Update, Saturday, March 27, 2021

Good Evening,

There is quite a bit to unpack in this edition. We suggest you sit down and grab a refreshment.

For some perspective your TALB bargaining team has been working on negotiations since the early fall of 2019. The Bargaining Team is comprised of volunteers. Teachers who teach full-time and volunteer to negotiate working conditions and compensation. There has been at least 25 bargaining sessions over the last 18 months. It has been a long, tough road and they’ve appreciated your support through it all.

One thing for sure, there is a new superintendent and deputy superintendent. Given the fog of the last 12 months, it would be easy to forget we had a different superintendent at the helm right at the start of the pandemic. Since July of 2020 there has been a new superintendent at the wheel. New relationships can be tricky. There is definitely a top-down shift in executive staff style and culture. “The Long Beach Way 2.0?”

Up until recently, Los Angeles county had always been in the “purple tier” during the pandemic and it was anyone’s bet if the tier would change by the last day of school on June 16, 2021. Although it was just 6 weeks ago, in retrospect, we should have seen the massive rally behind the scenes to fully reopen the economy when federal and state authorities started providing infusions of “one-time” money. Pandemic fatigue has driven some to cabin fever. By mid-February there was a ground swell of political will to provide an “incentive” for schools to open for in-person instruction by April 1, 2021.

In early March the bargaining team pivoted from “distance learning” schedules to “in-person” hybrid schedules. To be clear, executive staff created the distance learning and hybrid schedules. While executive staff can say they “consulted” with families, students and staff, the design and mandate of these schedules are an executive staff decision, blessed by the Board of Education.

The Safety Committee has been discussing hybrid in-person instructional safety requirements since the pandemic started back in March of 2020. The Safety Committee is a group of volunteers comprised of TALB, CSEA and LBUSD administrators. The committee typically meets monthly. Working conditions during a pandemic is no easy feat. There are an incredible amount of variables, including the biggest, compliance.

Two of your bargaining team members are on the safety committee. The bargaining team has been continuously apprised of the ever changing guidance from national, state and local epidemiologists. As the pandemic wanes here locally, restrictions are being lifted and safety guidelines modified. Be that as it may, safety is still critical. Safety is what we teach. We practice earthquake drills, fire drills, and lockdown drills.

With this in mind the TALB & LBUSD bargaining teams met to reach an addendum (change) to our current memorandum of understanding (MOU) for 2020-21. An MOU is an agreement to cover a short need or an emergency. Ideally, life will return to a semblance of normalcy by summer’s end and the start of the 2021-22 school year.

Below is the addendum to our current MOU.

Safety

Screening equipment will be checked daily and calibrated as necessary. Devices reading incorrectly will not be used until the calibration is corrected. Secondary screening equipment will be made available as a
backup.

PPE will be provided, Bargaining Unit Members assigned in-person instruction will be provided appropriate masks and protective equipment. Teachers working with students granted mask exceptions
or working with students needing closer than 4 feet of contact, will be provided with KN95 masks upon request. Nurses will be provided with a fitted N95.

Students who are identified by school staff as exhibiting COVID like symptoms or refuse to wear a mask will not remain in the classroom. In circumstances where students are exempted from wearing a mask, alternative PPE will be and must be worn.

Each site will have a CARE room. Students sent to the CARE room will remain masked. Students and staff must be symptom free for 24 hours before returning to school.

Class sizes will be adjusted for all adults required to work with students in the classroom. Visitors, defined as VIPS, PTA volunteers, and other community volunteers, will not be allowed in classrooms
during instructional hours.

Social distancing, as outlined by the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (LBDH) and CDPH, will be observed at all times while staff and students are on-campus. As long as LBDH and CDPH require the wearing of masks, students and staff will remain masked throughout the instructional day.

Teachers are not responsible for cleaning or sanitizing. Rooms will be disinfected nightly. As an added means of protection, an antimicrobial barrier will be applied to all high touch and horizontal surfaces.

Teachers will not be responsible for conducting screenings and administering COVID tests or screenings.

Teachers are mandated to report any violations of the safety protocol including but not limited to distancing and mask wearing.

Teachers will not be reassigned to other classes to substitute for other teachers on leave.

Teachers will not be responsible for providing before or after-school childcare. Secondary teachers will receive students in their classrooms following screening, fifteen minutes prior to the beginning of the school day. Elementary teachers will receive students in their classrooms following screening, fifteen minutes prior to the beginning of the AM session and ten minutes prior to the PM session. They will escort students to dismissal gates for up to ten minutes after the AM session and five minutes after the PM session. Unit members will continue to be provided a 30 minute duty free lunch each day.

Meetings

Open House and meetings (including but not limited to parent-teacher, staff, and grade-level) will remain virtual for the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year. In the event a parent does not have access to the technology needed to participate in a virtual IEP, the case carrier will arrange with the admin designee to provide the parent necessary access. Teachers are given the option to participate virtually.

Adjunct Duty

Traditional Adjunct Duty, as outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, will he suspended for all bargaining unit members teaching in-person. In-person teachers will receive students 15 minutes early to assist with safety protocols in the hybrid format. Secondary teachers who do not have students in the first block will assist for 15 minutes after school by clearing the campus in accordance with safety protocols.

Bargaining Unit Members who are not teaching in-person classes will adhere to the following adjunct duty schedule;
Student Return – Days Remaining | Prorated Hours
50 days         5 hours
45 days         4 hours
30 days         3 hours
15 days         2 hours

Technology

Classrooms will be provided with a charging station and any available back up Chromebooks for students experiencing technical issues with their device will be distributed among classrooms.

Preparation Week

During the week of March 22, elementary teachers will provide direct instruction in an online format from the start of the school day until lunch. After lunch, students will participate in asynchronous
learning opportunities and will not be able to access their classroom teacher. Secondary teachers will be provided 10 hours of preparation time through asynchronous time scheduled the week of April 12. Teachers will use this time to grade, plan, and set-up their classrooms. Only a total of 2 hours may be used for mandated meetings by the site principal.

Outside Visitors

All staff, students, parents, and stakeholders must maintain strict adherence to all COVID Protocols when on campus. Extra visitors are discouraged from entering campuses. Outside visitors should only be
allowed on campus if it is necessary to operate the facility and support students with educational needs and social emotional health. Essential workers from the Maintenance, Operations, Transportation, Technology, and Facilities departments will be required to enter sites to perform repair and service work. In addition, sites under construction and renovation will have construction employees on campus but they are to adhere to Cal-OSHA protocols laid out as part of their agreement to work on LBUSD school sites.

MOU’s are voted on by the TALB Executive Board. The above MOU was deliberated by the Executive Board, yesterday from 4:00-5:30 p.m. The Executive Board voted and approved the addendum to the MOU.

At this point, have a stretch. Let all the above sink in for a bit.

We are fairly confident you noticed your 15 minutes before the start of your duty-day be repurposed for accepting students. Along with the other plates to be spun in the air which requires you to put in more time.

School staff have gone without a settlement on compensation since the 2018-19 school year. The District has received more revenue and “one-time” stimulus revenues during this pandemic.

There are two competing narratives.

On the one hand – While the economy has suffered greatly in certain sectors, overall, the massive economic contraction that had been predicted to be at the level of the 2008 Great Recession, never materialized. State funding for schools were not dramatically cut for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

On the other hand – Revenues were not dramatically cut from the state, but our declining enrollment increased by 3% for the 2020-21 school year. It is not entirely clear on just how many students will be returning in the fall, just 5 months away. Back in 2003 we had over 97,000 students in LBUSD. Now, the projections for enrollment for 2021-22 is around 67,000 students.

Given these variables, how much can the largest employer in the city of Long Beach afford?

Historically, LBUSD has been very fiscally conservative and the lessons from the layoffs in 2010, 2011, and 2012 have tightened the purse strings.

The Bargaining Team weighed all of these elements and the need to remunerate.

The “package deal”.

In addition to negotiating alternative work locations and working conditions over the past two years, the team has been working on contract language and school calendars.

There is now a tentative agreement regarding negotiations for 2019-20 & 2020-21. The TALB Executive Board is reviewing the tentative agreement and will hold an emergency meeting on Monday, March 29, 2021 @ 4:30 p.m. If approved, the TA will be distributed with an FAQ to the entire membership. We will hold general membership meetings via zoom for a Q & A with your TALB Executive Board and Bargaining Team. Then an election schedule will be provided for an up or down vote on the TA.

For many years, our process of “ratifying” a tentative agreement was as follows:
Both TALB & LBUSD came to a “tentative agreement”. Tentative means that TALB membership and the LBUSD Board of Education still need to sign off. First, TALB would follow its internal process and then notify the District of the election results to provide the Board of Education a declarative response to the package.

Perhaps, in their exuberance of getting a deal, executive staff decided to get out in front and celebrate our “tentative agreements”. At the time of the District’s pronouncements, the TALB Executive Board had not yet voted to approve the addendum to the current MOU. And the TALB Executive Board still needs to vote to accept the tentative agreements. New relationships can present substantial challenges.

We will update the membership on Monday evening with the vote from your Executive Board on the tentative agreement. If the TA is approved by the Executive Board, details of the tentative agreement will be sent to all members ASAP. Links for general membership meetings will be sent out along with schedules for voting.

Elementary Schools start in-person instruction on Monday, March 29, 2021
We can’t find the words to truly express the wide range of emotions people are feeling right now. On Friday, the LB Post reported Hope, apprehension run high as LBUSD elementary schools prepare to open Monday The story captures quite a range of emotion. We hope the community will open their hearts and minds for the thousand of students and staff who will be coming back to schools operating like they never have before. To our members, give yourself a heap of self-compassion. There will be bumps and hiccups with the “re-ignition” of California’s fourth largest school district.


TALB is here for you. Safety counts. Some might not be feeling that way right now. If safety protocols are not being met they need to be reported to the COVID-19 Hotline and keep TALB in the loop.

Stay Safe / Reporting Saves Lives & Keeps Schools open for “in-person” Instruction

If the temperature machine is not working, speak up.
COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075
If students and staff are not following protocols, speak up.
COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075
If administrators/principals are not enforcing protocols, speak up.
COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075


COVID-19 Vaccines
ALL LBUSD Employees should have had an opportunity to make an appointment to get their first dose by now. We are still working with the mayor’s office to get ALL of LBUSD employees vaccinated. TALB is committed to getting access to ALL employees. If you are an employee of the LBUSD and are having difficulty, please call the TALB office at 562-426-6433.


We encourage all of our members and community members we serve to LIFT UP YOUR VOICES. Contact our Board of Education Members and Executive Staff  to let them know what you are thinking.

Long Beach Unified School District’s YouTube ChannelWatch Live on Wednesday, April 14 @ 5:00 p.m. LBUSD YouTube Channel


 


Update, Saturday, March 20, 2021

 

 

 

Emotions are running high.
All elementary teachers return to campuses on Monday, March 22, 2021. We know there are some who are exuberant and others who are riddled with anxiety. We hope that everyone can be respectful of each other’s feelings. It has been over a year since elementary faculties have operated on site altogether. Even before the pandemic, sometimes our beliefs, politics, and personalities may not have been wholly welcomed or appreciated. Regardless, if we are to make this transition to “in-person” instruction a success we ALL need to value and respect each other.

Safety guidance surrounding the operationalizing of schools for “in-person” instruction seems to be changing by the minute from State & Federal authorities. To be fair, the District is trying to keep up.

At Wednesday’s board of education meeting, executive staff attempted to provide clarity while acknowledging that COVID-19 guidelines were influx. It may or may not help to bifurcate how we think about “COVID-19 Testing” & “COVID-19 Screening”. Be that as it may, at the meeting it was not clear how long “asymptomatic screening” a.k.a. “nostril swabbing” would be administered. There was some talk about the possibility of further changes in Los Angeles county’s color tier system. If Los Angeles county moves from the Red Tier (Substantial) to the Orange Tier (Moderate) executive staff my revisit the need for nostril swab testing. KEEP in mind that our country is still averaging over 50,000 COVID-19 infections daily. White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned during a briefing on Friday that the country should not declare victory until the level of infection is “much, much lower.” “The concern is that throughout the country, there are a number of state, city, regions that are pulling back on some of the mitigation methods that we’ve been talking about: the withdrawal of mask mandates, the pulling back to essentially non-public health measures being implemented,” Fauci said at the briefing. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky has also urged states not to reopen too quickly and undermine progress the country is making against the pandemic.

Spring Break is coming up soon and there have been a number of questions that have come up. Los Angeles county Department of Public Health, Dr. Barbara Ferrer urges school districts to message students, families, parents/caregivers, and staff to delay travel during spring break. Dr. Ferrer provides recommendations for those choosing to travel and provides notice that travel outside of the state requires a 10-day quarantine upon return to Los Angeles County. The quarantine applies regardless of vaccination status.


Spring Break Travel FAQ’s

Can the District require employees to provide notice of travel outside of the state?

Yes. In order to comply with the 10-day quarantine provision of the travel advisory, employers would need to know which employees have travelled out of state. Local Association’s may bargain the impact and effects of any proposed reporting system.

Can the District require parents to provide notice of travel outside of the state?

Yes. In order to comply with the 10-day quarantine provision of the travel advisory, school districts would need to know which students have travelled out of state.

Can the District only apply this provision to employees and not students? Or not comply at all because they want to reopen? Can the local demand the District require parents to report out of state travel and require students to quarantine?

Yes, if the local has a locally negotiated MOU that requires the District to comply with local health orders. If so, the local can enforce the MOU which requires the District to comply with the travel order. The District would be unable to comply with the travel order without requiring parents to identify if they have traveled outside of the state.

What if an employee is planning to travel outside the state and may either decline to verify their travel or will be untruthful. Any advice?

Employees should not only comply with the directive (comply now, grieve later) but also to be honest in where they traveled. Failure to comply could lead to discipline. Dishonesty in reporting where they have traveled could lead to discipline, including possible termination. Dishonesty is one of the Morrison standards for termination and prior notice from the employer (per Dr. Ferrer’s recommendations) may reduce potential defenses. Furthermore, members should be reminded that social media posts by themselves, their family members, children, and conversations with other people frequently make their way to the employer.


LBUSD COVID-19 Screening

“COVID-19 Testing” typically brings to mind a long, skinny swab stuck up your nose to tickle your brain, rooting around to find any presence of the virus.

“COVID-19 Screening” is far less invasive and may involve a simple questionnaire and/or a “swabbing of the nostrils”. When you hear “asymptomatic testing”, you might want to think of Mary Mallon or aka “Typhoid Mary”. Sadly, we as a people have a long history of denigrating the sick and marginalized. Ms. Mallon was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever.

The District’s asymptomatic screening is basically looking for students and staff who are infected with COVID-19 and are demonstrating no symptoms. In theory, some asymptomatic carriers are brimming with pathogens and a simple swabbing of the nostrils would be enough of a sample to detect COVID-19.

In consultation with our legal department, it appears State law allows an employer to mandate “testing” or “screening” as a condition of employment. Basically, the employer can choose whether or not it will require employees to be “COVID-19 Tested” or “COVID-19 Screened”. And while the LBUSD Board of Education has voted to purchase “COVID-19 tests”, the elected board of education members did not vote on requiring their employees be subjected to these screening/tests.

So, where are we on this “asymptomatic screening”? Limbo. While we do believe the District is going to require some form of asymptomatic screening, details seem to be evolving.

In last week’s E-Update we wrote about the confusion surrounding COVID-19 protocols, which personnel will have to administer it, accuracy and timeliness of “COVID-19” screenings. Those concerns have been amplified this week with the District pushing out an application for “COVID-19 screening”.

The application asked many personal questions which seemed unnecessary. The employer should possess most of the information already and other questions are delving too deeply into one’s personal information that no testing outfit or employer should be asking.

On Friday, March 19 a meeting was held to discuss an updated seniority list. We’ll have it posted on our website soon. Keep in mind, the seniority list is for the purposes of a reduction in force (RIF). Fortunately, this school year 2020-21 there are no layoffs planned. The seniority list may contain dates that are not identical for the purposes of transfers. In some cases one’s seniority date for RIF may be different than one’s seniority date for transfers. 

During this meeting executive staff had mentioned that there would be changes to the implementation for asymptomatic screening. Originally, the electronic questionnaire was requiring consent to inform the employer of any COVID-19 asymptomatic screening results. In prior discussions with the District, the understanding was students and staff would have an option to have screening results automatically disclosed to the District, allowing families and employees the option to notify on their own. There was also a discussion on whether families and employees had to use the school site’s vendor for “asymptomatic screening” or if they could use a different one. At that time, the answer was “yes”, employees and families could use a different vendor and just provide verification that they were screened. By the end of business yesterday, there was no confirmation in writing of any procedural changes in “asymptomatic screening”. On Monday, March 22, we’ll circle back with HRS for an update. If we get clarity, we’ll push a message out ASAP.

For elementary staff returning to campus on Monday, March 22, please familiarize yourself with the safety procedures and guidelines developed by each site. Fidelity to these protocols will assure safety and keep our schools open for “in-person” instruction. A TALB elementary survey surrounding safety is being finalized this weekend for deployment for Wednesday, March 24. The goal is to get an assessment prior to students returning and then a follow up survey with students on campus. We have to stay vigilant. We have every right to be optimistic, but we cannot let our guard down and squander the progress we’ve made in this pandemic.


Bargaining Update
We had many substantive conversations and “tentative agreements” on Thursday, March 18. There are a few details to iron out. Given the infusion of State & Federal dollars, there are options for the District to remunerate all of the hard work we’ve put in this past year.


Stay Safe / Reporting Saves Lives & Keeps Schools open for “in-person” Instruction

If the temperature machine is not working, speak up.
COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075
If students and staff are not following protocols, speak up.
COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075
If administrators/principals are not enforcing protocols, speak up.
COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075


COVID-19 Vaccines
ALL LBUSD Employees should have had an opportunity to make an appointment to get their first dose by now. We are still working with the mayor’s office to get ALL of LBUSD employees vaccinated. TALB is committed to getting access to ALL employees. If you are an employee of the LBUSD and are having difficulty, please call the TALB office at 562-426-6433.


Elections Runoff:
The “write-in” candidate for Millikan Secondary has declined. There will be a runoff for the seat beginning on March, 23, 2021. Voting will end on Friday, April 2, 2021 @ 4:30 p.m. Only Millikan area members will be receiving electronic ballots from simply voting.


We encourage all of our members and community members we serve to LIFT UP YOUR VOICES. Contact our Board of Education Members and Executive Staff  to let them know what you are thinking.

Long Beach Unified School District’s YouTube ChannelWatch Live on Wednesday, April 14 @ 5:00 p.m. LBUSD YouTube Channel


 


Update, Saturday, March 6, 2021

 

 

TALB General Election results: 

President: 

Gerard Morrison             337
Christine Kelly                714 (Elected)
Jason Goldfischer          147

Vice-President: 

Peder Larsen                 731 (Elected)
Wendy Eulo                   430

Treasurer:

John Olgin                      65 (Elected)
(Write-In – complete vacant term through June 20, 2022)

CDC/HS Director:

Melody Henry                 91 (Elected)

Cabrillo Secondary:       Bernice Banares             140 (Elected)

Jordan Elementary:       Mimi Kao                        15 (Elected)
(Write-In)

Lakewood Secondary:  Ingrid Fulleman-Ramos  186 (Elected)

Millikan Secondary:      Crystal James                  3 (Elected)
(Write-In)

Poly Elementary:          Marion Nguli                    195 (Elected)

Wilson Elementary:      Robin Creason                149 (Elected)

CTA State Council: 

Erin Mendez                    721 (Elected)
Peder Larsen                   745 (Elected)
Wendy Eulo                     681 (Elected)

NEA R/A 2021 

Christine Kelly                 956
Peder Larsen                   910
Wendy Eulo                     867
Erin Mendez                    863
Susan Garcia                   842
Ingrid Fulleman-Ramos   827
Marion Nguli                     822
Melody Henry                   819
George Garcia                  796
Bernice Banares               765
Katheryn Morgan              747
Paloma Kato                     736
Bola Oduwole                   713
Pamela Bailey                  17
Maria Garcia                     7
Sybil Baldwin                    5
Horalia Vargas                  4
Jane Gordon-Topper         3


COVID-19 Vaccines

All LBUSD Employees should have had an opportunity to make an appointment to get their first dose. If you are having difficulty making an appointment to get your vaccination, please call the TALB office at 562-426-6433. The Association is working directly with the Mayor’s office to get everyone vaccinated before the start of “in-person” instruction. Once again, THANK YOU Robert Garcia for making education professionals a priority. We are grateful!


“In-Person” Instruction

On Monday, March 1 the TALB & LBUSD negotiating teams met for 4 hours. The District was still finalizing documentation for schools operationalizing for “in-person” instruction. The teams discussed concerns around the many complexities of starting up one of the 5 largest schools districts in the state of California for “in-person” instruction. By the time elementary school students come back on campus on March 29, it will have been over a year since this pandemic started. If you look at the COVID-19 infection data above, we are certainly headed in the right direction, however, our current infection rates are identical to the peak infection rates of last summer. Those infection rates led to the decision to start the school year in distance learning. Now, we are being told that we can return safely to “in-person” hybrid. Confusing? Perhaps the truth of the matter is we have changed the guidelines and restrictions to allow for things to reopen. Whether this is grounded in science or “alternative facts” remains to be seen.

On Tuesday, March 2, LBUSD released staff and parent communications regarding site guidelines for operationalizing “in-person” instruction. As we noted last week, each school site has its own unique physical footprint. A detailed plan will have to be developed by the individual site for operating SAFELY.

On Wednesday, March 3, the Board of Education met at 5:00 p.m. If you scroll forward until about 1 hour and 25 minutes into the meeting, a “staff report” is given by Executive Staff. It is worth watching, if you have any questions about what upper management envisions for schools to reopen for “in-person” instruction. Nevertheless, if you feel the explanations are a bit opaque, we completely understand. Clarity should be provided by site specific plans.

By Friday, March 5, the Association was receiving numerous concerns over conflicting sources of information and school site safety plans. To be frank, your bargaining team anticipated these problems. Yes, we are in a pandemic, but has our system changed that much culturally? How many times has “central office” sent out a mandate or an edict, only to be diluted in a loss of translation by school site administrators?

We HAVE to operate SAFELY. The reopening of schools for “in-person” instruction is a very divisive issue for our membership. Regardless of where you land, if we do not operationalize plans for safety, students and staff will get infected. School sites may be closed for quarantine if we do not RIGOROUSLY follow safety protocols. To that end we encourage our members to work with their colleagues and site administrators to develop plans with safety at the forefront. TALB leadership and staff are developing a safety survey to assess the confidence and readiness of our schools. Deployment of this survey is tentatively set for March 17. This window of time should be ample enough to allow faculty and administration to iron out the details for SAFETY.


Are you physically ready to be back on your feet?

Have you gained the COVID 20 lbs.? Maybe more? Providing your trade via zoom, in front of a computer screen for the past year has not been easy on many levels and for some of us, exercise and diet has been replaced with comfort foods and Netflix. Operationalizing our schools for “in-person” instruction will require great “physical” effort. No need to beat yourself up. We all did what we had to do during this pandemic. Change can be hard, but if done incrementally, it will be less traumatic. Take steps now, literally. Start with walks around the block. What have you been using as fuel for your body?


Last week, we spoke about the many opinions circulating about further opening our economy and the return of “in-person” instruction. Below are some “debatable” positions. 

By Spencer Bokat-Linell
Staff Editor, Opinion, New York Times

Shortly after President Biden was elected, he made a promise to reopen most of America’s schools within his first 100 days in office. But 43 days in, their doors have barely budged since the fall: Less than half of all students are attending public schools on a full-time schedule, and nearly a third remain fully remote, even as Americans pour back into bars, restaurants and movie theaters.

The White House began an aggressive push this week to break the standstill, starting with a new federal program to give every teacher at least a first dose of the vaccine by the end of March. Why has reopening schools been such a struggle, what have the costs been, and can Biden really get children back to their desks by May? Here’s what people are saying.

Placing the blame for a ‘lost generation’

School closures have been nothing short of a national tragedy, the Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. According to one estimate, as many as three million American children have missed all formal education, in-person or virtual, for almost a year. And that doesn’t even capture the toll the closures have taken on parents, especially mothers: Nearly one million have left the work force, with Black, Hispanic and single mothers hardest hit, as my colleague Jessica Grose wrote last month.

For children, Kristof says, the result will be more dropouts, reduced literacy and numeracy, and long-term financial and psychological damage. Those harms will also be concentrated among low-income students and will compound racial inequality, according to McKinsey & Company.

“Many affluent kids have fled the public school disaster for private schools,” the Times columnist David Brooks has written. “It’s Black and brown kids who live in cities with progressive mayors and powerful unions, and those are the places where in-school learning has been closed down.”

But this narrative has its detractors. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, for example, a professor of African-American studies at Princeton, argues in The New Yorker that the plight of the poor and the marginalized is being weaponized, mostly by well-to-do and white parents, in ways that distract from the root causes of their vulnerability. She notes that Black and Latino parents are much more worried about returning to in-person instruction than white parents, in part because they have been disproportionately affected by the virus and do not trust local governments to keep their children safe.

“The dystopian imagery of a ‘lost generation’ of Black youth is redolent of earlier moral panics: the discoveries of ‘crack babies’ in the nineteen-eighties and ‘super predators’ in the nineties were also rooted in anecdote-driven, pseudo-scientific evidence,” she writes. “A similar pattern has developed today, with teachers and teachers’ unions serving as proxies to question the intelligence and competence of Black families choosing to keep their kids at home. Instead of responding to the matrix of problems that are confronting the children of ‘essential workers,’ city and school administrators have chosen to make teachers the main culprit.”
But on the whole, Americans don’t actually see teachers or their unions as the villains, Nathaniel Rakich writes at FiveThirtyEight: “The issue has been simplistically framed as pitting parents against teachers (with the latter resisting the former’s calls to reopen). But polls indicate that, despite being personally affected by the issue, these two groups have roughly the same opinions on it as the general public — and as each other.”<

Why ‘listening to the science’ hasn’t solved the problem

In recent months, more and more public health experts have put their thumbs on the scale in favor of reopening. Perhaps the biggest shift in the debate came in February when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines calling for schools to reopen as soon as possible. The agency cited a growing body of evidence showing the risk of transmission in schools is less than experts originally feared — so much so that the C.D.C.’s director said schools could reopen safely even if teachers weren’t vaccinated.
Precautions would still need to be taken. Where community transmission is substantial or high, as is the case in most of the country, the C.D.C. says layered mitigation strategies must be used to prevent spread, including universal masking, physical distancing, and testing and tracing.

To take the pulse of scientific opinion on the issue, The Times surveyed 175 pediatric disease experts. They largely agreed with the C.D.C. that it would be safe enough for schools to reopen to elementary students for full-time, in-person instruction, even without vaccination and in areas with high community spread, so long as proper precautions were taken. Several school districts around the country, such as those in Rhode Island and New York City, have shown that this approach can mostly work.
But skepticism remains about the C.D.C., which has had to reverse its pandemic guidance before. Some public health experts think the agency’s school reopening guidelines are too restrictive or not restrictive enoughOthers question why they don’t place more emphasis on the need for proper ventilation, which is key to preventing airborne transmission. And just last week, the agency released a study that concluded that vaccinating teachers is “a critical component” of preventing in-school spread.

“The reality is this: We still have cases,” a Houston elementary-school teacher who recently returned to teach in person told NPR last month, just before the state froze over. “My entire fifth grade was out last week. Half of the fourth-grade students were out last week. Half of the third-grade students were out last week. And one full kindergarten class was out last week. So you can’t tell me that teachers don’t need to be vaccinated.”

Even if schools take the C.D.C.’s guidelines as gospel, many teachers say they are not being given the resources to follow them. Some 41 percent of districts need to update or replace heating and ventilation systems in at least half of their schools, but many cannot afford the repairs. “They don’t trust soap and running water will always be available in schools, because they sometimes haven’t been,” my colleague Dana Goldstein writes of teachers’ concerns. “They don’t trust that extra funding will materialize for masks, hand sanitizer and nurses, because in so many other years, budgets were cut.”
The dispute over reopening, in other words, is in many instances less about the science than about political will. “We shouldn’t be debating whether schools are safe to reopen,” Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and a visiting professor of health policy at George Washington University, writes for The Washington Post. “Instead, we should ask whether in-person schooling is essential. If it is — as many Americans, including President Biden, insist — then we should treat schools as we do hospitals. That means doing everything possible to them make safer, starting with vaccinating teachers.”

Will Biden’s plan work?

There is no question that vaccinating teachers could greatly reduce infections in schools. “It should be an absolute priority,” Carl Bergstrom, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Washington in Seattle, told The Times. Yet some 19 states have yet to extend eligibility to all of their teachers, according to a Times database, and shortages and administrative hurdles have slowed the rollout in those that have.

The White House aims to circumvent the problem by directing local pharmacies to make doses available to teachers and school staffs, even if their state hasn’t yet declared them eligible. And as my colleague David Leonhardt argued last week, vaccinating that population quickly should be entirely possible.

Biden’s plan has so far been well received by teachers. “What a tremendous relief to have a president who is meeting this moment of crisis,” Randi Weingarten, who leads the country’s second-largest teachers’ union, said in a statement. “With the help of this federal commitment to prioritize teacher vaccinations, we’re confident that within the next weeks and months, we’ll be able to be back in classrooms.”

Gov. Mike DeWine, Republican of Ohio, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that a deal he made to vaccinate virtually all school employees in February was key to getting his state’s schools to reopen, especially in urban areas. Ninety-seven percent of Ohio’s school districts now offer in-person learning, up from 50 percent in January. Some teachers and parents are adamant about waiting to reopen schools until more of the population is vaccinated and community transmission returns to low levels. But given the vaccines’ exceptional protection against severe disease and the growing body of evidence that they reduce transmission, many experts think that’s an unreasonable request.“Teachers need to accept, as other essential workers have, that returning to school will entail some risk,” Wen says. “The privilege of jumping the line means returning to in-person work when the risk of infection is not — and might never be — zero.”

Which leads us to last weeks thoughts. Still accurate a week later.

Certainly there are polar extremes when talking about “in-person” instruction. From what we can tease out from our elementary virtual site visits, people are falling into 3 buckets.

Bucket 1 – They would like to go back to “in-person” instruction on Monday, March 1. They are disappointed that Executive Staff moved the starting date for “in-person” instruction until March 29. These members want to go back whether vaccinated or not.

Bucket 2 – This group of members toggles back and forth from wanting to be optimistic about “in-person” instruction, to having serious skepticism with Executive Staff having a plan to safely operationalize “in-person” instruction. There is also a concern that any plan will have real compliance. Our country has struggled with complying to 3 simple steps. 1) Wear a mask. 2) Socially distance. 3) Wash your hands.

Bucket 3 – This group has serious reservations all the way around. These members feel that their concerns have been dismissed by site management and their colleagues. Certainly they want to be “team players”, but they’re having real difficulty believing that safety will be a priority.

Your Bargaining team continues to work on a new agreement (MOU) for safely returning to “in-person” instruction. We meet again on Friday, March 12.  

Equity
We are in a tough spot regarding equity in our profession and equity for our students. We know some sites will have more “in-person” students than others. We know many students will not be able to attend school with only 2.5 hours of instruction available. Our community’s families will struggle to balance work and school for “in-person” instruction. In addition, our community’s families will have to assess risk to COVID-19 exposure with “in-person” instruction.

The Board of Education sets policy for equity. Your letters, emails and calls to the Board of Education is having an impact. Your individual stories. Your unique experiences ARE shaping policy. Don’t let up now. We continue to advocate for safety and equity. It can sometimes feel like we are swimming upstream, but we can’t give up.

Take care or yourselves, and take care of each other.


We encourage all of our members and community members we serve to LIFT UP YOUR VOICES. Contact our Board of Education Members and Executive Staff  to let them know what you are thinking.

Long Beach Unified School District’s YouTube ChannelWatch Live on Wednesday, March 17 @ 5:00 p.m. LBUSD YouTube Channel


 


Update, Friday, February 19, 2021

Happy Friday! It has been a week. Even with Monday off for the holiday, the level of exhaustion is palpable. Or maybe it was the nearly 4 hour long Board of Education meeting on Wednesday? We can’t help but wonder, does the community know how a Board of Education is supposed to operate? We’re pretty sure our government teachers could weigh in on what a Board of Education is supposed to do. And while we don’t always agree with the California School Board Association, they have an interesting perspective. 

 

“The role of the school board is to ensure the school districts are responsive to the values, beliefs and priorities of their communities”.

* Setting direction
* Establishing an effective and efficient structure
* Provide support
* Ensuring accountability
* Providing community leadership as advocates for children, the school district and public schools

Does this sound like the Board of Education in Long Beach Unified School District?

On Tuesday, February 16, the TALB Bargaining Team and the District Bargaining Team met for over 4 hours. The District’s positions were chaotic and dislocated. On the one hand they were adamant that the District was going to open on March 1 and on the other hand they kept insinuating that the “Board of Education” would be weighing in and they couldn’t be too specific. The TALB Bargaining team pressed the District on plans and schedules for reopening, how schools would be operationalized for safety, what teaching materials would be used, etc. When asked for specifics, the District demurred, choosing to proclaim there was a plan, and it is a great plan, but the plan wouldn’t be shared until the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday @ 5:00 p.m. The TALB Bargaining team has been extremely frustrated with the District, particularly since regime change last summer. Yet, we have been encouraging our members and the community to reach out to their duly elected board of education to do their jobs. Would we see the Board of Education take up the mantle of their sworn duties on Wednesday evening? Wanting to be hopeful, but all too wary of the past 6 months, we would wait and see.

On March 14, 2020 the Board of Education met to give sweeping powers to the District’s management. Emergency Resolution No. 031420-A

In all fairness, we were all terrified. Just the day before the District had sent home all students and staff for “3 weeks” (The LONGEST 3 weeks EVER!). Was this Emergency Resolution a knee jerk reaction? Was this akin to the sweeping powers Congress gave the Executive Branch after the 9/11 terrorist attacks?

To further muddle the issue, the Board of Education would be engaged on policy making when it served the purposes of executive staff.

For example, the Board of Education was asked to vote on hiring a new superintendent and a new deputy superintendent. Just recently, the Board of Education was asked to vote on closing the middle school portions of Gompers K-8 and Hudson K-8.

Strange. The Board of Education can be engaged to hire executive staff and close schools, but when it comes to the most pressing matter of our time, “Schools opening for in-person instruction”, this is a decision left to Executive Staff?

Wednesday, February 17 @ 5:00 p.m. LBUSD Board of Education

With high anticipation, and over 1,000 people watching, the Board of Education meeting started a little after 5:00 for, reasons?

CDC Director Cynthia Young made a lovely acknowledgement of all the wonderful work our CDC teachers are doing with in-person instruction. Dr. Kristi Kahl walked us through the National Board Certification induction process. Then, public comments on items listed on the Board of Education agenda were played. The Board of Education had not even reached the portion of the agenda #22 , “School Reopening Update”. As an aside, we take issue with the title of the agenda item. Schools have been open. Our members are working harder and longer hours than they ever had teaching “distance learning”.

While listening to public comment on the agenda item #22, the Long Beach post scooped the story on agenda item 22 before the Board of Education even had a chance to discuss it. Executive staff had already made the decision for the Board of Education on schools reopening. On the District’s website a slide deck presentation was posted long before there was any discussion by the duly elected board of education members.

Did the community elect the Executive Staff or the Board of Education?

Does the LBUSD Board of Education follow any of these principals?

“The role of the school board is to ensure the school districts are responsive to the values, beliefs and priorities of their communities”.

* Setting direction
* Establishing an effective and efficient structure
* Provide support
* Ensuring accountability
* Providing community leadership as advocates for children, the school district and public schools  

Does this sound like the Board of Education in the Long Beach Unified School District?


The next Board of Education meeting will be on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 @ 5:00? Since all the schools will begin to provide in-person instruction in March, will the Board of Education meet in-person as well? We bet if you ask our CDC / Head Start members, who have been working in-person since July 1, they might have a strong opinion on the matter.

Long Beach Unified School District’s YouTube Channel

Watch Live on Wednesday, March 3 @ 5:00 p.m. LBUSD YouTube Channel


Bargaining to continue on Thursday, February 25.

Now that we have a new date for in-person instruction, will that date hold? Maybe. Remember, we’ve been told by Executive Staff schools will start for in-person instruction on September 1, 2020, October 5, 2020, January 28, 2021, March 1, 2021 and now it is March 29, 2021. This is all predicated on Los Angeles county maintaining a lower infection/transmission rate of 25 per 100,000 or less. The guidelines for in-person instruction have changed drastically. In the fall, back on October 5, we had a lower transmission rate and couldn’t open. Now, we have a higher infection rate, but the new targeted date is 38 calendar days from now.

The focus now is what will in-person instruction look like?  Chromebooks? Textbooks? Pencils? Paper?

How will students get onto campus?

What about this COVID-19 testing?

When will teachers plan if they are teaching an AM & PM group?

What standards of enforcement will be implemented for health and safety?

Students and staff should be fully prepared and aware of ALL expectations for in-person instruction. K-12 has not had in-person instruction since March 13, 2020. Let’s get it right the first time out of the gate.

In addition to elementary concerns, secondary needs relief with untenable schedules. Grades 6-12 may not come back at all this semester. For some perspective, Los Angeles County needs to move from the Purple Tier into the Red Tier in order for grades 6-12 to return to in-person instruction. Los Angeles County has never been out of the Purple Tier. 

Are you tracking your hours? At next week’s Rep. Council meeting, the Executive Board will be discussing the tracking of your excessive hours. 


TALB General Elections

On Tuesday, electronic voting will begin. You should receive an email with a link for an electronic ballot. Voting will close on Friday, March 5, 2021 @ 4:30 p.m. If you are a member and did not receive your electronic ballot, please contact Ingrid Perez at ingrid@talb.org

The Teachers Association of Long Beach will be holding its general elections on February 23, 2021, through March 5, 2021, for the following offices:

TALB Officers:
President
Vice-President
Treasurer * (Fill vacant term through June 21st, 2021 to June 23rd, 2022)

TALB Board Area Directors:
Cabrillo Secondary Director

CDC – Head Start Director

Nominations are open to all CDC/Head Start members.

Jordan Area Elementary Director

Lakewood Area Secondary Director

Millikan Area Secondary Director

Poly Area Elementary Director

Wilson Area Elementary Director

Nominations are open to TALB members who work in each area.
3 CTA State Council Representative

Nominations are open to all TALB members.
The term for each CTA State Council Representative is 2021 – 2024.

18 Delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly in Denver, CO.
Nominations are open to all TALB members to serve a single term for 2021.
The term for each NEA Representative is July 2nd – July 6th, 2021.


RETENTION OF WORK FORCE

Bargaining Unit Members called back for in-person instruction will have 10 days of COVID sick leave in cases of quarantine, COVID-19 positive leave, and post-vaccine symptoms.
Teachers requesting the vaccine will receive both doses prior to returning to in-person instruction.
Teachers are mandated to report any violations to the safety protocol including but not limited to distancing and mask wearing.
Teachers will not be reassigned to other classes to substitute for other teachers on leave.
Teachers will not be responsible for recess, lunch, and restroom supervision duties.


We encourage all of our members and community members we serve to LIFT UP YOUR VOICES. Contact our Board of Education Members and Executive Staff  to let them know what you are thinking.

Long Beach Unified School District’s YouTube ChannelWatch Live on Wednesday, March 3 @ 5:00 p.m. LBUSD YouTube Channel


 


Update, Friday, February 12, 2021

 

Another 3 day weekend! Happy Valentine’s Day. Again, just like last weekend, you’ve earned it! We are in a place of high anxiety and it may be difficult to fully relax and enjoy yourself. PLEASE find some time to treat yourself. We are not getting much love these days, and sometimes if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself. And Valentine’s Day is an important reminder, we can get through anything together. 

Today the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued recommendations for “in-person” instruction. 

5 Key Strategies for “in-person” instruction. “I want to be clear, with this operational strategy, CDC is not mandating that schools reopen (“in-person” instruction). These recommendations simply provide schools a long-needed roadmap for how to do so safely under different levels of disease in the community,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a news briefing on Friday, February 12, 2021.

Long Beach Executive Staff are moving toward a March 1st reopening of ALL elementary schools. Not all of our preschool members are vaccinated and not all of our elementary teachers are vaccinated. Even if L.B. Mayor Garcia (City vows to vaccinate teachers of younger grades as tensions mount over school reopening date) can get the vaccines into ALL the arms by the end of next week. Full protection of the vaccine won’t be in effect until early April. TALB Leadership & Staff will be hosting “Emergency Elementary Schools Virtual Meetings” – Saturday – February 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00. You should have received an invitation in your personal email address. If not, please email Veronica Castillo for the link at vcastillo@talb.org

Saturday, 2/13/2021 @ 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Avalon E.S.
Addams E.S.
Alvarado E.S.
Barton E.S.
Birney E.S.
Bixby E.S.
Bryant E.S.
Burbank E.S.
Burcham E.S.
Carver E.S.
Cesar E.S.
Cleveland E.S.
Cubberley E.S.
Saturday, 2/13/2021 @ 11:00-12:00 p.m.
Dooley E.S.
Edison E.S.
Emerson E.S.
Fremont E.S.
Gant E.S.
Garfield E.S.
Gompers E.S.
Grant E.S.
Harte E.S.
Saturday, 2/13/2021 @ 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Henry E.S.
Herrera E.S.
Holmes E.S.
Hudson E.S.
Kettering E.S.
Lafayette E.S.
Lincoln E.S.
Longfellow E.S.
Los Cerritos E.S.
Lowell E.S.
Saturday, 2/13/2021 @ 2:00-3:00 p.m.
MacArthur E.S.
Madison E.S.
Mann E.S.
Muir E.S.
McKinley E.S.
Naples E.S.
Newcomb E.S.
Oropeza E.S.
Powell E.S.
Prisk E.S.
Riley E.S.
Robinson E.S.
Roosevelt E.S.
Signal Hill E.S.
Saturday, 2/13/2021 @ 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Smith E.S.
Starr King E.S.
Stevenson E.S.
Tincher E.S.
Twain E.S.
Webster E.S.
Whittier E.S.
Willard E.S.


Bargaining to continue on Tuesday, February 16.

The Association should get a formal response from LBUSD on the following items proposed last Friday, February 5, before lbschools.net crashed.

Screening equipment will be checked daily and calibrated as necessary. Devices reading incorrectly will not be used until the calibration is corrected, even if this means delaying the start of the instructional period or closing the site for the day.

COVID testing will happen weekly. Students and staff who miss the weekly COVID testing will not re-enter the classroom until proof of a negative test for that week is received by the school.
PPE will be provided. Bargaining Unit Members assigned in-person instruction will be provided with KN95 masks.

Students who are identified as sick or refuse to wear a mask will not remain in the classroom.
Class sizes will be adjusted for all required adults working with students in the classroom. No extra visitors will be allowed when the maximum capacity of a room has been reached. VIPS, PTA volunteers, and other community volunteers will not be allowed in classrooms during instructional hours.

Social distancing will be observed at all times. Classrooms remain no-contact zones. Teachers should not distribute or collect papers.

Classrooms will be cleaned and sanitized between groups of students. Teachers are not responsible for this cleaning or sanitizing.

Teachers will not be conducting screenings, administering COVID-19 PCR tests, or providing before or after school childcare/supervision.


RETENTION OF WORK FORCE

Bargaining Unit Members called back for in-person instruction will have 10 days of COVID sick leave in cases of quarantine, COVID-19 positive leave, and post-vaccine symptoms.
Teachers requesting the vaccine will receive both doses prior to returning to in-person instruction.
Teachers are mandated to report any violations to the safety protocol including but not limited to distancing and mask wearing.
Teachers will not be reassigned to other classes to substitute for other teachers on leave.
Teachers will not be responsible for recess, lunch, and restroom supervision duties.


ADDITIONAL SAFETY MEASURES

Open House and Meetings (including but not limited to parent-teacher, staff, and grade-level) will remain virtual for the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year.
Desks will be equipped with plexi-glass barriers.
Classrooms will be provided with a charging station and back up Chromebook for students experiencing technical issues with their device.

Days and Hours
Teachers will receive a student-free day or 2 asynchronous days prior to school opening to set-up their classroom.


To our members and parents:

We understand the desire to return to “in-person” instruction. Given the current level of “preparedness” and the level of infections in the community, it is hard to see how families and school personnel can be ready to open ALL elementary schools on March 1, just 17 calendar days away. Parents will need time to coordinate new work schedules that include the procedural health and safety requirements to get their children on to elementary campuses. Parents would like to see how the elementary schools will operationalize “in-person” instruction, particularly our Kindergarten students who may have had little “on campus” experience. Our community, our families, trust us with their children’s health and safety. Everyone SHOULD feel confident that all measures are in place to protect students and staff. Schools need to be fitted with equipment to provide health and safety requirements. School personnel will need to transition from their virtual classrooms. Hundreds of teachers have been working from an alternative worksite in order to protect themselves and their families from exposure to COVID-19. These employees will have to reestablish their classrooms and be familiarized and trained on safety protocols and procedures for “on-campus” instruction. There is no need to rush. Miscalculations on safety may cause site closures and quarantines.


We encourage all of our members and community members we serve to LIFT UP YOUR VOICES. The Board of Education may be asked to vote on a contract for the required COVID-19 PCR testing this Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. Along with other items listed on the Board Agenda.

Long Beach Unified School District’s YouTube Channel

Watch Live on Wednesday, February 17 @ 5:00 p.m. LBUSD YouTube Channel


Seniority List
The District has not released an updated seniority list. The good news, as of this writing, there are no plans for layoffs for the 2021-22 school year. The bad news, if you are working on a temporary contract / special contract you may not be asked to return in the fall. We’ve lost over 30,000 students over the last 15 years. The last update the District provided on enrollment, put it at around 69,000 students. The big question is just how many students will return in August? Where will our communities be in this global pandemic?


Displacements / Transfers
No update on numbers, but we expect there to be adjustments. The average yearly loss of students, for the past 15 years, has been around 2,000 students per year. The District’s projected enrollment was expected to flatten around 60,000 students pre-COVID-19. Will the pandemic accelerate declining enrollment?


Update, Saturday, February 6, 2021

 

 

Happy 3-day weekend!  You’ve earned it!

Sadly, we know may of you will be working on report cards, lesson planning and preparing fo instruction next week. PLEASE do something special for yourself this holiday weekend.  We’ve got a long road ahead of us. Do fine a comfortable space to sit and process the bevy of information below. Also, the narrative below takes some “editorial liberties”, please watch the BOE meeting for verbatim information.

On Monday, February 1, the rumor mill ramped up to a fever pitch. Apparently, Brian Moskovitz, Ass’t Superintendent of Elementary schools informed ALL elementary principals to be prepared to reopen for “in-person” instruction on March 1. Strange, we keep hearing in the press that the District wants to work collaboratively with the Association. However, neither Brian Moskovitz nor Dr. Jill Baker bothered to reach out to TALB leadership with this important announcement.

In the afternoon, the lead negotiators for TALB & LBUSD met to prepare for the upcoming (Friday) negotiation session. Safety has been a major issue. The District has failed to prioritize our most vulnerable members who are currently working with students. The public has been misled. LBUSD’s preschools have been open since July 1, 2020. The District could not figure out a way to prioritize vaccinations for teachers who are currently working with students. Now, they want all teachers to return to in-person instruction without vaccinating them? Inexcusable and unconscionable. “Executive Staff” won’t be working in-person with students, they’ll be in their offices at 1515 Hughes Way or maybe they’ll get to work from home? TALB pressed the District on their delusional thinking that somehow they are not violating the 8 hour a day 40 hour a week collective bargaining agreement. We say delusional, because the District somehow REALLY believes teachers are putting in their regular duty day. Now, we understand that it has been a LONG time since any of the “Executive Staff” have actually been teaching in a classroom, we aren’t sure if ALL of them have actually taught. We also understand that NONE of the “Executive Staff” have taught during a global pandemic. On Tuesday, February 9, TALB Executive Board Area Directors will be organizing to collect data from their area schools. We will need volunteers to join an Association grievance over days & hours of employment. The grievance remedy will be remuneration for all hours worked beyond our contractual duty day. Our members worked well beyond 40 hours a week prepandemic, taking advantage of our generosity has gone on for too long. Those that are interested in joining the days and hours grievance need to meticulously track their hours. Further details will be forthcoming.

Are you working an 8 hour day or are you working a 9-13 hour day?

  • Teaching, planning, and grading
  • Parent and student communications
  • Required grade reports
  • Attendance summary sheets
  • Meetings
  • Preparation for IEPs and other required documents

Start documenting your time! The district believes you are working 8 hours or less.


Wednesday, February 3, 2021 | Board of Education Meeting
We were impressed with the attendance on the YouTube broadcast for Wednesday’s meeting, it reached well over 500. If that number seems small to you, it should, considering there’s roughly 140,000 parents and 10,000 employees. A .0033% participation rate. The meeting was about 4 hours long and there were many items of interest, but we’ll focus on Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Tiffany Brown’s report.

At this point, in the pandemic, there’s a real challenge with politicos and leadership assessing reality. Just like “Executive Staff” take the position that we are only working an 8 hour day, our governor has gone from the sky is falling and we need to shelter in place, to it’s perfectly safe to go out in the water.

We can’t help but wonder how people in leadership might behave if they didn’t have to worry about their political fortunes. Would we be in the same space if the pandemic struck during governor Jerry Brown’s tenure? Would things look differently if Christopher Steinhauser was still at the helm of LBUSD?


On January 14, 2021 the California Department of Public Health issued new consolidated guidance for the safe “reopening” of in-person instruction. Top 5 takeaways:

1. Physical Distancing is Required
Among other provisions for indoor and outdoor distancing, the guidance requires: Maximizing space between teachers, other staff, and students by requiring staff desks be at least six feet from student and other staff desks.

Maximizing space between students by requiring student chairs be at least six feet apart except where that is not possible after a good-faith effort has been made and demonstrated. In no case, can student chairs be less than four feet apart. See pages 21-23 of the guidance for more details on physical distancing.

2. Face Coverings are Required and Surgical Masks Recommended

All TK-12 students are required to wear face coverings at all times while at school, unless exempted. The CDPH recommends use of disposable 3-ply surgical masks for staff, as they are more effective than cloth. See pages 16-18 of the guidance for more requirements and recommendations.

3. Schools are Restricted from Opening

Unless a school site has previously opened for in-person, general instruction in at least one grade level while in the Red Tier or better (or had previously opened pursuant to an elementary waiver), the following community health conditions must be met before a site is permitted to open:
TK-Grade 6: The county COVID adjusted case rate must be at or below 25 cases per 100,000 people per day for at least five consecutive days.
Grades 7-12: The county must be in the Red Tier for at least five days, or in Orange or Yellow Tier (cannot open in the Purple Tier). See pages 7-12 for more details. The chart on page 12 provides a good summary.

4. COVID Safety Plan, Posting, and New Directives on Reporting

All schools must complete and post a COVID-19 Safety Plan (CSP) to their website homepage prior to reopening for in-person instruction (pp. 7, 9-12).
Every LEA (Local Education Agency – a.k.a. school district) must promptly notify the local health officer of any known case of a student  or employee with COVID-19 who was on a K-12 campus within ten days prior to testing positive (pages 47-49).
Every LEA must update the CDPH on how it is teaching by grade level, indicating full or part-time (hybrid) in-person instruction, in Cohorts, or distance learning only (pages 50-51).

5. Enforcement 

Call the COVID Hotline (833-422-4255; M-F 8AM-8PM, Sa-Su 8AM-5PM).
File a report for potential state intervention (through an online form).

At about the two and 1/2 hour mark in the school board meeting, Dr. Tiffany Brown, Deputy Superintendent, LBUSD, attempted to condense all of this information for the Board of Education to digest. The information above was generally covered with the addition of COVID-19 testing for staff and students once a week. That’s right, every week students and staff will have to be tested for COVID-19.


Click image to view video of children’s COVID-19 testing

What could an “in-person” elementary school look like?

 

  1. Parent and student stand in line together until the student is screened.  Student and parent must stay together. This means that the parent must park the car, get in line and wait, while socially distanced, and know that there may be potentially one screening machine per site. A line of 250 students and 250 parents? Students arriving alone or with a non-household guardian may be turned away. Special Education students who receive bussing are subject to a remote screening process.
  2. Masks must be worn at all times. Anyone needing a mask will be supplied one but there are no mask breaks while on the school campus.
  3. Weekly COVID Testing. Students are required to have a deep nose swab once per week.  This is the regular COVID-19 PCR test. A positive child may infect many others over a couple of days before the positive test result is received.
  4. If a child is sick, develops symptoms, or refuses to wear a mask, the child will be sent to an isolation room. Parents must pick up students immediately upon being called. Families who cannot observe the times must switch back to the online “distance learning” educational program.
  5. Students must walk independently to the classroom.   Adults will be not allowed to take students to the classrooms. Teachers will be available to receive students at the beginning of their duty day. Students may not arrive early. The instructional day may be reduced based on time needed to screen children.
  6. Students must sit at their desks where they will remain for the entire instructional day.  Desks are six feet apart. Classrooms with dual seating tables only 4 feet apart must be reported for desk swap to comply with social distancing.
  7. Classroom occupancy may not exceed posted amounts. Teachers, students, administrators, and other support providers are combined to make this total number—no exceptions!
  8. Classrooms follow 6-foot social distancing and are no touch zones. Teachers may not impede on this social distance when monitoring the room.
  9. School days do not include recess or lunch.  Students who receive nutritional services will get grab and go lunches and eat them in a non-school setting.
  10. The on-site school day is ONLY 2.5 hours which includes screening, instruction, and dismissal.
  11. Drop-off and Pick-up Times must be observed.  No before or after school supervision. No playground supervision is provided. Families who cannot observe the times must switch back to the online “distance learning” educational program.

Take a DEEP, DEEP, DEEP BREATH

“Executive Staff” have not engaged the Board of Education, the duly elected representatives of the Long Beach Unified School District on a straight up vote to reopen schools for “in-person” instruction. School Administrators may make recommendations to the Board of Education to reopen, but that decision shouldn’t be made by “Executive Staff”. The “LBUSD community” elected, Diana Craighead, Megan Kerr, Dr. Juan Benitez, Erik Miller and Doug Otto. The Board of Education should be making decisions about schools period. The next Board of Education meeting is February 17, 2021 @ 5:00 p.m. The Board of Education may be asked by “Executive Staff” to authorize a contract for an outside vendor to provide COVID-19 PCR testing for students and staff. For anyone who has an opinion about the state of affairs in LBUSD, the contacts for the Board of Education and Executive Staff are below. We strongly encourage you to give them your perspectives.


An open letter to the parents of students in LBUSD:

To the parents who may be reading this newsletter, we have members who want to go back and try “in-person” instruction. Some of them are willing to go back “in-person” without getting vaccinated. However, there is a real concern if the District opens up ALL elementary schools there will not be enough teachers. TALB leadership has met with Dr. Jill Baker, LBUSD Superintendent and Dr. Tiffany Brown, LBUSD Deputy Superintendent as far back as January 11, 2021 and invited them to work with the Association in pairing volunteer teachers for elementary schools. At that time, both the superintendent and deputy superintendent spoke of trying to open 1 elementary school in each board of education area. We could have had at least five elementary schools open by now.

Teachers want nothing more than to have education return to “normal”. If the District moves too fast in reopening schools, for “in-person” instruction your student(s) may have a substitute teacher for “in-person” instruction, instead of the teacher they’ve been working with since the beginning of the school year, last August. Scores of teachers have inquired about taking leaves of absences if forced to return to “in-person” instruction on March 1.

Teachers have risked their lives prior to the pandemic. Teachers train students to “shelter in place” in case of a “school shooting”. Each classroom has a bucket, which can be repurposed as a toilet, with a first aid kit, water and food. We have been fortunate in LBUSD, but other communities in Southern California have suffered the loss of students and staff. School personnel go to campus expecting the unexpected.

If we look at the long view, the fall semester for 2021-22 starts in just over six months. Time will go by in a blink of an eye. Will the pandemic be tapped down enough for instruction to look like the morning of March 13, 2020? We wouldn’t bet on it. What is being proposed for “hybrid” right now, may well be the same scenario for the next school year. Rather than squandering time at loggerheads, we would encourage the community to reach out to LBUSD leadership. TALB and LBUSD can work collaboratively together and pilot the reopening of schools this semester and tease out the kinks and hiccups for what may be a fall school schedule. If you have watched any of Dr. Tiffany Brown’s inspirational “T-Shirt Tuesday” videos, you would would know there is hope, and “we can do hard things”.


Friday, February 5 
The TALB & LBUSD bargaining teams met at 8:00 a.m. to discuss the latest turn of events and focus on safety for bargaining. In all honesty, there was no expectation that March 1 would be a realistic time for the district to return to “in-person” instruction given the state of the pandemic in Los Angeles county. While the data is currently hovering around 38 per 100,000 infections and declining, one would hope they could look at the history of the past 11 months. Every time restrictions are lifted, a spike in infections follows. We saw this last summer and in the fall. Will Super Bowl Sunday be a super spreader event this Sunday? Valentine’s Day? St. Patrick’s Day? Spring Break? Is all this high anxiety for naught? Could we drop below 25 per 100,000 in the next two weeks, only to have them spike well above 25 per 100,000 the week of February 22? You betcha!

At 9:00 a.m. TALB exchanged proposals with LBUSD surrounding safety for “in-person instruction”. The proposals included:

ACCOUNTABILITY & DEFINITION OF LBUSD’S PLAN

Screening equipment will be checked daily and calibrated as necessary. Devices reading incorrectly will not be used until the calibration is corrected, even if this means delaying the start of the instructional period or closing the site for the day.

COVID testing will happen weekly.  Students and staff who miss the weekly COVID testing will not re-enter the classroom until proof of a negative test for that week is received by the school.
PPE will be provided.  Bargaining Unit Members assigned in-person instruction will be provided with KN95 masks.

Students who are identified as sick or refuse to wear a mask will not remain in the classroom.
Class sizes will be adjusted for all required adults working with students in the classroom.  No extra visitors will be allowed when the maximum capacity of a room has been reached.  VIPS, PTA volunteers, and other community volunteers will not be allowed in classrooms during instructional hours.

Social distancing will be observed at all times. Classrooms remain no-contact zones. Teachers should not distribute or collect papers.

Classrooms will be cleaned and sanitized between groups of students. Teachers are not responsible for this cleaning or sanitizing.

Teachers will not be conducting screenings, administering COVID-19 PCR tests, or providing before or after school childcare/supervision. 

RETENTION OF WORK FORCE

Bargaining Unit Members called back for in-person instruction will have 10 days of COVID sick leave in cases of quarantine, COVID-19 positive leave, and post-vaccine symptoms.
Teachers requesting the vaccine will receive both doses prior to returning to in-person instruction.
Teachers are mandated to report any violations to the safety protocol including but not limited to distancing and mask wearing.
Teachers will not be reassigned to other classes to substitute for other teachers on leave.
Teachers will not be responsible for recess, lunch, and restroom supervision duties.

ADDITIONAL SAFETY MEASURES

Open House and Meetings (including but not limited to parent-teacher, staff, and grade-level) will remain virtual for the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year.
Desks will be equipped with plexi-glass barriers.
Classrooms will be provided with a charging station and back up Chromebook for students experiencing technical issues with their device.

Days and Hours
Teachers will receive a student-free day or 2 asynchronous days prior to school opening to set-up their classroom.

After covering our proposals, we were asked by “Executive Staff” to prioritize safety. This was a very difficult ask. We understand that we have the right to negotiate safety, but we’d never have thought we would be asked to compromise on student and staff safety. The two bargaining teams broke off to individually caucus. It was about this time that a message from Dr. Jill Baker, LBUSD superintendent was sent out to the masses. The message is below:

Although the national COVID-19 pandemic remains severe, the Long Beach Unified School District is carefully monitoring a decrease in regional coronavirus cases, with an eye toward a phased return to in-person learning when permissible by the State of California, possibly in the coming weeks.

The California Department of Public Health recently released revised criteria for the reopening of schools. This new guidance makes it permissible for elementary schools to open for in-person instruction once the county’s adjusted case rate falls below 25 cases per 100,000 people for five days. Guidance is more stringent for grades seven to 12.

The adjusted county case rate is now about 38 cases per 100,000. Two weeks ago, the adjusted case rate was about 100 cases per 100,000. The significant decrease is encouraging, but the school district cannot yet determine when the case rate will reach the level allowing the reopening of elementary schools. The hope is to begin a phased reopening of elementary grades by March 1, but if that’s not possible the school district will plan for a potential phased reopening starting on April 12, a date that LBUSD provided back on Dec. 14 as a potential alternative.

The school district also does not yet know when the case rate will fall to levels allowing the reopening of middle and high schools.

As the school district monitors the health data, elementary parents should please remember to complete a survey that was sent last week. The simple survey asks elementary parents whether they plan to have their children return to in-person instruction when it is available, or whether parents would prefer that their children stay in a remote setting. Information from the survey will be used to plan for class configuration, scheduling, health screenings, childcare and a number of other details.

Students who return to in-person learning will go through a daily health screening process, as will school staff. Students will be required to wear a face covering. Students’ desks will be six feet apart from one another. Students will stay with their cohort, or their own group of students and adult staff while they are on campus, minimizing the number of interactions that staff and students have with others. 

Because of the quickly evolving health data on the pandemic, LBUSD will provide weekly updates during the month of February. In addition to community updates, the school district will be sharing more about its health and safety protocols – including the ongoing effort to vaccinate employees in partnership with Long Beach Health and Human Services – and what classrooms look like as schools continue to prepare for students to return.

Shortly after this message was pushed out, www.lbschools.net crashed. 

The TALB bargaining team waited for the District’s system to get back online, to no avail. TALB’s network was still operating and the TALB bargaining team continued to work. The team found it very curious that Dr. Baker chose to omit COVID-19 PCR testing procedures and the elementary schedule would only be 2.5 hours a day. So much so that we reached out to Board of Education members to ask why the discrepancy?

At around 5:31 p.m. the District pushed out a message clarifying that:

Dear Parent/Guardians of TK-5th grade students,

We are asking elementary parents of TK-5th grade students to complete a survey regarding a planned return to school.  With your prior survey responses taken into consideration, there are two options for our planned return:  An in-person option and all-online option.

 The in-person option is a hybrid program where students will receive instruction on campus for 2.5 hours a day.  Most students will attend school in the morning, although some students may be assigned to an afternoon session.  With the in-person program, parents must have a responsible adult available to drop off and pick up students.  TK-5 students will have additional asynchronous work to be completed at home.  Together with all staff, students who return to in-person instruction will be required to take a Covid-19 PCR test at school on a weekly basis.

 The all-online option is a virtual program where most students will receive live instruction virtually at home for 2.5 hours a day in the afternoon.  TK-5 students will have additional asynchronous work to be completed at home.

 Please log into ParentVUE and click on “School of Choice” to complete your survey for each TK-5th grade student by Friday, February 12th.


We know this is a ton of data to process. Stop for a moment. Breath deeply. This is where we are at. Further organizing activities will be rolled out next week. This is a difficult time for the membership and we know our members are conflicted. Please have a conversation with your primary care provider to assess your health risks for “in-person” instruction. Calculate your accrued sick leave. Get your affairs in order. In solidarity we stand, divided we fall. 


SPEAK OUT: LIFT UP YOUR VOICES


Seniority List
The District has not released an updated seniority list. The good news, as of this writing, there are no plans for layoffs for the 2021-22 school year. The bad news, if you are working on a temporary contract / special contract you may not be asked to return in the fall. We’ve lost over 30,000 students over the last 15 years. The last update the District provided on enrollment, put it at around 69,000 students. The big question is just how many students will return in August? Where will our communities be in this global pandemic?

Displacements / Transfers
No update on numbers, but we expect there to be adjustments. The average yearly loss of students, for the past 15 years, has been around 2,000 students per year. The District’s projected enrollment was expected to flatten around 60,000 students pre-COVID-19. Will the pandemic accelerate declining enrollment?


Update, Sunday,January 17,2021

Sorry for the delay, we held out hope for more information on vaccines. There is quite a bit to unpack. So much so, that we’ll have to break out what happened on each day last week. Please review the entire E-Update as there are important announcements of elections, grants and scholarships. 


Monday, January 11th

Last Monday morning, Brian Moskovitz, Assistant Superintendent of Early Learning and Elementary Schools

January 11 , 2021
To The Parents Of: ________________ _

Dear Head Start, Child Development Centers and Kids’ Club Families,

Happy New Year! We hope this finds you well and taking care.

We are writing to share our concern about the COVID case rate and exposures In our early
learning and child care centers over the last several weeks. We recognize that your family is
reliant upon our child care program. For that reason, we are doing our best to remain open. In
the coming weeks, please know that we will continue to do everything that we can to make care
available for your child. However, if the case rate continues to climb in the way that it has in the
last two weeks, we will need to consider a two-week closure of our child care programs.
Furthermore, if staffing at sites becomes an issue due to COVID exposure, we will need to close
classes/programs on an as-needed basis.
As we continue to see an unprecedented COVID surge, for the next two weeks please consider
keeping your child home as your circumstances allow. We will continue to provide the service
of child care to the extent that we can, but limiting the number of children and staff who are
coming together would be very helpful for everyone right now. Your child’s program leaders will
be able to share online options that they can offer at this time if you do choose to keep your
child at home, or if we are forced to close programs.
Thank you for your partnership with us. We appreciate the opportunity to care for your children
and to support the essential services that we know that you are providing.
With regards,
Brian Moskovitz
Assistant Superintendent of Early Learning and Elementary Schools

Monthly meeting with Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent

At 10:00 last Monday, the president of TALB, Dr. Christine Kelly and the executive director of TALB, Chris Callopy, met with Superintendent Dr. Jill Baker and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Brown via Zoom. There is a standing conversation surrounding the “phases of the reopening of schools”. 

Phases of Reopening of Schools

Dr. Baker & Dr. Brown are committed to keeping open any program that is allowable by local health department guidelines / mandates (Long Beach Health Department). For our membership this includes:

Child Development Centers (CDC) & Head Start Preschool / Early Education Special Education Services
K-2 Waivers

These discussions are very difficult, particularly with the District notifying early education providers, prior to our meeting, that the District may have to close in-person instruction.  A conversation whipsawed from the push to reopen schools to the pandemic raging and further closures may be imminent. Reports have surfaced that children do in fact spread COVID-19, leading many European countries to close in-person instruction. Los Angeles county health department officials have detected the newer more easily transmitted and infectious version of COVID-19. Both the president and executive director expressed concern with the push to reopen in an ever evolving pandemic.

“weekly engagement log of daily student participation”. 

TALB President, Dr. Christine Kelly pressed the superintendents for an explanation. “What happened?” “Why was this sent from a “no-reply” email address after 5:00 on a Friday evening?”

Dr. Jill Baker acknowledged the timeliness of the email and promised to make changes regarding late email notifications. A commitment was made to have Chris Brown, Assistant Superintendent of Research & School improvement, give a presentation at the following day’s negotiations meeting.

Vaccines

The TALB bargaining and school climate survey data was discussed. Both superintendents were alarmed with the trending number of participants who did not have interest in vaccination for COVID-19. As of the writing of this newsletter, taking the vaccine is voluntary. The only detail provided on vaccinations was the targeted week of January 25.


Tuesday, January 12th

The TALB & LBUSD negotiation teams met from 9:00 a.m. to noon. LBUSD executive staff presented the new attendance summary that is required in order to receive ADA in virtual education. Attendance translates into revenue for the District. There was no explanation for what happened. The new LMS was supposed to integrate attendance taking. The new requirement to take attendance was explained and demonstrated but there was a clear minimizing of the time this task may take for many teachers. However, teachers should wait until February to go back to put in lesson summaries. Each site will be given exact dates for which they are responsible to do the backfill. WAIT until that time as they are still doing some of the “programming” regarding attendance from the fall.

There were still no details on vaccinations other than the target date of January 25. Ideally, vaccines would be offered to the families of those who are at greater risk of exposure. Returning more schools to in-person instruction presents problems if families are not protected. If a member’s family becomes ill from a transmission of COVID-19, they may have to take time off from instruction in order to provide needed care. The least amount of disruptions to the continuity of instruction should be a part of the calculation. Vaccinating the school personnel is one step in the process.

TALB Bargaining Proposals:

All levels will have an asynchronous day on Wednesdays.  TALB Bargaining Unit members will conduct IEP meetings, provide Special Education services, conduct office hours, reach out to parents/students for individual meetings, provide interventions, and plan.  No more than 1 hour of this day will be taken for staff meetings or professional development.  All levels will have minimum days, twice per week, second semester.  Time after student dismissal will be protected teacher planning and grading time.  This time may also be used for IEPs, SSTs, and other services related to serving Special Education and EL students. In the interest of meeting student need and retaining students, the district will offer independent study options at all levels for the spring semester 2021. 

 Afterschool meetings will only occur as necessary.  No meetings will occur during teacher protected time. 

Safety

All staff, students, parents, and stakeholders must follow current safety guidelines when on campus.  Extra visitors are discouraged from entering campuses.

The TALB bargaining chair, Corrin Hickey and the TALB executive director, Chris Callopy encouraged executive staff to clearly communicate with every site regarding attendance changes and sanitation procedures. TALB leadership and staff phones have been inundated with concerns over the new attendance procedures and many of our sites are not having consistent enforcement of cleaning and sanitation protocols.


Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Last week’s board of education meeting welcomed two new members, Erik Miller & Doug Otto. We encourage our members to reach out to our new board of education members. There is quite a bit to catch them up on. The next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, February 3, 2021 @ 5:00 p.m. 

Voicemail Testimony
By noon on the day of the session, call (562) 242-2190 to record your message and follow the prompts. All comments should begin by listing the following information:

  • Your name and item on the agenda you wish to address.
  • The session during which you wish your comment to be read.

If your voicemail does not list a specific agenda item that you wish to address, it will be placed in the category of items not listed on the agenda for the public session. 

A recorded public comment becomes a public record as soon as it is recorded.  Any member of the public may request a copy.  There is a three-minute limit on public comments. An individual may make only one comment on an item appearing on the agenda, and one comment on an item not appearing on the agenda in a separate call. Please remember that comments on items not listed on the agenda cannot be responded to during the meeting, but board members carefully listen to those comments, and those comments often become part of the discussion of future board meetings when they can be listed on the agenda.

If there is insufficient time to listen to all voicemails, they will be forwarded directly to the board members.

Please remember that young children often watch these board meetings, so we invite commenters to use language that is suitable for young children. Because we require comment requests to identify whether the comment is on the agenda and if so which item on the agenda is being addressed, only those comments received after the agenda is posted will be eligible to be played during the meeting. 

If you have a condition which prevents you from accessing the ability to make comment through any of these mechanisms, please contact Leticia Rodriguez at (562) 997-8240.


Thursday, January 14, 2021

Attendance procedures continue to roil the membership, bargaining team reaches out to Superintendents Dr. Baker & Dr. Brown. A meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. If there is breaking news we’ll send out an update. 


Friday, January 15, 2021

In the morning our members teaching in Head Start & CDC received the following email. 

Dear Head Start, Child Development Center and Kids Club Staff,

Before this work week comes to a close, I wanted to follow up with you on the letter that was distributed to families this past Monday. 

The good news is that we have only seen a small number of new cases of COVID in our pre-k and child care programs this week. As a result, we will continue to remain open for in-person care next week, January 19-22. Because the health and safety of our staff and students is our highest priority, we will continue to monitor cases over the weekend and into next week and will be prepared to make adjustment, as needed, as described in Monday’s letter.

Thank you for continuing to provide this essential care for the children of our community’s essential workers. 

With appreciation,
Brian Moskovitz
Assistant Superintendent of Early Learning and Elementary Schools

After school on Friday, Dr. Jill Baker sent out a message regarding vaccinations. Again, the target date remains the week of January 25. Given that the supply chain of vaccines is unknown at best, be prepared for this date to change. You may also consider the following:

  • Have you discussed taking the vaccine with your physician?
  • Some people report no side effects. Others have reported mild symptoms. Do you have sub plans ready should you need to take time off?
  • There are no specifics regarding the timing of the vaccine. Do you have asynchronous work ready for students if your window of vaccination is during your duty day?

 


Your Voice, YOUR UNION
TALB GENERAL ELECTIONS ANNOUNCEMENT

The Teacher’s Association of Long Beach will be holding its general elections on February 23rd, 2021, through March 5th, 2021 for the following offices:

TALB Officers:

  • President
  • Vice-President
  • Treasurer (Fill term June 21, 2021 – June 20, 2022)

Nominations are open to all TALB members. The term for President and Vice-President is June 21, 2021 – June 19, 2023.

TALB Executive Board – Area Directors

  • Cabrillo Secondary Director
  • CDC-Head Start Director – Nominations are open to all CDC/Head Start members
  • Jordan Area Elementary Director
  • Lakewood Area Secondary Director
  • Millikan Area Secondary Director
  • Poly Area Elementary Director
  • Wilson Area Elementary Director

Nominations are open to TALB members who work in each area. The term is from June 21, 2021 – June 19, 2023. 

3 CTA State Council Representatives

  • Nominations are open to all TALB members
  • The term for each CTA State Council Representative is 2021 –  2024

18 Delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly in Denver, CO 

  • Nominations are open to all TALB members to serve a single term for 021. The term for each NEA Representative is July 2 to July 6, 2021.

Anyone interested in running for office should file a Declaration of Candidacy form so that it is received by Friday, February 5th, 2021, at the TALB office, 4362 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807 no later than 4:30 pm.  Post marked dates will not be accepted.  IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CANDIDATE TO ENSURE THAT THE DECLARATION OF CANDIDACY FORM AND CANDIDATE STATEMENT ARE RECEIVED BY THE DUE DATE AND TIME.

All candidates may provide TALB with an electronic flyer (PDF). All candidate statements will be limited to (1) page, one(1) side only, and no larger than 8-1/2 X 11inches.  Statements are due in the TALB office on Friday, February 5th, 2021 by 4:30pm.  Send your electronic flyer to Ingrid Perez at ingrid@talb.org.


COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075 | LBUSD COVID-19 Dashboard
If you SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.

Cathy Coy, Long Beach Unified School District’s Emergency Preparedness Program Manager will be monitoring the hotline. Compliance to COVID-19 safety and sanitation protocols are not negotiable, they are to be followed religiously. If you are aware of safety and sanitation procedures that are not being followed please call Cathy Coy at 562-204-6075. If you see individuals disregarding mandatory health and safety measures please call Cathy Coy at 562-204-6075. If you are fearful of retaliation, please call the TALB office at 562-426-6433 and we will convey the information to Cathy Coy. Compliance to simple safety protocols will reduce the overall infection rates in our communities, allowing for schools to fully reopen. The current trajectory of infection rate casts many doubts on whether our schools will fully reopen. Everyone has a responsibility to do their part. 


Student Grades

  Education Code: 49066  

(a) When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a school district, the grade given to each pupil shall be the grade determined by the teacher of the course and the determination of the pupil’s grade by the teacher, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, shall be final.

(b) The governing board of the school district and the superintendent of such district shall not order a pupil’s grade to be changed unless the teacher who determined such grade is, to the extent practicable, given an opportunity to state orally, in writing, or both, the reasons for which such grade was given and is, to the extent practicable, included in all discussions relating to the changing of such grade.

(c) No grade of a pupil participating in a physical education class, however, may be adversely affected due to the fact that the pupil does not wear standardized physical education apparel where the failure to wear such apparel arises from circumstances beyond the control of the pupil.

COVID-19 Vaccines 

Right now there is no mandate that anyone take the vaccine, including public employees. There has been some talk about moving education personnel “up” in line for vaccines. The city of Long Beach has educators listed as “phase 1b”. Aetna, LBUSD’s vendor for the PPO and HMO has been ramping up communications on the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. It is hard to imagine what the legislature will do regarding vaccinations. There are some who believe it may become mandatory, there are some who believe it will be voluntary. The issue of vaccinations for children is tricky too, given that vaccines have not been approved for children under 12.  A likely scenario is where vaccines are voluntary and the private/public sector reopens regardless. In other words, you run the risks of not getting vaccinated but everything reopens. 

Question: Will classrooms be opened for in-person instruction once teachers have been given the vaccine? And if not, what else will be needed?

The vaccine is just one part of reopening schools. It’s certainly an important part, but remember, right now there’s no research evidence that the vaccine alone eliminates or reduces transmissions. It reduces illness. Getting the vaccine does not immediately eliminate the need for the multiple layers of safety measures that need to be in place for schools: wearing masks and other PPE, social distancing, good ventilation systems and cleaning, robust testing and tracing programs, school safety plans, accurate and transparent data collection and enforcement of all standards and protocols. None of those needs go away immediately. And right now, so many of our schools are still struggling with meeting those needs. With the current surge, no school in counties with purple transmission rates and risk should be open or proceed with reopening.

What do we know about teachers being prioritized in California for receiving the vaccine and whether there will be enough of it to go around in tie to salvage the school year? 

Right now, educators have been placed in the 1b category of California’s COVID-19 vaccination program, which is basically the second phase after front line workers and nursing homes. We support educators staying in that category. Our public schools are vital to California’s full recovery from this pandemic and we cannot safely and fully return to face-to-face instruction without putting our public-school workers in that priority list.

Priorities within the educator group: Due to expected limitations of initial vaccine shipments, while CTA supports all educators prioritized in 1b, we recognize there may be a need to prioritize within that group. We believe that prioritizing should be done with an equity focus – starting with schools in communities with high transmission rates, communities of color that have been impacted at higher rates of infection, educators with high-risk conditions, and those who teach students with special needs that also are at high risk.

Vaccine rollout and availability: There are many unanswered questions yet on how many vaccines are and will be available, how many each state will get and when they will all arrive. We have heard that CA will get 327,000 vaccines in the first round and 670,000 the following week, with the hope of having 2.1 million vaccines by the end of December. We also know there are about 2.4 million front line healthcare workers in the 1a category…and about 10.7 million workers in the 1b category, including 1.3 million “educational services” workers. So, it’s pretty easy to do that math and see there are many unknowns right now and a lot of vaccines needed.

Leaves of Absence

The prospect of a majority of the District remaining in “Distance Learning” for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year is becoming more of a reality. We’ve received numerous inquires of insurmountable fatigue and exhaustion. There are some options.

Paid Leave – The preferable leave of absence. You may consider having a conversation with your family and physician and assess your physical and mental health. Accessing your accrued sick leave is an option. 

COVID-19 Leaves – These will expire on December 31, 2020. As of this writing Congress has not settled on extending any relief.

Unpaid Leaves – If you are fortunate enough to go without pay and benefits, you can apply for an unpaid leave.

For specific contract information click ETK-12 contract or HS|CDC contract. 

LBUSD leave information click here.

Update, Friday, December4

“December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that it’s going to put on our health care system.”

— Dr. Robert Redfield, Centers For Disease Control (CDC) Director

It is Friday! So there is something to rejoice about!

We know after a long week, the break we had last week seems like a distant memory. 

To give some perspective on the current state of our global pandemic, in the last electronic update sent out November 20, there were 11.8 million known infections in our country. Today, there are over 14.3 million known infections. On November 18 there were 14,839 confirmed cases of COVID-19, last night the city reported 17,550 COVID-19 cases. Local and State officials are warning of hospitals rapidly reaching capacity and limited Intensive Care Unit beds. 

A regional “lock down” is imminent. 

The only way to stop this scourge is to be compliant with public safety measures. That can be hard to do when there have been examples of politicos not, shall we say, taking their own medicine, but the truth of the matter still remains the same.

Wear a mask.

Abide by social distancing.

Wash your hands.

If you do not need to leave your domicile, DON’T. We are reaching a tipping point with our health care systems. If you go out and get into a car accident, there may not be a hospital bed for you. The functioning of our health care systems are critical for everyone, not just COVID-19 victims.

Yesterday, at negotiations, the TALB team discussed the following items:

1) SafetyAll positions should be considered for “remote/distance learning and assessments”. With the rising tide of infections, all LBUSD employees need to be on high alert. LBUSD leadership should focus on the health crisis we are seeing escalate dramatically on a daily basis. As the largest employer in the City of Long Beach, District leadership can help our health care systems by reducing the possibility of requiring their services. 

2) Facing tough facts. If Los Angeles County does not go into the “Red” tier from the “Purple” tier we cannot open schools. TALB receives inquires from students and parents demanding schools open or remain closed. The truth of the matter is neither TALB nor LBUSD can make the decision to open schools. Under current legislation, while LA county remains in the “Purple” tier, we cannot open schools. Given the vertical infection rates, the likelihood that our county will move from the “Purple” tier to the “Red” tier by December 31, is slim to known. When does the Board of Education make the decision to announce schools will not be reopening on January 28, 2021? Do we look at another date? Are we peddling false hope? Or do we make public health the priority? 

3) If distance learning is our only option for the 2020-21 school year, how can we make it better? The Bargaining team made proposals to adjust the schedule, meetings and adjunct duties for the second semester. We hope to have a response by our next bargaining session which is December 17, 2020.

The Bargaining Team and the Advocates Committee are working on a combined survey. We know people are not in a space to take a survey at this point. The tentative plan is to launch the survey the week of December 28, with the hope that members will have had some distance from work. The survey will go to your personal email address. If you need to update your personal email address please email Ingrid Perez at ingrid@talb.org

TALB Bargaining Team

Bargaining Chair – Corrin Hickey, Lakewood H.S.
Gerry Morrison – High School Representative, McBride H.S.
Sybil Baldwin – Child Development Centers (CDC)
Maria Garcia – Head Start
Kevin Quinn – Los Cerritos E.S.
Maritza Summers – Mann E.S.
John Solomon, MacArthur E.S., TALB Executive Board Liaison
Mark Ennen – Middle School Representative, Newcomb K-8
John Kane – Special Education, Jordan H.S.

Advocates Committee

Susan Garcia, Jordan Secondary Executive Board Member, Powell K-8
Peder Larsen, TALB Vice-President, Jordan H.S.
Nina Jackson, Franklin M.S.


Long Beach Unified School District – Community Forum – December 5, 2020

If you missed the live event, watch it here on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQD7U6uLpWs&ct=t%28EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9.10.2019_COPY_01%29&mc_cid=3123c40ad0&mc_eid=b8c922f6c7


Your Voice, YOUR UNION
TALB GENERAL ELECTIONS ANNOUNCEMENT

TALB Officers:

  • President
  • Vice-President
  • Treasurer (Fill term June 21, 2021 – June 20, 2022)

Nominations are open to all TALB members. The term for President and Vice-President is June 21, 2021 – June 19, 2023.

TALB Executive Board – Area Directors

  • Cabrillo Secondary Director
  • Jordan Area Elementary Director
  • Lakewood Area Secondary Director
  • Millikan Area Secondary Director
  • Poly Area Elementary Director
  • Wilson Area Elementary Director

Nominations are open to TALB members who work in each area. The term is from June 21, 2021 – June 19, 2023. 

CDC – Head Start Director

  • Nominations are open to all CDC – Head Start members.
  • The term is from June 21, 2021 – June 19, 2023

3 CTA State Council Representatives

  • Nominations are open to all TALB members
  • The term is from September 2021 – June 2024

18 Delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly in Denver, CO 

  • Nominations are open to all TALB members.

Candidacy declaration forms and election materials will be available at www.talb.org on Tuesday, January 26, 2021.
Elections forms and documents will also be disseminated in the January 26, 2021 ETK-12 Representative Council packet. 


COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075  If you SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.

On Monday, November 16th a COVID-19 hotline will be active. Cathy Coy, Long Beach Unified School District’s Emergency Preparedness Program Manager will be monitoring the hotline. Compliance to COVID-19 safety and sanitation protocols are not negotiable, they are to be followed religiously. If you are aware of safety and sanitation procedures that are not being followed please call Cathy Coy at 562-204-6075. If you see individuals disregarding mandatory health and safety measures please call Cathy Coy at 562-204-6075. If you are fearful of retaliation, please call the TALB office at 562-426-6433 and we will convey the information to Cathy Coy. Compliance to simple safety protocols will reduce the overall infection rates in our communities, allowing for schools to fully reopen. The current trajectory of infection rate casts many doubts on whether our schools will fully reopen. Everyone has a responsibility to do their part. 


Phases of “reopening” of schools continues. Rising cases of COVID-19 may stop or reverse course.

July 1, 2020 – Preschool Early Education – Child Development Centers & Head Start

September 28, 2020 – Preschool Assessments

November 3, 2020 – Elementary School Assessments

November 16, 2020 – High School Assessments

December 7, 2020 – ACT & SUCESS – Hybrid – Student instruction – Delayed until after winter break.

January 28, 2021 – ETK-12 – Hybrid – Student instruction – Highly unlikely given the current infection rate in Los Angeles county. LBUSD officials may announce the cancellation of this date by the week of December 14.*
* If people follow safe guidelines over the next few weeks, it is possible, however unlikely, Los Angeles county may move into the “Red Tier” from the current “Purple Tier”. LBUSD cannot fully reopen for in-person instruction while in the “Purple Tier”. 


Winter Break – December 21, 2020 – January 1, 2021


Phases of “reopening” of schools continues. Rising cases of COVID-19 may stop or reverse course.
July 1, 2020 – Preschool Early Education – Child Development Centers & Head Start
September 28, 2020 – Preschool Assessments
November 3, 2020 – Elementary School Assessments
November 16, 2020 – High School Assessments
December 1, 2020 – ACT & SUCESS – Hybrid – Student instruction
January 28, 2021 – ETK-12 – Hybrid – Student instruction


With the prospect of being on line for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year. We need to think outside of the box when providing instruction via “Distance Learning”. What adjustments would you make? Leadership should hear from you! 


Schedules / Screen Times

Dr. Christopher Lund – Assistant Superintendent Middle Schools
“We are working hard to adjust to our online environment, which should include the balanced use of instructional time—teacher directed lessons, collaborative work/discussion, and independent work time.  Although teachers need to be available to students during the 50-minute class period, there is great flexibility on how teachers utilize the instructional time, which could include giving students time to complete their homework during the independent work portion of the class period.”

Dr. Lund clarified with the following information:
1. Schedules: The District is looking at several options. Each option has positives and drawbacks. For example, a block schedule, while it provides fewer classes and longer periods per day, eliminates a conference period, and usually requires the content of two lessons per class due to fewer meetings.
2. Flexibility: Teachers are empowered to manage their class time. It is OK to give students worktime during class.
Some suggestions made were to turn work over to students, you can divide by levels. Do a 20-minute lesson and then send students off telling them, “the next 30 minutes of work time are yours”. The use of your time is flexible. You control how to utilize it. Use different breakouts, form feedback slides.  It is OK to sit back and observe. Class periods can be used for independent or collaborative work with students released to breakout rooms. Release the main class and keep a small group behind. Allow students to decide which breakout room they attend based upon the amount of support they need. (i.e. Independent, work with a partner, work with a small group, need teacher assistance) The student or the teacher can decide the level of support needed. Have students do more of the work as opposed to being passive receivers. Have students share screens to collaborate. Use a private chat to check in on students not showing their faces or who seem to be having trouble.
3. Grading: use authentic assessments. Give assessments that you score or make comments, but do not grade.
4. Survey: Please complete the survey that the District sent out. It will be used in planning adjustments to current schedules at all levels. This is your opportunity to provide feedback.
5. Check out district resources. District offices are working hard to provide resources for teachers. There are not as many teachers as there are subjects so this may feel a bit sporadic, but our teachers (these teachers are us) are working hard to support you.


Work to rule?
ARTICLE V –  Days and Hours of Employment

WORKDAY:
1. It is agreed that the professional duties of employees require both on-site and off-site hours of work, that the varying nature of such professional duties may not lend itself to a total maximum daily work time of definite or uniform length, and that such duties are normally expected to involve no fewer than eight (8) hours of total effort each workday for both classroom and non-classroom employees. 

Translation = You are paid for 8 hours a day. 
You are not earning bonus pay, credits or points by working 12-14 hour days. 

You will not make it to Thanksgiving, let alone January 28th if you are working 60-70 hours a week. Stop. We are all replaceable. Set boundaries with how much time you are willing to go above and beyond your contractual duty time.

Take it easy on yourself! 


Evaluations

The bargaining team really pressed hard to have evaluations waived for the 2020-21 school year. The District adamantly refused to entertain the idea. All temporary/special contract and probationary teachers will be evaluated this school year. Teachers who are eligible for the 5 year evaluation cycle should inquire with their administrator. Eligibility for the 5 year alternate evaluation cycle is below. The contract allows you to do your evaluation in “hard copy” or “electronically”. Essentially you have a choice. There are no “pilot” or “non-negotiated” evaluation forms or procedures. Why would one want to do an evaluation in hard copy vs. electronically? There is still a concern for the safety and security of LBUSD’s networks. If someone were to hack the network it is conceivable all of your evaluation records could be stolen.

5 Year Evaluation Cycle Contract language, Article XII – Section A
Effective with the 2008-09 school year, unit members with permanent status shall be evaluated at least every five (5) years if they have been employed by the district for ten (10) years or more and if the evaluator and the unit member consent to such time line. In order to be eligible for the five year cycle a unit member must be deemed to be “highly qualified” as defined in the No Child Left Behind Act (20 U.S.C. 7801) and his/her most recent evaluation must contain an overall rating of at least Satisfactory or Effective. For eligible unit members who do not teach in “core academic” subjects, qualification requirements shall be the same as for teachers of “core academic” subjects. For eligible unit members who are not classroom teachers the District and Association shall review and agree on appropriate comparable criteria.

Either the evaluator or the unit member may withdraw from this cycle at any time and such withdrawal shall not be subject to the grievance procedure. Upon request the evaluator will meet with the unit member to explain the reasons for withdrawal.

Evaluation Forms Contract language, Article XII – Section A
Evaluation and assessment of the performance of employees shall be made on a continuing basis at least once each school year for temporary and probationary personnel and at least once every other year for employees with permanent status. Employees may elect to complete their evaluation forms either manually or online. The district and TALB will assess the online evaluation usage and select the best option for future years based on the evaluation usage, security, and effectiveness.

Update, Friday, November 13

Eight months ago, on the last Friday the thirteenth, we were all in shock at what we thought was going to be a two week closure. Now, EIGHT MONTHS later, the trouble that started back then is getting alarmingly worse. A week from now, we’ll be starting the Thanksgiving Holiday break. We know it has been a very tough year and our hearts would be lifted by seeing friends and family. Please be thoughtful, mindful and careful. The phases of reopening our schools are dependent on infection rates going down, not sky-rocketing up. There is fatigue with this pandemic. Encouraging news of effective vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 are on the horizon and if they are as good as they sound, normalcy is not too far away. What we do right now and over the course of the next few weeks will have a dramatic impact on the health of family, friends and absolute strangers living in our community. We ALL have a responsibility to stop the spread of this scourge. We can do this, hang in there!


COVID-19 Hotline – (562) 204-6075  If you SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.

On Monday, November 16th a COVID-19 hotline will be active. Cathy Coy, Long Beach Unified School District’s Emergency Preparedness Program Manager will be monitoring the hotline. Compliance to COVID-19 safety and sanitation protocols are not negotiable, they are to be followed religiously. If you are aware of safety and sanitation procedures that are not being followed please call Cathy Coy at 562-204-6075. If you see individuals disregarding mandatory health and safety measures please call Cathy Coy at 562-204-6075. If you are fearful of retaliation, please call the TALB office at 562-426-6433 and we will convey the information to Cathy Coy. Compliance to simple safety protocols will reduce the overall infection rates in our communities, allowing for schools to fully reopen. The current trajectory of infection rate casts many doubts on whether our schools will fully reopen. Everyone has a responsibility to do their part. 


 

Quick Hits

Bargaining continues on Monday, November 16th. Topics included:

Phases of reopening our schools.
Schedules
Student Assessments (Grading, Equity, & Resources)
District’s Financial Standing
Safe Protocols (Employee training, contact tracing, and compliance)

The Bargaining Team is working with the Advocates committee on a survey covering the current MOU and site/administrator climate. The teams are being mindful on how much time rank and file can commit to a survey. Reports from the District indicate less than 1/2 of surveyed personnel responded to the most recent survey. This is worrisome. We know people have quite a lot to say and haven’t been bashful with letting us know. Is there not enough time to take a survey or have people given up on the hope that their input will effect change? 

TALB Bargaining Team
Bargaining Chair – Corrin Hickey, Lakewood H.S.
Gerry Morrison – High School Representative, McBride H.S.
Sybil Baldwin – Child Development Centers (CDC)
Maria Garcia – Head Start
Kevin Quinn – Los Cerritos E.S.
Maritza Summers – Mann E.S.
Mark Ennen – Middle School Representative, Newcomb K-8
John Kane – Special Education, Jordan H.S.

Veteran’s Day, November 11th – Please take some much needed time off. We have suggested to the District that every Wednesday be an “asynchronous” learning day. Students could catch up on any missing assignments and teachers could plan. We hear you, people are exhausted.

Virtual Site Visits – continue – We have been holding site visits virtually, if you have not received an invitation to attend please be sure to contact Blanca Paredes – bparedes@talb.org

Monday, November 16 – Avalon, Cubberley, Gompers, Hudson, Muir, Newcomb, & Robinson – Virtual Site Visit
Tuesday, November 17 – Bancroft, Franklin, Hamilton, Hoover, Hughes, & Jefferson – Virtual Site Visit | School Psychologists & Counselor Forum
Wednesday, November 18 – Adaptive Physical Education – Virtual Site Visit
Thursday, November 19 – Speech Language Pathologists Forum | CDC – Head Start Rep. Council

Thanksgiving Break – November 23-27


Phases of “reopening” of schools continues. Rising cases of COVID-19 may stop or reverse course.
July 1, 2020 – Preschool Early Education – Child Development Centers & Head Start
September 28, 2020 – Preschool Assessments
November 3, 2020 – Elementary School Assessments
November 16, 2020 – High School Assessments
December 1, 2020 – ACT & SUCESS – Hybrid – Student instruction
January 28, 2021 – ETK-12 – Hybrid – Student instruction


Please continue to lift up your voices. Continue to share your successes and struggles as we navigate education in this global pandemic. Board of education members and executive staff need to hear from you! Collectively our voice will bring change. 


School Board Election – District 2
WE DID IT! My team and I are projecting a WIN for the Nov. 3rd election!

From the first ballot count on Election Day, we established a lead and have not relinquished it. Though there are still a few more ballots to be counted, our percentage of support has held steady through multiple counts and we feel confident that this will continue until the final count is announced.

Thank you all for your patience over this past week as we awaited results. For me it was important to be sure of the outcome before this announcement.

I couldn’t have done this without all of you! Thank you to: the volunteers who talked to voters, the financial contributors who generously gave to our campaign, and to the voters who cast their ballots.

I am excited to get to work on behalf of the parents, students, and LBUSD staff. I LOVE LONG BEACH and look forward to being part of the infrastructure that makes this one of the best cities to live in.

Erik Miller
LBUSD Board Member – Elect


Schedules / Screen Times

Dr. Christopher Lund – Assistant Superintendent Middle Schools
“We are working hard to adjust to our online environment, which should include the balanced use of instructional time—teacher directed lessons, collaborative work/discussion, and independent work time.  Although teachers need to be available to students during the 50-minute class period, there is great flexibility on how teachers utilize the instructional time, which could include giving students time to complete their homework during the independent work portion of the class period.”

Dr. Lund clarified with the following information:
1. Schedules: The District is looking at several options. Each option has positives and drawbacks. For example, a block schedule, while it provides fewer classes and longer periods per day, eliminates a conference period, and usually requires the content of two lessons per class due to fewer meetings.
2. Flexibility: Teachers are empowered to manage their class time. It is OK to give students worktime during class.
Some suggestions made were to turn work over to students, you can divide by levels. Do a 20-minute lesson and then send students off telling them, “the next 30 minutes of work time are yours”. The use of your time is flexible. You control how to utilize it. Use different breakouts, form feedback slides.  It is OK to sit back and observe. Class periods can be used for independent or collaborative work with students released to breakout rooms. Release the main class and keep a small group behind. Allow students to decide which breakout room they attend based upon the amount of support they need. (i.e. Independent, work with a partner, work with a small group, need teacher assistance) The student or the teacher can decide the level of support needed. Have students do more of the work as opposed to being passive receivers. Have students share screens to collaborate. Use a private chat to check in on students not showing their faces or who seem to be having trouble.
3. Grading: use authentic assessments. Give assessments that you score or make comments, but do not grade.
4. Survey: Please complete the survey that the District sent out. It will be used in planning adjustments to current schedules at all levels. This is your opportunity to provide feedback.
5. Check out district resources. District offices are working hard to provide resources for teachers. There are not as many teachers as there are subjects so this may feel a bit sporadic, but our teachers (these teachers are us) are working hard to support you.


Work to rule?
ARTICLE V –  Days and Hours of Employment

WORKDAY:
1. It is agreed that the professional duties of employees require both on-site and off-site hours of work, that the varying nature of such professional duties may not lend itself to a total maximum daily work time of definite or uniform length, and that such duties are normally expected to involve no fewer than eight (8) hours of total effort each workday for both classroom and non-classroom employees. 

Translation = You are paid for 8 hours a day. 
You are not earning bonus pay, credits or points by working 12-14 hour days. 

You will not make it to Thanksgiving, let alone January 28th if you are working 60-70 hours a week. Stop. We are all replaceable. Set boundaries with how much time you are willing to go above and beyond your contractual duty time.

Take it easy on yourself! 


Evaluations

The bargaining team really pressed hard to have evaluations waived for the 2020-21 school year. The District adamantly refused to entertain the idea. All temporary/special contract and probationary teachers will be evaluated this school year. Teachers who are eligible for the 5 year evaluation cycle should inquire with their administrator. Eligibility for the 5 year alternate evaluation cycle is below. The contract allows you to do your evaluation in “hard copy” or “electronically”. Essentially you have a choice. There are no “pilot” or “non-negotiated” evaluation forms or procedures. Why would one want to do an evaluation in hard copy vs. electronically? There is still a concern for the safety and security of LBUSD’s networks. If someone were to hack the network it is conceivable all of your evaluation records could be stolen.

5 Year Evaluation Cycle Contract language, Article XII – Section A
Effective with the 2008-09 school year, unit members with permanent status shall be evaluated at least every five (5) years if they have been employed by the district for ten (10) years or more and if the evaluator and the unit member consent to such time line. In order to be eligible for the five year cycle a unit member must be deemed to be “highly qualified” as defined in the No Child Left Behind Act (20 U.S.C. 7801) and his/her most recent evaluation must contain an overall rating of at least Satisfactory or Effective. For eligible unit members who do not teach in “core academic” subjects, qualification requirements shall be the same as for teachers of “core academic” subjects. For eligible unit members who are not classroom teachers the District and Association shall review and agree on appropriate comparable criteria.

Either the evaluator or the unit member may withdraw from this cycle at any time and such withdrawal shall not be subject to the grievance procedure. Upon request the evaluator will meet with the unit member to explain the reasons for withdrawal.

Evaluation Forms Contract language, Article XII – Section A
Evaluation and assessment of the performance of employees shall be made on a continuing basis at least once each school year for temporary and probationary personnel and at least once every other year for employees with permanent status. Employees may elect to complete their evaluation forms either manually or online. The district and TALB will assess the online evaluation usage and select the best option for future years based on the evaluation usage, security, and effectiveness.

Update, Friday, November 6

It has been a tough week. Regardless of your political persuasion, the anxiety of the unknown is weighing heavily on all of us. We hope you find some time this weekend to unwind.

Quick Hits

Bargaining continues on Tuesday, November 10th. The bargaining team is crafting a survey surrounding our current working conditions.

TALB Bargaining Team
Bargaining Chair – Corrin Hickey, Lakewood H.S.
Gerry Morrison – High School Representative, McBride H.S.
Sybil Baldwin – Child Development Centers (CDC)
Maria Garcia – Head Start
Kevin Quinn – Los Cerritos E.S.
Maritza Summers – Mann E.S.
Mark Ennen – Middle School Representative, Newcomb K-8
John Kane – Special Education, Jordan H.S.

Veteran’s Day, November 11th – Please take some much needed time off. We have suggested to the District that every Wednesday be an “asynchronous” learning day. Students could catch up on any missing assignments and teachers could plan. We hear you, people are exhausted.

Virtual Site Visits – continue – We have been holding site visits virtually, if you have not received an invitation to attend please be sure to contact Blanca Paredes – bparedes@talb.org

Thanksgiving Break – November 23-27


Phases of “reopening” of schools continues. Rising cases of COVID-19 may stop or reverse course.
July 1, 2020 – Preschool Early Education – Child Development Centers & Head Start
September 28, 2020 – Preschool Assessments
November 3, 2020 – Elementary School Assessments
November 16, 2020 – High School Assessments
December 1, 2020 – ACT & SUCESS – Hybrid – Student instruction
January 28, 2021 – ETK-12 – Hybrid – Student instruction


Please continue to lift up your voices. Continue to share your successes and struggles as we navigate education in this global pandemic. Board of education members and executive staff need to hear from you! Collectively our voice will bring change. 


School Board Election – District 2  – As of Friday, November 6


 

Schedules / Screen Times

Dr. Christopher Lund – Assistant Superintendent Middle Schools
“We are working hard to adjust to our online environment, which should include the balanced use of instructional time—teacher directed lessons, collaborative work/discussion, and independent work time.  Although teachers need to be available to students during the 50-minute class period, there is great flexibility on how teachers utilize the instructional time, which could include giving students time to complete their homework during the independent work portion of the class period.”

Dr. Lund clarified with the following information:
1. Schedules: The District is looking at several options. Each option has positives and drawbacks. For example, a block schedule, while it provides fewer classes and longer periods per day, eliminates a conference period, and usually requires the content of two lessons per class due to fewer meetings.
2. Flexibility: Teachers are empowered to manage their class time. It is OK to give students worktime during class.
Some suggestions made were to turn work over to students, you can divide by levels. Do a 20-minute lesson and then send students off telling them, “the next 30 minutes of work time are yours”. The use of your time is flexible. You control how to utilize it. Use different breakouts, form feedback slides.  It is OK to sit back and observe. Class periods can be used for independent or collaborative work with students released to breakout rooms. Release the main class and keep a small group behind. Allow students to decide which breakout room they attend based upon the amount of support they need. (i.e. Independent, work with a partner, work with a small group, need teacher assistance) The student or the teacher can decide the level of support needed. Have students do more of the work as opposed to being passive receivers. Have students share screens to collaborate. Use a private chat to check in on students not showing their faces or who seem to be having trouble.
3. Grading: use authentic assessments. Give assessments that you score or make comments, but do not grade.
4. Survey: Please complete the survey that the District sent out. It will be used in planning adjustments to current schedules at all levels. This is your opportunity to provide feedback.
5. Check out district resources. District offices are working hard to provide resources for teachers. There are not as many teachers as there are subjects so this may feel a bit sporadic, but our teachers (these teachers are us) are working hard to support you.


Work to rule?
ARTICLE V –  Days and Hours of Employment

WORKDAY:
1. It is agreed that the professional duties of employees require both on-site and off-site hours of work, that the varying nature of such professional duties may not lend itself to a total maximum daily work time of definite or uniform length, and that such duties are normally expected to involve no fewer than eight (8) hours of total effort each workday for both classroom and non-classroom employees. 

Translation = You are paid for 8 hours a day. 
You are not earning bonus pay, credits or points by working 12-14 hour days. 

You will not make it to Thanksgiving, let alone January 28th if you are working 60-70 hours a week. Stop. We are all replaceable. Set boundaries with how much time you are willing to go above and beyond your contractual duty time.

Take it easy on yourself! 


Evaluations

The bargaining team really pressed hard to have evaluations waived for the 2020-21 school year. The District adamantly refused to entertain the idea. All temporary/special contract and probationary teachers will be evaluated this school year. Teachers who are eligible for the 5 year evaluation cycle should inquire with their administrator. Eligibility for the 5 year alternate evaluation cycle is below. The contract allows you to do your evaluation in “hard copy” or “electronically”. Essentially you have a choice. There are no “pilot” or “non-negotiated” evaluation forms or procedures. Why would one want to do an evaluation in hard copy vs. electronically? There is still a concern for the safety and security of LBUSD’s networks. If someone were to hack the network it is conceivable all of your evaluation records could be stolen.

5 Year Evaluation Cycle Contract language, Article XII – Section A
Effective with the 2008-09 school year, unit members with permanent status shall be evaluated at least every five (5) years if they have been employed by the district for ten (10) years or more and if the evaluator and the unit member consent to such time line. In order to be eligible for the five year cycle a unit member must be deemed to be “highly qualified” as defined in the No Child Left Behind Act (20 U.S.C. 7801) and his/her most recent evaluation must contain an overall rating of at least Satisfactory or Effective. For eligible unit members who do not teach in “core academic” subjects, qualification requirements shall be the same as for teachers of “core academic” subjects. For eligible unit members who are not classroom teachers the District and Association shall review and agree on appropriate comparable criteria.

Either the evaluator or the unit member may withdraw from this cycle at any time and such withdrawal shall not be subject to the grievance procedure. Upon request the evaluator will meet with the unit member to explain the reasons for withdrawal.

Evaluation Forms Contract language, Article XII – Section A
Evaluation and assessment of the performance of employees shall be made on a continuing basis at least once each school year for temporary and probationary personnel and at least once every other year for employees with permanent status. Employees may elect to complete their evaluation forms either manually or online. The district and TALB will assess the online evaluation usage and select the best option for future years based on the evaluation usage, security, and effectiveness.