Union-busting alert!
Many of you have received emails from “Opt Out Today.” These emails are coming from The Freedom Foundation, a national network that wants to weaken unions because we provide the best opportunity to level the economic playing field for all educators and our public schools. The extremist group, funded by out-of-state billionaires, like the Koch brothers and Betsy Devos, want to bankrupt and undermine unions. They portray themselves as pro-worker or pro-education, but the truth is they oppose most of the things we believe in: smaller class sizes, better pay for educators, fully funded public schools, and the ability to negotiate with our employers.
This group, and others like it, want educators to drop your membership to JCEA, CEA, and NEA. The Freedom Foundation’s tactics include sending anti-union mailers and emails as well as showing up at union members’ homes with misleading information to encourage us to drop our membership. This is because when educators, like you, are united, our collective voice achieves powerful results for our students and ourselves.
The best way to stop these emails from coming into our District is to have each person block/unsubscribe via the link at the bottom of the emails, and mark them as spam.
JCEA educators need to remain unified and strong. Together we have the power to improve and protect our rights, workload, and to fight for the best interests of our students. That is why we must educate every one of our members about the value of our collective power and the real motivations of these groups.
New Contract
The JCEA contract has been ratified by membership and the Board of Education, and is now in effect. The new contract is live on our website. Use the link below to read your new contract (which is always linked on the home page of our website).
This new contract includes big wins, such as:
- Additional non-contact days for educator directed planning time;
- Additional planning time for SPED educators and caseload guidelines in the contract;
- A stipend for all SPED and Dual Language providers;
- A new, competitive stipend schedule for activity sponsors and athletic coaches;
- New sick leave bank language which will only require educators to opt in once (unless the bank goes below 12,000 hours);
And an increase of 5% to the salary schedule and a 2% one-time payment for all educators!
Remember – you will not see your step and COLA reflected in your paycheck until September 30. If you have any questions about your contract, talk to your AR.
JCEA Contract