Dear HTH Community, Thank you for your feedback on the Educator Evaluation Input Survey distributed on September 6th. Over 38% of our educators and directors responded to the survey! The HTH-HTEC Joint Evaluation Committee carefully reviewed all survey submissions on September 14th and identified the following themes: Concerns
Desired State
The above findings will inform the ongoing work of the HTH-HTEC Joint Evaluation Committee in this two-year process. Please know that there will be ongoing opportunities for HTH stakeholders to provide feedback and input as the process moves forward. The next meeting of the HTH-HTEC Joint Evaluation Committee will be on October 19th. At our next meeting we will continue the review of best practices and research. In addition, we will have deeper discussions regarding multiple sources of evidence of teacher practice and protocols in a PBL classroom setting. We will also review existing HTH PBL support documents. Want to learn more about our process? Check out these resources that were reviewed in our September 14th session to develop a growth system that will support our school communities!
Thank you again for your input and support. Respectfully, The HTH-HTEC Joint Evaluation Committee Sarah Barnes-Shulman, Amanda Borow, Elise Bostic, Diana Cornejo-Sanchez, Amber George, Dave Gillingham, Marquita Griffith, and Katie Pond “It’s a lot.” That is what High Tech’s Chief Financial Officer told the HTH board about spending 63.52-percent of the school budget on staff salary and benefits last year. We found this statement to be curious because, when compared to other schools, our teacher pay lags significantly. What we found was that in comparison to San Diego County school districts and many comparable charter schools, the CMO spends significantly less on staff than every other school. How much less? San Diego Unified has budgeted 92.63-percent of their expenses on staff salary and benefits. Several charter schools, including Helix, Darnall, Albert Einstein Academies, Tubman Village, O’Farrell and e3 Civic High spend more than 70-percent of their budget on staff. Compare the list for yourself! Even more frustrating from our perspective is that the HTH board’s budget has continued to move in the wrong direction. In 2019-2020, more than 73-percent of the school’s expenses went to staff salary and benefits. We’re spending less each year on what makes HTH special – its teachers and staff who have dedicated their careers to our students! 2019-2020: 73.04% 2020-2021: 64.97% 2021-2022: 64.87% 2022-2023: 63.52% We believe that education is a people industry, where investments in teachers and staff produce stable learning communities and better results in the classroom for everyone. In reviewing the board’s budget with the CMO, we understand that our proposal would require the school to re-shift priorities in the budget. We hope they’re able to get approval from Gary Jacobs and the HTH board to move in that direction. As for the proposals, our proposal remains unchanged in its structure and includes an 8.75-percent increase for salaried unit members. It also includes the 8.22-percent increase for hourly unit members that the CMO previously agreed to in our last session. However, since our last bargaining session the CMO provided us updated data on the current salaries of teachers. What we found is that teacher turnover and the replacement of veteran staff with lower salaried new teachers has created a $103,000 cost savings for HTH. Both our bargaining team and the CMO had been estimating the costs of proposals with the assumption that regular step increases would result in an approximate increased cost of $500,000, before accounting for a raise. Essentially, the cost of our proposal dropped by several hundred thousand dollars just by nature of teacher turnover. After a long caucus, the CMO chose not to make a counterproposal today. They stated that they recognize we are not close to an agreement. Without doing more work to determine what they believe they can afford, they said that making a proposal without meaningful movement would set bargaining backwards. We appreciate the self-reflection and hope they come to the next bargaining session with a meaningful increase to their proposal. How The Proposals Have Compared What’s Next? We still have a ways to go to reach what we believe is a fair settlement. The HTH board budgeted for a $6.6 million increase in revenue for 2023-24, but so far their bargaining team has only proposed about a quarter of that going to staff salaries. Our Rep Council will be meeting early next week to discuss ways we can continue holding the board accountable. On Wednesday our bargaining team met with the CMO for additional bargaining over a pay increase for the 2023-24 school year.
We started the session by sharing the responses collected at All Staff Day when we posed the questions, “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” about the CMO’s previous salary proposal. It was a powerful reminder that our bargaining team is the representative voice of hundreds of educators, who want to see High Tech’s actions align with their words and mission. Since our last bargaining session, we did reach an agreement with the CMO to increase their contribution to health care premiums, rather than passing the cost on to teachers. As a result, we reduced the total cost of our counter-proposal for pay increases to compensate for the additional amount the CMO is paying for healthcare premiums. In doing so, we removed the elimination of steps on the pay scale from our initial proposal, which would have resulted in each member effectively moving up at least one step before receiving an across-the-board pay raise. The CMO rejected our proposal today. Their counter-proposal did improve their previous offer, where newer teachers would receive up to a 3.23-percent raise while teachers with more experience would receive just a 1-percent raise. However, today’s proposal from the CMO is still lacking. How The Proposals Compare HTEC Proposal Our proposal continues to refocus the resources in the CMO’s budget to prioritize those who work with students, and includes:
CMO Proposal The CMO’s proposal consists of:
The Questions Remain What do you notice and wonder when the school receives 8.22-percent more in per pupil funding from the state and yet is only willing to offer teachers a raise of 3.23-percent? What we know is that the cost of living for teachers has significantly increased, and a 3.23-percent raise is effectively a pay cut. We shared stories with the CMO of teachers seeing a 10-percent increase in rent and struggling to afford life in San Diego. The CMO framed their proposal as more than a 5-percent increase because of the cost of step increases that teachers receive each year. But the reality is that more experienced teachers, who have remained loyal to HTH, are more valuable to their students and school communities. Their proposal also estimates the actual cost of the step increases at the maximum amount, which assumes 100-percent teacher retention – a goal we all know HTH has yet to realize. The truth is, an experienced teacher that leaves HTH and is replaced by a new teacher is actually a cost savings for the CMO. Our proposal takes into account additional funding that the CMO will receive in 2023-24 and makes sure it is spent on the classroom, where it will most benefit students and educators. While the CMO’s updated proposal is a step in the right direction, as a bargaining team it leaves us noticing that HTH does not value its teachers. We wonder why the CMO is unwilling to pass California’s per pupil cost of living increase on to teachers who are struggling to afford teaching at HTH? So where is the money going? In the board's adopted budget, the CMO projected expenses on books and supplies to increase by 26.2-percent and services and other operations by 28.6-percent. The CMO’s own budget is projected to increase by a whopping 11.76-percent! Yet they only have 3.23-percent for teachers. Where do High Tech's priorities lie? What’s Next? Our Rep Council is meeting Thursday September 7 in the evening and will discuss next steps in organizing as a Collective to pressure the CMO into increasing their offer. We hope to have another bargaining session scheduled for the end of the month. In the meantime, be prepared to meet with your site reps and fellow members. Our strength comes in our solidarity and you can join the Collective, if you haven’t already, to increase that strength! A Lot of Progress but No Salary Proposal
On Thursday, our bargaining team met with the Charter Management Organization (CMO) for another bargaining session as we make progress towards a first union contract that creates A Village United and Protected. At our last session our bargaining team proposed setting the minimum hourly wage of classified employees at $20 an hour and giving all employees a 22-percent raise starting this year. The CMO did not provide a counter proposal on Thursday, but we hope to receive one soon. Our bargaining team made counter proposals to the CMO’s two proposals from our last bargaining session. HTEC Proposal - Employment Status The CMO previously proposed that employees would have the right to due process and protection to only be fired for cause after a three year introductory period, the exact same as what teachers have in their union contract. However, this three year period does not account for the differences between teaching and the work of classified employees. We strongly believe that supervisors can tell if we’re effective in our jobs much quicker than they can for teachers, and that’s why we countered with a 120-day introductory period. HTEC Proposal - Leaves At our last bargaining session the CMO proposed sick leave, vacation days, and holidays that currently exist within the school’s Employee Handbook. We believe that the nature of classified work requires that members have adequate leave time throughout the year. We also believe the CMO’s proposal on sick leave, which is far less than what teachers receive in their union contract, would result in classified staff having to decide if they need to come to work while sick – endangering other staff and students – because they can’t afford to take time off. Our counter proposal would give classified members the same sick leave rights as teachers, earning one hour of sick leave for every 19 hours worked (up to 10 per school year) and having no cap on the total number of days that can be carried from year to year. ___________________________________________ The CMO presented nine proposals, the majority of which were contract sections that are more technical in nature and copied from the teachers’ contract. These included: CMO Proposal - Effect of Agreement The Effect of Agreement article of the contract generally establishes how long the contract is operative before having to bargain a new contract. California law limits contracts between unions and school districts to no more than three years before they need to be re-bargained. The proposal also addresses other issues beyond the length of the contract, including situations in which laws change in a way that contradict provisions of the contract and ensuring the contract remains in effect should the HTH be absorbed or managed by another entity. CMO Proposal - Grievance Procedures The Grievance Procedure section outlines the process that is used when we believe High Tech High has not followed the rules of the contract. It includes binding arbitration, where a neutral third party determines if the contract was violated and what should be the remedy if we can’t first come to an agreement. CMO Proposal - Management Rights The Management Rights section states the rights the High Tech High management has not bargained away, include the ability to make decisions about operating schools in emergency situations where they cannot follow a specific provision of the contract. The section also protects members by stating that pay cannot be withheld in emergency scenarios. CMO Proposal - Negotiations Procedures The Negotiations Procedures section covers the process and timelines for bargaining future contracts. CMO Proposal - Organizational Security The Organizational Security section details how High Tech High meets legal requirements when it comes to deducting union dues from paychecks and providing information to HTEC. CMO Proposal - Recognition The Recognition section states which job classification are included and excluded from the classified bargaining unit of HTEC. ___________________________________________ The CMO also made three proposals on what we believe directly impact the day-to-day lives of our members. These include: CMO Proposal - Safety The CMO’s safety proposal is the same as what is included in the teachers’ union contract. While this is a good first step, the proposal does not address the unique needs of classified staff. This includes when facilities staff are required to work with hazardous materials. CMO Proposal - Evaluations Our bargaining team spent significant time discussing with the CMO our concerns when it comes to ensuring a fair evaluation system. The goal of any evaluation model has to be to provide coaching and support to all classified employees. This includes ensuring that those who are conducting the evaluation are the appropriate supervisor who works with the employee on a regular basis and can fairly assess their work. CMO Proposal - Discipline The CMO’s Discipline proposal largely draws from the process outlined in the teachers’ contract. It does update the list of disciplinable conduct to those that more closely align with the jobs of classified staff. Next Steps Our next bargaining session will be scheduled for October. Please make sure to check in with HTEC Site Representatives at your school to find out how you can support our ability to bargain a strong first contract. In Solidarity, HTEC Classified Bargaining Committee Socorro Castaneda, Custodian (Point Loma) Jocelyn Flores, Village Program Manager (HTHNC) Maricela Ginori, Custodian (Point Loma) Daniel Ortiz, Maintenance Technician (Mesa) Joanna Sandoval, Academic Coach (HTHCV) |
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