Your CSEA bargaining team worked hard to secure a contract and ensure protections for the members of Chapter 821. However, the chapter membership spoke clearly with their decision not to ratify the new collective bargaining agreement. We will listen to your concerns and go back to the bargaining table to secure a new deal that addresses those concerns.

We have already scheduled bargaining dates on June 6th and June 14th to get to work on this right away.

The looming possibility of the district being put into a county or state trusteeship means it is urgent we secure a contract to protect ourselves from likely budget cuts, furloughs or even layoffs. The team’s goals are to protect the rights and responsibilities in our contract while working on the identified issues brought forth by the membership. Again, we must secure a new contract before the district is placed under administratorship to lessen threats to our jobs.

The county and state are investigating the district due to years of mismanagement and corruption by administration and school board members, which has harmed our members, our colleagues and our students. Throughout this sad period in our district’s long history, the leaders of our district lost sight of our common purpose: to give our students the best education possible. Unfortunately, the former leaders of this chapter allowed themselves to be caught up in this corruption, which is why our state Board of Directors placed us under CSEA administratorship on November 9, 2021.

Since being placed under CSEA administratorship, your chapter has fought hard to provide the membership with the best representation possible. During the first year of administratorship, your CSEA Delta Valley Chapter #821 took the following steps to defend and protect the rights of bargaining unit members:

• Secured an MOU to provide out of class pay for contact tracers
   
• Secured a four percent raise and four percent bonus
   
• Filed over six unfair practice charges against the district for violating various laws including bad faith bargaining, transfer of bargaining unit work, retaliation against CSEA members and other charges
   
• Endorsed and elected four new board members to the SUSD Board
   
• Filed grievances to defend against District violations of the contract
   
• Defended members against unfair disciplines

Throughout all of this, your CSEA Chapter has been forced to deal with an unstable District with serious management problems. Nevertheless, we have persevered and won protections and benefits for the members of our chapter. That effort will not stop.

We will keep you updated as negotiations proceed and we thank you for being active members engaged in your chapter.