Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1291735
H E S P E R I A : Teachers rally and win Hesperia Teachers Association utilized social distancing orga- nizing tactics and won this summer, reaching agreement during fact-finding after lengthy negotiations. HTA held a car parade prior to the beginning of fact-finding, earning a spot on the front page of the Victor Valley Daily Press. When the marathon session ran until 4 a.m., HTA emerged with an agreement in hand, winning a 1.5 percent pay increase retro- active to July 2019, a $200 increase to the district's health care contribution, language and compensation improvements around period subbing and class splitting, and protection of members from harmful language related to leaves and transfers. S A C R A M E N T O : At impasse Sacramento City Teachers Association is again involved in difficult negotiations with Sacramento City Unified School District. In September, the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) determined that negotiations were deadlocked and the two sides had reached impasse. At the heart of the dispute: providing the best instruction to address student needs and foster a love of learning. In a brick-and-mortar setting, teachers have the ability to use their professional expertise and judgment to provide an education based on the individual needs of their students. Rather than extend respect for the professional judgment of teachers to the distance learning setting, district administrators who have no direct experience teaching in a distance learning environment are trying to impose a rigid, overly scripted learning model that devalues teachers' professional judgment. For SCTA, it's a choice of quality rather than quantity. State mediators were assigned to help the sides reach an agreement. SCTA went on a one-day strike in 2019. T E M E C U L A : Pact on safe return conditions Temecula Valley Educators Association bargainers, like others across the state, have worked tirelessly since the pandemic began. They returned to the table more than six times to reach agreement with the dis- trict on the conditions by which members will return to their classrooms. The one-year agreement sets parameters for stay- at-home or hybrid course curriculum delivery on a block schedule format where educators can teach from their classrooms without students present. Pro- visions for face-to-face instruction will be considered after Riverside County has been removed from the Governor 's Watch List for no less than 14 days. An additional seven-day notification to return was also negotiated, giving students, parents and educators time to prepare for transition back to the traditional school setting. T VEA President Jeff Kingsberg thanks his team for their additional work during the pandemic. "Of all our hardworking member activists, no one has sacrificed more time to protect member interests than our bargaining team," says Kingsberg. 43 O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0