’t involve people.”

• “I don’t think the public’s even got the idea that we are in trouble,” said trustee John de Beck, who wants to alert parents and students early about the trouble that lies ahead.

• The District’s march towards layoffs, increased class sizes, program cuts, salary and benefit take backs, and general attacks on educators has already begun!

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

Have we heard this before?

What the School Board Told Us Two Years Ago – March 12, 2008:

“We are not going to bankrupt this District." Katherine Nakamura quoted in Voice of San Diego, March 10, 2009 after the School Board voted to issue pink slips to over 900 educators.

Fact: These layoffs were not necessary and ALL layoffs notices were rescinded after a year-long effort by SDEA, parents, and community supporters.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

Have we heard this before?

What the School Board Told Us Last Year – March 10, 2009:

The plan (the District’s March 2009 budget plan) hinges on San Diego Unified being able to negotiate with its unions to boost class sizes, furlough employees for four days, and increase what workers pay when they go to the doctor's office. If the unions do not agree to those plans, the school district could resort to closing a dozen schools with low enrollment or eliminating high school athletics, visual and performing arts, or popular programs that take students to Old Town and Balboa Park. Voice of San Diego, March 10, 2009

Fact: These cuts were NOT necessary – if we had succumbed to their doom and gloom predictions we would have agreed to unnecessary furlough days, salary cuts, and benefit take backs.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

We LOSE this fight if:

• SDEA members sit on the sideline and watch.

• We buy into the doom and gloom predictions of “certain” School Board Members and District administrators.

• We fail to engage and activate parents and the community in our common cause.

• We start pointing the finger and fighting each other.

• We get scared and begin to think the worst is inevitable.

• We don’t engage, as a union and as a community, in collective ACTIONS!

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

We WIN this fight if:

• We focus on both the short term and the long term.

• We work with parents to find common interests and issues that we can work on together.

• We remain confident and patient.

• We stay strong and persist – and resist attempts to divide us.

• We commit to strengthening our worksites (by building effective site teams and maintaining two-way communication).

• We focusing on engaging members at our worksites in collective action that give them a voice in their futures.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

Short Term Strategy:

Define the terms of the budget debate

The School Board has announced that on November 17th it will begin to gather input from parents and community members through a series of Town Hall meetings and other methods (blogs, suggestion cards, etc.).

SDEA members and supporters must get our message out NOW and set the terms of this debate (e.g., keep cuts from our classrooms, no layoffs – we have already lost too many educators, etc.) before the other side does.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

SDEA REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL

Long Term Strategy:

Continue to build capacity at our worksites

SDEA’s power is concentrated at our worksites, not in this hall. As ARs, leaders and staff, we MUST strengthen our worksites:

Strong Site Goals:

1.Active and engaged AR

2.Complete & functioning site team (AR, CRs, Organizers)

3.Regular Site meetings

4.Regular ACTION in support of union objectives

5.Regular site evaluation and reporting of union actions

NOVEMBER 4, 2009