October 27, 2017
The Gateway to Extraordinary Possibilities
2017 Bargaining Cycle Begins with Positive Collaboration
Collaboration - Business concept with light bulb and text on black background
We are pleased to announce a successful start to collective bargaining with the Washington Teachers Association (WTA). Our current agreement sunsets on June 30, 2018, and our goal is to renew that agreement prior to that date. 

The first negotiations meeting was held on Monday, October 23, 2017 bringing together teachers, principals, and administrators guided by an outside facilitator.

Both teams have been trained and have agreed on Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) to be the foundation of this year’s cycle and hopeful that it will yield a speedy and amicable outcome.

While traditional bargaining is based on the passing of proposals that are based on a fixed position, IBB focuses on the mutual development of agreements based on the interests of both parties.

The first meeting was indeed productive and generated positive momentum moving forward. Collaborative discussion was had to establish ground rules, agree on logistics, and conduct preliminary discussions about the issues to be resolved through negotiations. The next scheduled meeting date is Friday, November 17, 2017 covering the following agenda items:

  1. Check-in
  2. Outstanding Issues
  3. Review notes from ‘sharing of articles’
  4. Articles 3,23 & impact of Assembly Bill (AB) 119 (Review AB 119, current practice, and generating options to address items not currently in the contract)
  5. Process check 
  6. Next steps
  7. Present technical revision proposals
  8. Build agenda for next session
District Highlights
College Gear Day—are excited to announce College Gear Day is launching on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 for all WUSD employees. In an effort to promote a college and career environment, we are asking all employees to wear college gear on the first Wednesday of each month and it just so happens that our District Collaboration Day falls on our launch day! We will be rolling out College Gear Day in two phases, with the first one starting with district employees on November 1st and the second one including employees and Tk-12 students on December 6th.

This is a great opportunity for your staff to wear their college gear, their children's or family member's college gear, their favorite college team, their favorite college colors, or their favorite student's college shirt. During the month of November, we are asking our community to help build momentum as we move towards including TK-12 students in our monthly College Gear Day by promoting it at all school sites. 

And in the spirit fun competition, schools with the highest percentage of students and staff wearing gear will win the soon-to-be coveted College Gear Day Trophy! Schools will hold the trophy for the entire month and will then pass it along to the next school that wins the following month. #Great2bWUSD
Flood Preparedness Week—On October 25th Stonegate Elementary hosted a press conference to celebrate the 2017 California Flood Preparedness Week. (View photos)

West Sac Flood Protect is the city-wide agency committed to keeping families safe from flooding through levee improvements and flood risk reduction.

To keep residents, families, business owners and students informed about flood risk, West Sac Flood Protect will participate in 2017 California Flood Preparedness Week starting October 23.

Red Ribbon Week—On October 30th, we will be hosting our California State Senate Representative, Senator Dr. Richard Pan!

Senator Pan will be visiting Elkhorn Village Elementary School during the 2017 Red Ribbon Week to speak with students about the importance of healthy lifestyle choices.

The school is organizing an assembly in the cafeteria with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders giving Senator Pan the opportunity to speak to the students and pass out related materials.
Homecoming—We kicked off October with a new community event, for the first time ever in our district, all our K-8 elementary schools were invited to participate in a Parade of Mascots during the River City High School (RCHS) freshman football homecoming game on Thursday, October 5th.

Each school was represented by a group of students, staff and yes, their mascot too, as they walked through the players’ tunnel, and were recognized at midfield in front of a packed house during halftime. Check out some of action in this brief video montage
Code for HoodTeachers of students between the ages of 12-17 are invited to participate in the Code for Hood Hackathon on November 3-5 (weekend) at the West Sacramento Community Center. 
 
Information about the Washington Unified sponsored event can be found on the Technology Department Parents section .

All Charities Raffle—On Saturday, October 21st the West Sacramento Foundation is hosted its annual All Charities Raffle benefiting all non-profits that serve the West Sacramento community. Participating groups sell raffle tickets for $10 each and earn $9 for each ticket sold. The remaining $1 goes back to the Foundation to cover costs and help build next year's grant pool.

This year the WUSD was represented by several schools and school groups receiving a generous amount prize money totaling nearly $20,000! We would like to extend our gratitude to our amazing community partners at the West Sacramento Foundation. THANK YOU!
eFlyersThe WUSD works regularly with a number of community groups and outside organizations to distribute materials district-wide. Beginning with the 2017-18 school year, the WUSD is transitioning to a new electronic method for flyer distribution using a program called   Peachjar .

Peachjar eFlyers streamline the flyer review and distribution process allowing community organizations that work with to deliver information through email and online postings via the district and school websites. Find out more here.
InformedK12—The WUSD Human Resources Department is excited to launch Informed K12, a paperless form system. Over time, many of our day-to-day forms will transition to an electronic format. Our intent is to build efficiency of time, accuracy, consistency, resources, and accountability through the use of this electronic forms and form routing technology platform.

The Human Resources Department has also developed a hard copy Employee Handbook which was delivered to each school site and department in October. This handbook contains a number of different employees guidelines, regulations, and annual notifications required by Board Policy.
CalRTAWe'd like to share with our teachers an opportunity made available each year by our friends at the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA). If you are interested please click on the link to the 30-sec application: http://s.heyo.com/06f2a8 . There are no strings attached!
 
Deadline to register is November 7th, then CalRTA will randomly select 25 teachers and notify you via email. If you have any questions about this or anything related to CalRTA please contact them directly at outreach@calrta.org . Thank you and good luck! 
 
CalRTA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CalRTA/
 
CalRTA website: www.calrta.org
The mission of the Washington Unified School District, THE GATEWAY TO EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBILITIES , is to challenge and support each student to develop effective critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills as a life-long learner acting in an ethical manner to serve a broader community through a community of learners characterized by:
  • Engaging learning experiences in safe, positive environments;
  • Highly-qualified, reflective and adaptive educators;
  • A culture of innovation responsive to student needs and aspirations;
  • A community promoting family involvement, strong partnerships, and school pride.
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