​Representative Council Meeting Minutes
November 30, 2015
Education Center Room #205 3:30 PM
 
 
Executive Board Members Present: President-Linda Hansen; Vice President-Gayle Young; Secretary-Ginger Dunne; Treasurer-Dave Estes; Directors-At-Large-Laura Zinser, John Burns; Director-of-Human Rights-Mary Duenow; Director-of-Communications-Mike Willmarth; Grievance Chair/State Council-Patty Wyman
 
Representatives Present: ACHS-Devin Reza, Dave Hollman, Elizabeth Hawkins; ACMS-Steve Dierker; Alta Heights-Ginger Dunne; Bel Aire-Lauren Riendeau; Browns Valley-Angela Oster; Canyon Oaks-None; Donaldson Way-Maureen McCullough; El Centro-Corey Morton; Harvest-TBD; Independent Studies-Florence Whisenant; McPherson-LeeAnn Buntman, Kathleen Nichols; Mt. George-None; Napa Junction-TBD; Napa High-Maria Vega; NVLA-Sarah Miller, Marliese Esquvel; New Tech-Erin Reilly; Northwood-Kim Vichi; Phillips-Ann Brown; Pueblo Vista-TBD; Redwood-Kathy Newman, Lorna Dekker; River-Louann Talbert; Salvador-Barb Noll; Shearer-Amy Ruggiera; Silverado-Debbie Kmiec; Snow-Courtney Garcia; Valley Oak-John Mautner; Vichy-Debbie Cates; Vintage-Mary Duenow, Michael Alger; West Park-Laura Zinser; Yountville-Carl Elias; Itinerants-Sue Helms; Academic Specialists-None
 
 
  1. Welcome and Adoption of the Agenda.  Agenda adopted.
  2. Adoption of the Minutes from October 26, 2015:  Minutes approved; available on the NVEA website.
  3. Committees:  Budget, Read Across America, Scholarships, Engagement, and Step-Up committees met for about 20 minutes then did a quick share out.
  4. Treasurer’s Report—Dave Estes
  5. NVEA Budget Review:  Finances are on track.  Taxes and audit will be forthcoming.
  6. President’s Report—Linda Hansen: 
a.     Teacher Scholarship Forms:  Received in our boxes at school, but double check.  There are some available on the back table.  These scholarships are for teachers who want to go back to school to continue their education.
b.     CTA Foundation for Institute for Teaching (IFT) Grants:  Teachers are encouraged to apply for these grants.  Mike Willmarth is very familiar with the IFT group; contact him with any questions or visit the website.
c.     STRS Counseling Appointments:  Our NVEA office here in Napa is available for appointments.  Call 1-800-228-5453 for appointments.  Encourage all teachers to attend an information session.
d.     IBPS Training:  Site rep(s) and administrator(s) attend together.  Will be held in Room 205 on 1/12 and 2/9 for elementary and on 1/15 and 2/11 for secondary.
e.     Election Dates for NVEA Officers: 
                        2-29-16 Nominations open, forms at meeting and online at nvea.org
                        318-16 Nominations closed
                        3-28-16 Candidates’ statements due
                        3-28-16 Nominations read at site rep meeting
                        4-25-16 Ballots out
                        5-13-16 Ballots return, Election Committee counts ballots
f.      December Site Rep Meeting:  Rep Council voted to cancel the December 14th meeting due to how closely the date falls to today’s meeting; not much new information would be available to pass along.
  1. First Vice President/Chief Negotiator—Gayle Young: 
  2. Negotiations:   Stipends committee met and is reviewing the different stipends that different levels offer (elementary & secondary).  Salary Schedule committee is waiting on information from HR.  Evaluation committee is meeting tomorrow and reviewing various formats that other districts use.  Workload committee is continuing to gather responses to the survey that went out; so far 705 teachers have responded.  In response to concerns about anonymity, the committee will be cognizant of what information gets turned over to the district so that teachers cannot be identified by any of the descriptors that were part of the survey (i.e. site, years in the district, etc.).
  3. Membership:  Gayle has CTA cards for various teachers but does not know what sites they are at.  Contact her if you have teachers at your site who are still missing their CTA cards.
  4. Directors-At-Large: 
  5. Elementary—Laura Zinser:  Read Across America committee is discussing bringing community members in to read and inviting high school students to go back to their elementary schools to read.
  6. Middle—John Burns, Benefits:  No report.
c.     High:  Still need someone for this position.
  1. Director of Human Rights—Mary Duenow:  No report at this time.
  2. State Council—Patty Wyman:  No report.
  3. Director of Communications—Mike Willmarth:  No report.
  4. CTA Update—Diana Lisi:  No report.
  5. Jerry Eaton—CTA Board of Directors:  Jerry came to speak about CTA’s One-on-One Conversations campaign which was inspired by Marshall Ganz who spoke at the last State Council gathering about the power of organizing through sharing our personal stories.  Idea is to share our personal stories (with regard to teaching—i.e. how you got into teaching, your first year experience, etc.) with each other as a means of relating to others/making connections with others to help strengthen our association.  That would then evolve into sharing our collective story as a district of teachers with others in the community.  Jerry shared his story as an example.  Site reps are encouraged to think about their personal stories and will have an opportunity to share them with other reps at the next Site Rep meeting in January.  Then reps will be encouraged to have these kinds of conversations with teachers at their sites, as well as encourage teachers to have these conversations with each other.
 
Meeting Adjourned at 5:00 PM
Next Meeting:  January 25, 2016
 
Ginger Dunne
NVEA Secretary