Virtual Town Hall Meeting

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[2] Mark Triplett: Good evening, everyone. We're going to take a minute for everyone to enter the zoom and then we'll get started. Welcome to everyone. Good evening. I see we have about 170 people on the call. We'll let some more folks come in and then we'll get started. Welcome to everybody. Good evening. Looks like we have about 206 people on so far. We'll wait about 30 more seconds and then we'll get started. All right, we're at 702. Want to honor everyone's time. Looks like we have about 218 people on the call. So I think we'll go ahead and get started. Welcome to everyone. My name is Mark Triplett. I'm the superintendent. We appreciate you all being here tonight. I'm going to share my screen and we'll jump into the presentation. All right, so this evening, we're calling everybody together for this virtual town hall regarding reopening and we wanted to provide a reopening update. And we actually, to be honest, intended a very different presentation this evening than the one that we're going to give, but wanted to make sure that we provided an update as to the most recent events and information regarding our reopening plan. So we're going to do a welcome. We'll talk a little bit about the criteria for reopening and to in-person learning. Wanted to go through the bargaining process with you that has occurred in this year with our labor partners, a little history and background, and then our next steps and what's coming up. So, like I said, I had anticipated a different presentation this evening. This one actually will be quite brief. Unfortunately, we have some news to share that is not what we had hoped. So to start off, just wanted to talk a little bit about the criteria for opening and the criteria timeline. So in order for districts to reopen during the pandemic, had to fulfill certain criteria. One is that needed to be in the red tier, which we entered on March 10th. As of yesterday, we actually entered the orange tier, which was really good news. also have to have a reopening plan which we prepared and that needed to be approved by the county public health and the office of education of county office of education we drafted we created a plan we submitted it it was approved by by the county back in the end of december early january Also requirement from the state was to submit a COVID-19 safety plan or CSP made up a number of different components. And that needs to be posted five days on the website prior to reopening. And we were on target to do that. We completed that plan and intending on posting it. And then lastly, and arguably most importantly, is we are required to have agreements with our labor partners. We have one of our labor partners is CSCA, that is the Classified Staff Labor Partner, and we did reach an agreement with them, an MOU, Memorandum of Understanding, And then the final thing on our criteria to complete was an agreement with NTA, our teachers and credential staff labor organization. So part of the bargaining process that we've been undergoing with NTA is we really, both sides tried very hard to reach an agreement. It was the labor partner, The sorry I'm getting distracted by some things coming up on my screen. Both parties come to the table, teachers special ed representative teachers, teachers of elementary school secondary school. NTA president and a regional labor representative from one side. And then from the other side, we had on our negotiating team, the HR managers, the NUSD executive director of human resources, elementary and secondary school principals, our NUSD director of teaching and learning, as well as our legal team. The two parties discuss in a give and take manner the different aspects of an agreement and concerns that are being raised and the needs from both sides. Both negotiating teams reach a mutual agreement after negotiating. And once both teams reach this agreement, they endorse what's called a tentative agreement. And it's tentative because both sides have said we agree on this memorandum, but it still requires the larger teacher membership to vote and ratify. And so that's why it's tentative. We went through this process with our NTA partners. We met over 20 times this year throughout months and months, considerable work on both sides. Both parties bargained in good faith and it was difficult but productive. On March 26th, we reached a tentative agreement between NTA and NUSD. At that point, the agreement needed to go to the NTA membership to vote and unfortunately I'm very disappointed and and and sad honestly that we had the the NTA membership had a vote yesterday and today there was 239 of their members voted that was approximately 81% of their membership and, as you can see on this. Unfortunately, the membership voted not to approve the tentative agreement and not to again voted no on reopening to in person learning and this mo you. 55.6% of those that voted, voted no. 38.9% voted yes. And you can see a smaller number abstained from the vote. So like I said, this is very disappointing. We're really concerned and at the same time continue to be absolutely committed to reaching an agreement with NTA. And we are eager to go back to the bargaining table immediately to address any concerns that the membership continues to have. So some of the concerns cited by NTA this afternoon in their response when they shared the vote, you see here. And to be honest, we believe that we had addressed all of these concerns in negotiations. And then you can see below, there were a couple of concerns that were listed by NTA that did not actually come up in negotiations. And so we're surprised by this. However, we are committed to going back to the table, like I said, and addressing and readdressing any and all of these concerns one by one. So we're ready and willing and we are deeply committed to getting students back into our classrooms and returning to in-person instruction, which continues to be our top priority. One of the quote from the NTA response was, which I appreciated, was, make no mistake, NTA members want to be with their students. That is absolutely what we want as well. We absolutely agree with that statement, and we are eager to return to negotiations ASAP. So our next steps, as soon as NTA is ready to do so, we hope that both teams can return to the bargaining table with a focus on helping students get the opportunity that we know they need to engage in in-person learning. And we're committed to addressing all of the issues that were surfaced and negotiating them one by one. So NTA is committed to continuing to provide transparent communication to you, families. As you know, we've held town halls throughout this year, giving you updates on progress. We also have communicated out after negotiations, a summary of the status of negotiations, and we will continue to do that as well. And I am very hopeful and optimistic that if we can get back to the table immediately, that we can rectify this and that we can hopefully get our students back to in-person learning as quickly as possible. So that is my very brief presentation. And because we're not in a position to share out the additional plans at this point for returning, like I said, we had intended to share out plans this evening with you of schedules and what it would look like to return after spring break. However, given the situation, we are intending to go immediately back to the negotiation table with NTA so that we can find resolution and be able to come back to you with some better news. The reason we held the town hall tonight and was because the tentative agreement set forth a return on April 14. And my commitment to this community was that we would notify the community two weeks in advance of any return to in-person learning and be able to share all of the details with you two weeks prior to returning to in-person learning. So I want to continue to uphold that commitment. And as soon as we have a new tentative agreement and have reached conclusion, then we will again communicate with you all of the plans for returning. So again, I apologize that I don't have better news for the community tonight, but I hope to have more news soon. And thank you very much and wish you all a good night.

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