Greetings!
Today we requested the intervention of the California State Mediation and Conciliation Services to help Sac City teachers finalize an agreement over distance learning with the Sacramento City Unified School District. Schools are scheduled to open Sept 3.
The current impasse follows 20 bargaining sessions with district representatives. In addition, there were 11 additional work group meetings between SCTA and the District, including teachers from Elementary, Secondary, Career Technical, Special Education, Music, Physical Education, School Nurses and Child Development.
To date neither Superintendent Jorge Aguilar or board president Jessie Ryan has participated in any of the talks.
In order to avoid the same pitfalls experienced in the spring when SCUSD unilaterally implemented its plan, and when many Sac City students felt disengaged and unmotivated by the District’s abrupt and largely unplanned shift to virtual learning, SCTA members spent the summer developing proposals on how to make a return to virtual learning a better experience for students.
The union’s proposal was developed by more than 200 Sacramento classroom teachers with additional input from more than 1,000 educators with distance-learning teaching experience, and considerable input from parents and students. In stark contrast, according to the District, two administrators with no direct experience teaching online, developed the plan presented by the district.
Major areas of disagreement between the union and district administrators are summarized in the chart below:
