Oct. 7, 2009

ETHNIC MINORITY MEMERSHIP RECEPTION

Every year, Santa Clara County Service Center Council hosts the Ethnic Minority Reception which purpose is to outline the opportunities open to ethnic minority members for participation in local and statewide CTA leadership activities. All self-identified minority members should have received an invitation at their home address. Currently, there are about 200 ESTA members in this category.  It would be a larger number if more people updated their CTA information on the CTA website.  Usually, only around 5 ESTA members attend.  I would love for ESTA to double or even triple that number this year, so here is the information once again:

October 19, 2009 4-6 PM

Crowne Plaza

282 Almaden Blvd.

San Jose, CA 95113

RSVP to Andea Anderson by Oct. 12

aanderson@cta.org or 408 866-9494 ext. 10

By the way, Santa Clara County has 33 districts  that attend this event every year with the attendance usually around 80 people. Half of them local chapter officers and people who are already involved. I always attend, so I hope to see you there.  

NEWLY TENURED CLASS OF 2009

The Newly Tenured Teachers will join Ralph and me for dinner here at Mt. Hamilton CTA on October 28 from 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM.  We look forward to celebrating with you.  Please continue to RSVP to me by October 26.  There will be raffle prizes and gifts to all who attend besides a great meal, dessert, and drinks.  

SOCIAL EVENT:

TEACHERS WHO HAVE TAUGHT FIVE YEARS OR LESS

ESTA is one of eight chapters that make up Mt. Hamilton Council.  This year, for the first time, Mt. Hamilton Council is hosting a social event for teachers who have taught five years or less. This event will give teachers the opportunity to network with other teachers in our district and in the other 7 chapters.  This event will take place on October 29 from 3:45 PM – 6:00 PM at Britannia Arms in downtown San Jose.  For more information, email Yvonne Tran at yvonnetran12@gmail.com and she will let you know all the details.  I will attend this event, so I hope many of you will be able to attend.  If this event sounds like something the rest of the association would like to see ESTA do, let your representatives know and we can discuss it at the ESTA Assembly in November.   

THE STANDARD

OPEN ENROLLMENT

About 300 ESTA members are currently signed up for the Standard Disability Insurance. That is about 25% of our total membership, which is extremely low; especially since we have seen many members have serious illnesses recently that have prevented them from working past their accrued sick days.   

For the month of November, anyone who signs up for the Disability Insurance and will not be denied during this open enrollment period.  This is a great opportunity for someone who has been denied in the past, or currently has a serious health condition to sign up.  Also, it is always a good idea to sign up even if you are currently healthy.   

Women who are currently pregnant will not be denied and if you are thinking about starting a family, then this is definitely the time to sign up as well.  See your site President for an application.  I will make things easier by sending out the link for the online application beginning in November.  For additional questions, ask your Site President if there is going to be any site meetings with the Standard Representative.   

If you are not sure if you currently have the Standard Insurance, look at the bottom of your paycheck for the deduction.  If you signed up before the Standard took over, you were rolled over from the previous company, so there is no need to do anything.    

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

Once again, ESTA was well represented at the Region 1 Leadership Conference this year.  Each time, Mt. Hamilton Council pays for members to attend this very intense weekend of CTA training.  Also, for the second time, ESTA was awarded four Minority Scholarships.  Since I am on the committee for the conference, I was also able to attend. 

This year the following people attended: 

• Neil Wilson, Rosalind Taylor, ST
• Kathy Lair, YB
• Jack Hamner, OG
• Wendy Stegeman, Ben Castanos, AH
• Dixie Sinkovits, WCO
• Stephanie Mestaz, JL
• Rebecca Bravel, PH
• Irene Hashimoto, FH
• Bradley Hanson, EV
• Edward Youngblood, SC
• Rob Suhr, Peg.

STUDENT ENROLLMENT

Although some of our sites are over enrolled, as a district we are very close to projection.  See the data below, which is a summary of the enrollment data taken from the district on the first 20 days of school.   On the 20^th day, the district enrollment was 48 less than the previous school year, but it varied from day to day.  

In addition, here are the alternative education and Post Secondary sites. 

YOUR PAY STUBS

Last year, I sat in on three meetings where members were being overpaid.  Each of these members had to come up with a payment plan for reimbursing the district.  In a perfect world, this wouldn’t happen. If you think you are being overpaid, you probably are.  Especially, if you are someone who has lowered their FTE from the previous school year and is getting paid the same amount. Make sure your salary has gone down appropriately, because at some point it will catch up to you and having several thousand dollars to pay back the district can be very stressful.  

On the other hand, less people were underpaid than in the past this first payroll for 2009-2010.  So at least the district has made more progress than in previous years where several people were paid incorrectly on the first pay roll of the year.  

FREE 2 NEA MAGAZINES

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Once again NEA is offering two free magazine subscriptions to members.  The choices are limited, but it is free, so check out the website and see if you find something that interests you.  www.neamag.com/members  Also, you will find some of the other more well known magazines at a reduced cost to members on the website.  Look up your favorite magazine and you will be surprised at the low cost to NEA members.

WHAT CTA IS DOING FOR ESTA?

Last year CTA helped our association in many ways.  Here are just a few ways they have helped ESTA members directly:

• Paid most of the costs to the attorney for the 129 laid off teachers at the hearing.
• Covered attorney costs for members who were in need, due to issues that happened at their school sites.
• One member’s child received a CTA scholarship.
• One member received a Disaster Relief Fund assist, due to the member’s house burning down.
• Awarded four Minority Incentive scholarships to attend the Region 1 Leadership Conference.
• One Minority Incentive Grant for the Summer Institute.

CTA TIPS

On the CTA website, www.cta.org in the first column on the left,  there are many links to update members on the Swine Flu.  Take a few minutes to read over these important articles.  Many of the links will send you to the NEA website. Here are the names of a few of the articles that caught my eye:

1. Prepare for the Flu as you Head Back to School
2. Five Ways to a Cleaner, Healthy Classroom
3. 8 Ways You Can Stay Healthy at Work

Ask your Principal what is the plan in the event that there is a breakout at your site.  All Principals were at an in-service a few weeks ago and should have some answers.  

CERIDIAN/LIFEWORKS

EMPLOYEE ASSITANCE PROGRAM

Lifeworks offers: Face-to-face counseling for you and your dependents and also telephonic consultations by calling 1-877-510-0556. You can call them anytime, with counseling available for marital and family problems, alcohol dependency, relationship, emotion problems, stress and other issues you may want to discuss with them confidentially.  This service is purchased each year for each employee in the district.  Let this program help you feel better and don’t delay giving them a call.  For more information, you can go to the ESTA website, www.eastsideta.org and click on the documents folder, where the Ceridian Flyer is also available for you to view any day, anytime, whenever you find the need to give them a call.   

FACEBOOK

To join the ESTA Facebook group, do a search of East Side Teachers Association and request to join.  Only ESTA members can be part of this group and are approved by me directly.  Currently, the group has about 70 members.