United Teachers of Richmond CTA/NEA
Presidents Report
1. UTR weekly updates on video. I will be sending every Monday a 3-minute video with information, highlights, and updates. I know many people don't have time to read the emails so I hope this will help our busy schedules as well as expand on our communication outreach.
2. I would like to congratulate everyone who supported Measure T, our school board candidates, and proposition 55, 58, and 52. We had a lot of wins that we must celebrate.
3. The WCCUSD School Board announced and voted on the "Teacher Housing Task Force" which was presented a few weeks ago as an idea from our President in order to explore housing opportunities for our members on District owned land. Assembly member Tony Thurman, a representative from Congressman Desaulnier's office, Supervisor John Gioia, Superintendent Duffy, Board Member Cuevas, Board Member Kronenberg, and our UTR President will be sitting on the Task Force.
4. We held a movie night with Building Blocks for Kids to watch “Education Inc”. We had a good turn out of various members and community leaders. We discussed our public schools and the future of WCCUSD with potential charter schools coming in.
5. UTR also hosted a meeting with the high school Reps and the superintendent to discuss secondary class sizes. In the meeting we looked at potential issues occurring around master schedules and the need for more teachers. We formed a sub-committee on class sizes which will be meeting again in January.
6. We had our second REP Council training on Thursday and it went really well. Thank you to all the REPS that came. UTR has not had REP trainings in a long time and we have been able to provide two so far. We plan on providing one final training in the spring.
7. Two Saturday’s ago we co-hosted the "New Teacher Gathering" for all our new members. The event was hosted by WCCUSD, UTR, TIP, TFA, and PAR. We were able to have very successful sessions on classroom management, Trauma informed practices, and self-care/prioritizing. We had approximately 80 members attend. The superintendent himself did a session on classroom management and members seemed to enjoy themselves very much. We plan on co-hosting a second one in the spring for anyone who would like to join us.
8. Last week we co-hosted a workshop around the National Election Results Gathering with the RYSE Youth Center and Mindful Life. We had very powerful conversations about the role of education in national politics, peoples worries, and future action with our students and members. The RYSE Youth Center is doing a series of workshops called "Love and Rage". A panel discussion of implications for Trump's first 100 days and calls to action followed by round table discussions with panelists and participants towards an ongoing series of assemblies to identify needs and responses as his presidency continues. You may sign up here: https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTI4NjU=
9. Bargaining has begun and the bargaining team has been meeting to discuss next steps. We have one re-opener this year and Executive Board after reviewing the membership survey that went out this fall, passed a motion for the re-opener to be salary. The Bargaining team is currently reviewing the direction of executive board and will give their recommendation to the board as well as creating another survey that will be going out to membership.
The bargaining chair and the UTR President to increase communication through bargaining will be blogging live every other Monday from 4:00 to 5:00 PM so that members are able to ask questions, make suggestions, or comments about the process or about what is happening. The link and more information will be going out soon.
As all of you can see, we have had a busy few weeks. If you think of any other events or issues that UTR should be part of please reach out to us.
In Solidarity,
Demetrio Gonzalez
President, United Teachers of Richmond CTA/NEA