November 2023 Update
Greetings and salutations, fellow LCEA members -
I am a site Representative at YES, and my meeting notes are geared towards the members at my site, but LCEA President De La Torre asked me to share them here.
Headlines:
SB231 update: At the October board meeting, the Lyon CSD School board voted for a flat rate distribution - which goes against the percentage based plan (about 5.4%) that was discussed as part of our contract negotiations, and the language and intent of the Bill. LCEA is contesting this decision.
SB231 runs until July 31 2025, unless reauthorized by the legislature.
LCEA dues increase: Since the state and national organizations raised the amount they take from our dues money, we are currently losing money on dues each month. In September, we faced an increased dues amount of $7.76 more per month to NEA, NSEA and UCN. This was more than the $6.59 that LCEA was collecting from our $62 dues.
UCN was $1.00 and is now $1.25
NEA dues were $14.83 and is now $17.33
NSEA dues were $37.33 now $42.09
TIP was $2.00 and is now $2.50
We voted to defer a dues increase until January - when SB231 money is supposed to start being added to paychecks, borrowing from our savings until that time. After discussion, we voted to raise our dues from $62/mo to $73/mo at that time. Reasons included repaying our savings for the money currently being lost by not being able to cover the new UCN, NEA, NSEA, and TIP rates, wanting to build up our savings, and wanting to be in a position where an increase by the state and national organizations will not put us into a similar negative income situation next fall.
If you have opted for additional union related deductions from your paycheck - TIP, PIC, etc.- and want to stop making those additional, voluntary, payments, due to the dues increase, fill out an enrollment form (your rep should have them) write "Update Deductions" at the top, and make sure to zero out the deduction spaces.
Retro Pay - We are looking into whether the new pay scale was supposed to be reflected in July checks (which would make sense, since that is “pay period one”), or starting in August (as appears to have been done).
Upcoming:
"Know Your Contract" training will be held next Wednesday (1 Nov) at 4:30 in the SSHS Library, and online. All members are encouraged to attend. - Note that this meeting has already passed. It was very informative, even though there were some technical obstacles, due to internet issues. There is a video available - ask your rep about getting access.
Our next Insurance meeting will be held on Thurs, Nov 16th at 4pm in the Link building in SS. All members are invited to attend. This is our chance to have input into what insurance plans the district provides for employees, and should be a high priority for those members concerned with healthcare costs and services.
Other news:
Elections: Anna Brueher (SSHS) will be our new LCEA Secretrary, filling the vacancy for that position. There is still a vacancy for Vice President.
Joseph D. Baptist (YES) was elected as an additional representative to go to our state conferences for the next two years.
There is a vacancy for an additional representative to go to the national conferences.
Jamie Scherer (DHS) was elected to be our new treatsurer at the September meeting.
Be aware that there is at least one group in our district that is attempting to control what books are available in school and classroom libraries.
It was clarified that there is not really a program in our district for official preference for internal applicants for positions, just the ability to submit your application a couple of days earlier.
Reminder:
Please let your site representative know about any questions or concerns you may have.
The next LyonCSD Board Meeting is on Tuesday November 21st, at YES.
Our next LCEA meeting is on Wednesday November 29th from 4:30-6:30 at the SSHS Library, or on Zoom. As always, all members are invited to attend.
In other news, I have been asked to help keep the website updated. This is not something that I have any experience with, and it would be great to have assistance from members who have website experience. You can contact me at mr.j.baptist@gmail.com .
Conference reminder - according to the contract, you are supposed to get ‘time for time’ when you put in extra hours for conferences.
