Napa Valley EA Exec Board/Council Meeting
October 19, 2020 Minutes
​ 3:15 - 4:30 

Minutes


In attendance:  President - Gayle Young, Vice President - Mary Duenow, Secretary - Debbie Kmiec, Treasurer - Karen Fleming, Directors-At-Large: High School - Deb St. Clair, Middle - Sara Kvidahl-Schmitz, Elementary - Kristin Pruitt, Communication - Mike Wilmarth,  Human Rights/Chief Negotiator - Courtney Garcia, Political Action - Michael Alger, CTA Rep - Michelle Washington

  • Welcome 
    • Remember we have a level of confidentiality and it is important that we have one voice
 
  • Norms
    • Were reviewed and additional norms added as appropriate

  • Budget
    • Main budget is kept on desktop computer in NVEA office
    • Identified items that we overspent on and underspent on looking at differences
    • Left items budgeted even though we may not use them.
    • Increased school board relations since we have 3 possibly 4 new school board members, member engagement, legal and accounting fees (our accountant has retired, he agreed to keep us, but he is not well)
    • Will be presented to site reps monday, 10/26/20 to be voted on at the November site rep meeting
    • IFT grant - we hold the funds and we reimburse when receipts are provided

  • District Update
    • Over contract #’s MOU
      • Doesn’t mean they are putting 20 kids in a classroom.  Larger classes do not have caps on them (PE, music, band, etc).  They want to put caps on the larger classes, but they aren’t in place yet
      • Elementary both principals and teachers wanting the ability 
      • People are being moved around due to COVID
      • Before they put 42 in a class, they cap it at 36 kids and then talk to the teacher
    • What worked / what didn’t with Phase 2
      • Good to see where we started and where we ended with negotiations so our members can see that we just didn’t give in to the district
      • Need to continue working on the format, less is more, bulleted points, bold, etc.

  • Phase 3
    • Will be another challenge
    • Napa county goes into the orange tomorrow and we are much more healthy than our sonoma purple neighbors and our red neighbors
    • More pressure for us to move into phase 3, future is unpredictable
    • Phase 3 shows we are going full time 5 days a week
    • Want to continue to have additional time on wednesdays with 1-6 in the am through phase 3

  • The Elephant in the Room
    • Responded to petitions and requests about site reps and private emails is important 
    • We received 4 different petitions (VHS, ACHS, Redwood, Harvest) and the original letter sent from Joey Schmidt asking for petitions be sent to us that the Exec board is not doing what we are supposed to be doing and that MOU’s be voted on.  
    • A portion of our bylaws were taken around voting and MOU’s, Jerry Eaton did a video explaining the reasoning behind why we don’t vote on MOU’s
    • Appears that the goal is to stir up fears amongst our membership and that the current leaders aren’t doing their jobs, adding more stress.
    • Wildcat strikes are illegal and disciplinary consequences could be very severe to include dismissal
    • People who feel they aren’t being heard definitely need to come forward.
    • Language in the bylaws needs to be clarified
    • If there was truly a concern around what NVEA leadership is doing more of our members would have attended the question and answer sessions with Jerry Eaton.
    • The quiet majority are appreciative of what we are doing
    • Overall we need to educate our members and site reps
    • What is discussed in the Exec board and council affects us as well since the decision being made are for “us” we are teachers and have our own kids attending NVUSD schools.

  • Survey Results - 401 responses (little less than 50%) 840 members
    • Gayle is sending spreadsheet per school to site reps with the instruction to share with their principals
    • Purely anonymous no emails were collected
    • Site reps will be required to share the date they meet with their site members to share the results
    • By Site (How they will be used)
    • By home/school (info point)
    • By concern (How they will be shared)
    • Friday, 10/30/20 suggested we send out a survey after our first week asking what top three concerns that they still have and what went well.
    • Look through schedule, safety and instruction portions of the survey

  • October Check-in Doc for Site Reps - going out in the morning of 10/20/20
    • Changing the narrative - wanting to focus more on positive things happening so it doesn’t seem we are always in trauma
    • Date of whole site meeting and date site reps are meeting with principals to share concerns
    • Any communication sent to site reps needs to be share with Gayle so we don’t violate the use of the district email server
    • Questions and comments need to be done at the end of the meeting

  • Leveled Break-Out rooms to share site concerns and review the reporting process.

Next Site Rep Meeting:  October 26, 2020
Next Meeting: November 16, 2020