Work Space Readiness
Before students arrive, all educators are encouraged to use this tool to assess whether their work space meets or exceeds the agreed upon health and safety protocols and standards. Some questions on the tool are specific to an individual educator’s work spaces, many of the other questions are about the preparedness of the entire building.
If anything is unclear or missing (as noted on the tool), educators must ALSO send a message directly to the Building Safety Committee (which includes the COVID Site Supervisor). This tool gives educators the knowledge of their rights as well as the wording to lift up any concerns.
The administrator or COVID Site Supervisor should respond within 48 hours with:
(1) what the solution or remedy may be,
(2) when it will be addressed, and
(3) who will address the problem.
If educators do not receive a timely response or the administrator’s response is missing any of the three aforementioned details, they should notify their AR via email to document the issue. It is also critical that the AR loop in the SEA UniServ Director.
From the Bargaining Table
SEA’s secondary bargaining team continues to meet with SPS to negotiate the secondary instructional model. The secondary team is doing their best to develop a model that minimizes the disruption to class schedules, is sustainable, meets social/emotional/academic needs of all students (in-person and remote), centers equity, while also meeting the requirements of the governor’s proclamation. The proclamation requires all schools offer at least 30% of the average weekly instructional hours in-person to all students and offer in-person time at least two partial days per week. We have been in discussions with Superintendent Reykdal to better understand the parameters in which we are negotiating the instructional model.
Our bargaining team believes we can reach a tentative agreement (TA) with SPS this week. Upon reaching a TA, we would disseminate the TA to members so that everyone has time to read and process proposed changes before ratification. We will continue to keep members updated as best as we can with our progress at the table. Please send questions to sea@washingtonea.org.
Building Safety Committee Elections
Every building should be holding a Building Safety Committee election if they have not already. A Building Safety Committee election is like a BLT or AR election. The AR (or another SEA member conducting the election) emails the staff that there are X number of seats open to the election (in addition to the Covid Site Supervisor and custodian). In the same email, the AR should ask for nominations and give a date for when nominations close.
At a minimum, the Building Safety Committee should include:
- 1 SAEOP
- 1 paraprofessional
- 1 cert non-supervisory employee
- 1 nurse (when available)
Buildings can choose to increase the size of the committee. However, buildings should not eliminate the SAEOP or Para seats. Also, remember the total stipend of $2000 is divided equally among all SEA-represented members of the committee.
When the nomination time-period closes, the AR (or other SEA member conducting the election) should announce who has been nominated for each spot. If only 1 person is nominated for each spot, then by default they all have been elected and there is no need to hold an election. If more than 1 person is nominated for each spot, use an electronic balloting system such as Google forms or SurveyMonkey to conduct the election. Contact sea@washingtonea.org if you have questions.
Accommodation Requests
We have heard that many educators are still waiting to hear whether their accommodation request has been approved or not.
HR currently has hundreds of pending accommodation requests that are being evaluated by a couple people in HR. In the meantime, staff seeking accommodations to work remotely may continue to work remotely with the approval of their principal. We have heard from multiple Admin who are allowing members to do their trainings remotely from home until their accommodation is approved. Your Admin has the ability to do the same.
Read the Frequently Asked Questions document linked here to understand accommodations and leaves better.
