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Preuss Bargaining Update June 4 2020

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Preuss Bargaining Update

June 4th, 2020

 

Bargained on Thursday, May 28th with UC from 4-7:45pm

Over 20 members observed the session.

UC-AFT passed our full proposal focusing on coming to agreement around three articles all having to do with academic professionalism and the professional workday.

We fought hard around:

  • The need to maintain the current collegial culture of Preuss by maintaining teacher oversight and discretion over prep periods.
  • Creating a process around partial leaves that allows teachers to coordinate coverage and notify the Principal’s Secretary--in line with current practice and practice in surrounding districts (standard for the profession).
  • Capping the Special Ed caseload at 20 students--in line with current practice at SDUSD where there were significant legal issues that forced the district to create the lower cap.
  • Maintaining and protecting existing prep and class coverage for duties that support the Preuss mission and curriculum.
  • Maintaining an evaluation process that keeps the following levels -Distinguished, Proficient, Meets Standards or Does Not Meet Standards.
  • UC’s attempt to assign teachers to take on additional work assignments (Extended Day Pay) outside of their contracts--unheard of in the K-12 universe.
  • Salary gains based on current budget numbers that are conservative but will support our most senior teachers who need an increase after years without one.
  • UC has stated they have no intention of improving our salary scale. We learned that the state will be bridging the budget shortfall gap and fully funding public education: https://www.10news.com/news/california-lawmakers-agree-to-close-54-3-billion-budget-gap

 

UC-AFT received over 80 responses from teachers, students and parents in support of our efforts to bargain a fair contract. We also received a letter of support from Scott Barton, retired Preuss Principal.

After over a year of bargaining and 4 months out of contract, our community is disappointed in the way UC is trying to undermine the success of our school by changing our collegial culture.

In this moment, we also want to remember that UC's response to affirmative action (prop 209) 20 years ago was the Preuss School; UC's response to educational equity 20 years ago was the Preuss School.

Our teachers support their students in ways that traditional district schools do not--they dedicate their lives to the work of educational equity and the Preuss mission--that their rigorous curriculum can support students traditionally marginalized from higher education and get them into the best schools in the nation.

 

"The effort to establish an on-campus secondary charter school dedicated to preparing low-income students of color for college took place amid the idyllic and polysyllabic polite parlance of a public research university. This local debate is an aspect of the broader national debate over race, class and privilege." -Cecil Lytle, Founder of The Preuss School

Preuss is the #1 ranked school in San Diego County--so, why mess with success? Our culture is what makes us #1.