Tentative Agreement On Salary Reached

At the March 13th School Board Meeting, the Garvey School Board agreed to GEA's latest salary proposal.

If ratified, GEA will receive a 2% salary increase effective July 1, 2013. A subsequent 1% increase will be added to the salary schedule as of January 1, 2014.

The two parties will soon begin drafting the language for a tentative agreement to be put up for a ratification vote by GEA members.

Negotiations - March 10, 2014

The Garvey School District and Garvey Education Association met at 3 PM on March 10th.

There were two main topics of discussion.

Salary - The two parties discussed salary. No agreement was reached.

Calendar - A final calendar for the 2014-2015 school year was agreed to.

• The calendar will include 1 staff development day, so it will have 184 work days. The salary schedule for 2014-2015 school year will reflect a .56% salary increase for working the extra day.

• The first day of work will be August 18, 2014. This will be a staff development day regarding implementation of Common Core.

• Orientation Day will be August 19, 2014.

• August 20, 2014 will be the first day of instruction. It will be a full day, not a shortened Wednesday.

•  GEA unit members will be off the entire week of Thanksgiving.

• The last day of school will be June 5, 2015.

Bargaining Update and Pep Rally

The District is sponsoring a "Pep Rally" on February 26, 2014 at 2 PM.

 This will be the first time everyone in the District will officially be together since 2011. 

GEA has helped to set up the event. The Garvey Intermediate Band and Choir will be performing and staff members will be honored. There will be refreshments served as well. The event begins at 2 PM and should last about 1 hour.

Bargaining

  

 At the last bargaining session, a few important issues were addressed. 

• There was no immediate response to the GEA salary proposal. The District stated they needed to wait until after the second interim report which is due out in mid March, as well as information from the LCAP. (Local Control Accountability Plan)

• The Associaition reminded the District that we are negotiating 2013-2014. (Actually all the way back to 2011) LCAP data will be for 2014-15 and the 2013-2014 budget has been in place since July 2013.

•  The District stated they were not interested in having a staff development day placed in the calendar. They were willing to have a staff development day on the day before orientation day, which would be paid at our daily rate, but would remain optional.
• There was also discussion regarding CSEA uncertainty regarding the week off for Thanksgiving.
• GEA reminded the District that we started the school year three days earlier last year in order to get those three days off, and that we would want to revert back to the old schedule if we were not going to have the week off.

• School will most likely begin the week of August 18, 2014 and end on June 5, 2015.
• If we have the week off for Thanksgiving, Orientation Day will most likely be on August 19th.
• If we do not have the week off for Thanksgiving, Orientation Day will most likely be on August 22nd.
• A voluntary staff development day regarding Common Core will likely be held on August 18th.

Negotiations Update - January 27, 2014

            The Garvey Education Association and the Garvey School District had a productive negotiation session on Monday January 27, 2014. Highlights include the following.

• It was agreed that the current contract language surrounding Early Release Wednesdays will be adhered to. Teachers will once again be in control or the Wednesday Planning and Collaboration Time. This agreement will allow the Association to drop the PERB case regarding this matter.
• At present, the idea of holding SSTs and IEPs during Early Release Wednesday time is still being discussed.
• It was agreed that the current contract language surrounding the Association President’s 40% release will be adhered to. This will allow the Association to drop the PERB case regarding this matter.
• Calendar was discussed. The school year is most likely to begin the week of August 18, 2014. There is the possibility of adding a Staff Development Day into the work year for next year only. This would increase the number of work days to 184. Salary would be increased commensurately. No final agreement was reached yet.
• Robert McIntire spoke briefly about the financial state of the District as well as predicted savings from the change to CalPERS insurance.
• Salary was discussed.

Superintendent Dr. Sandra Johnson placed on Administrative Leave

Superintendent Dr. Sandra Johnson was placed on Administrative Leave by the newly elected Garvey School District Board of Education on December 16, 2013. Dolores Preciado and Virginia Peterson have been placed as interim co-Superintendents.

November 2013 Election Results

            Maureen Chin, Ronald Trabanino and Bob Bruesch were elected to the Garvey School District Board of Education on November 5, 2013.

The final vote count is below.

GARVEY SCHOOL                GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER                          

VOTE FOR NO MORE THAN   3                                                    

   MAUREEN CHIN                      1,402    28.21% 

   BOB BRUESCH                       1,342    27.00% 

   RONALD TRABANINO                  1,185    23.84% 

   JOHN YUEN                           565    11.37% 

   ANTONIO RAMOS                       476     9.58% 

TOTAL PRECINCTS          9             

PRECINCTS REPORTING      9   100.00% 

REGISTRATION             19,399                                

Janet Chin Recall Does Not Qualify

On May 2, 2013, 4866 signatures were turned in to the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder's Office. In order to force a Recall Election, 3856 signatures needed to be found sufficient. The final tally was 206 signatures short.

The results of the signature verification are as follows:

• Number of signatures filed  4,866
• Number of signatures verified 4,866
• Number of signatures found sufficient 3,650
• Number of signatures found not sufficient 1,216
• Not Sufficient because duplicate 105

The Garvey Education Association and the Garvey School District Resident's Committee to Recall Janet Chin thank everyone who worked in the petition gathering drive. 

While it is disappointing that the Recall Election will not happen, the groundwork has been set for the November Election in which both John Yuen and Tony Ramos are up for possible reelection. Bob Bruesch is also up for reelection in November.

We spread the word throughout the District about the Superintendent and the Board majority. We need to keep the message fresh in the minds of the voters until November.

Your work is both appreciated and not in vain.

To help place this in perspective, 18.9% of the voters in the Garvey School District signed the petition to recall Janet Chin. That is 3650 registered voters. In November 2011 Janet won a seat on the Garvey School Board by getting 790 votes.

The electorate is better educated and their voice will be heard this November.