President's Update December 17, 2025

Happy Almost Winter Break TEA - 

You are almost there – the light at the end of the tunnel for one portion of the year – Winter break is almost upon us. We have reached the point in the year when the days are shorter with sun, but they seem longer and more stretched out with teaching and with our job. And through it all, every one of you keeps showing up—teaching, guiding, laughing, comforting, and holding entire worlds together with patience and heart. You’re not just overworked—you’re carrying the weight of a system that keeps asking for miracles without offering enough in return. And yet, you still deliver them. That’s what makes you extraordinary. Let’s say it plainly: you are overworked, underappreciated, and yet utterly irreplaceable. You’re the heartbeat of this district. Every lesson, every gentle redirection, every moment of connection is what keeps our schools running—not the policies, not the programs. You. As your union, we see you, and we thank you for the heart and caring you put into each and every day! We hear your exhaustion, your creativity, your quiet victories, and your justified frustration. You deserve better. You deserve balance, trust, and the respect that comes with the impossible work you do every single day. So please—during our winter break - take a breath. Take care of yourself with the same fierce love you give your students. Rest, relax and find your own happiness not tied to anything work related. Spend time with those that you love, or by yourself and just - remember that you are the most important thing and that each of you is loved, appreciated and making a difference daily! 

Here’s the latest from TEA:  

HEALTH AND WELFARE VOTE - Passed with 326 people voting and 92.9% of those that voted favoring the agreement. This agreement:

•  The district will increase its insurance cap by $1,000, bringing the total contribution to $13,500 per employee.
• Employees across all bargaining groups (not just TEA) will share an increase in costs to help stabilize the plan and preserve coverage quality.
•  TUSD will cover the remaining unfunded premium increase with a one-time district contribution for the 2026 plan year, estimated at approximately $830,990.
• Changes to our insurance plan will take effect on January 1, 2026. 
• You should have already had your insurance appointment through TUSD to transfer into Cigna and to choose/ sign up with their plans. If there are any issues, or if you have not had that opportunity, please contact Wendy Dever, and the TEA office, to let us know and to see how we can help expedite any needs you may have. 
• Watch your email for any updates (like the one that came out yesterday about dependents) and your mail for paperwork as we transition into the new carrier. 

BARGAINING

• We also will continue to discuss the following: 
  • Compensation - while some of the money normally used for compensation went to our changes in health care (the thousand dollars increase to the insurance cap) there are still financial items TEA and TUSD will be discussing - including compensation. While TEA understands that the economy is affecting everyone and belts are having to be tightened, we also are working with TUSD in regard to what COLA (and the declining enrollment effect on COLA) was for the year vs. all that we have listed for compensation. 
    • Compensation includes every item that involves ongoing money including: any stipends, raises, additional compensation for meetings etc. The areas for stipend were taken directly from all input received through our Rep Council meetings and our Interactive Bargaining Survey's from last Spring. All of those suggestions and requests made to TEA are brought forward as possibilities and interests. Those will then become part of the total compensation discussion moving forward. 
    • TEA’s Executive Board holds firm that we will not entertain money off schedule (one time money) but ONLY ON SCHEDULE (applied to your step and column of pay) because that is ongoing and benefits all members equally. We agree that having money off schedule is fun - like cotton candy money - but also equates to being that much of a pay decrease the next year, we would prefer everything being applied so that it is ongoing and being applied long term to income and retirement accounts. 
  • Working Conditions - 
    • Working conditions covers anything and everything as it pertains to your classroom conditions to safety on site. We have ongoing discussions around working conditions, but we also have pulled suggestions from our surveys last year that we will be bringing forward.  
  • All Aspects of our Contract - especially as it pertains to cleaning up of language, grammar etc. With the whole contract open that means we also have to take a look at how articles are stated, where we have language that needs to be brought into this era, items that need to be corrected, as well as any other item brought to us that is contracted related. 

· PROP 55 EXTENSION - SIGNATURES PETITIONS COMING AROUND - 

• You should have already started seeing this or have heard from your site reps that this is happening. Some of you have even already signed! We are gathering signatures to get the extension of Prop 55 on the 2026 ballot. 
• California’s school funding has always been fragile. But during 2009 to 2013, our schools were pushed into the worst funding crisis in modern state history.
• Signing this petition is a bipartisan action and does not any endorse either side of the aisle or any parties ideas- it is not even a promise of how you will vote - SIGNING - IS ONLY TO GET THE MEASURE ONTO THE BALLOT SO THE VOTERS OF THE STATE MAY DECIDE IF THEY WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE WITH THE TAX. With Union membership we sometimes make requests of you, but the easiest thing you can do is sign your name on something that allows us to put on the ballot a chance to keep funding at the levels it is now. 
• This is not a new tax and even on the ballot it would only ask voters to extend the CURRENT tax on couples who make over $700,000 a year or singles who make over $300,000. 
• The reality is that If Prop 55 is not extended, California will return to the nightmare we lived through 2009-2013 — but worse. The state is already warning that one in every six teachers will be laid off. Class-size caps won’t protect us. School-year length won’t protect us. Even our paychecks won’t be guaranteed, there is no protection when the state does not have money and we are not assured funds beyond the basics. 
• Many of us lived through it. If you were here, you remember the pink slips, the chaos, the overcrowded classrooms, and the loss of programs. If you weren’t here yet, find someone who did live through it so they can give you their testimonial- that time was something we can’t go back to -  the pink slips. The fear. The programs that vanished overnight. The classrooms that went from 20:1 increased to state wide cap levels and became packed so full you could almost feel the oxygen disappear. We had the state giving approval to districts to impose unpaid days and reduction of the school year (which is a reduction of pay) and you may remember friends who turned to enemies once seniority lists were handed out and it was job against job for who was coming back. 
  • In Tustin back in 2009, TUSD issued 117 teacher layoff notices, pitted teacher against teacher with seniority lists and hearings around those cuts and went 5-6 years back in seniority when looking to cut teaching positions. We cut sports, cut transportation, delayed school openings (delaying the completion of Orchard Hills), and ballooned class sizes. We took unpaid (furlough) days and we were luckier than some of the districts that surround us. That was with less financial pressure than what we’d face now without Prop 55. Alone.
•  IF…When it is on the ballot - it would simply be an extension of what voters already approved - TWICE. First as prop 30 - two years after the hardest of times from the last recession, and then by a larger margin as prop 55. It takes just one signature — yours — to help get this measure on the ballot. Please sign, and help protect our students, our schools, and the profession we love. 
• If you would like to learn more:
  • Here is a Slide Show that reps were presented with information.
  • CTA ARTICLE  
  • CTA ARTICLE FROM THE EDUCATOR
  • EDSOURCE ARTICLE
• Every signature we collect is a step toward protecting our jobs, our students' future, and the forward movement of education in California. 

• TEACHERS AND THE LAW- Laws passed in 2025 and recently signed at the end of the last legislative session that will be helpful to know and pertain to our classroom. There are a few examples below, but for deeper explanations and even more bills - here is an Article with many of them listed.  CLICK HERE

  • Special education: resource specialists: special classes AB 560 - Requires local educational agencies to take all reasonable steps to distribute the workload associated with initial assessments across all resource specialists employed by the local educational agency in an equal manner, unless otherwise collectively bargained. It would further require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish a maximum recommended adult to student staffing ratios for special day classes.

  • Educational equity: discrimination: antisemitism prevention AB 715 - Establishes a new state Office of Civil Rights and establishes an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator to develop training, resources, and enforcement strategies for K–12 schools. It also requires districts to investigate and take corrective action when discriminatory content is used in classrooms or professional development.

  • Educational equity: discrimination prevention coordinators SB48  - Complements AB 715 by creating four statewide Discrimination Prevention Coordinators — focused on religious, racial, ethnic, gender, and LGBTQ discrimination — to provide resources and training to prevent and consistently address bias and discrimination in schools.

  • Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements: career technical education. -AB 821 - Existing law allows a course in Career Technical Education to fulfill a course requirement to graduate from high school. The provision included an expiration date; this law continues it.

  • Pupil safety: school employee misconduct: child abuse prevention. SB 848 - Establishes new requirements to improve pupil safety by addressing school employee misconduct and expands the definition and reporting responsibilities of mandated reporters such as teachers, administrators, staff, etc.

• KNOW YOUR RIGHTS - 
  • Representation- Please remember that you have the right to Union Representation when you are going into any meeting that may result in discipline. That means if the topic is something that may come up, even later in the year, and result in discipline you have this right! Please check in with your Site Reps, Directors or any Exec. Board if you have any questions. 

• You also have the Right To:  TEA is here to help but there is also rights that you have - Did you know: 
  • In The Classroom Teachers Have the Right To:
    • Suspend students from class for the day of suspension and the following day. Ask the parent or guardian to attend a conference as soon as possible. Ed. Code 48910
  • With Administrators, Teachers Have The Right To:
    • Assert the right under Weingarten and EERA to representation in meetings that have the potential to lead to discipline.
    • Ask what a meeting’s purpose is before attending.

• For the handout we have given previously on Knowing your Rights with Suspensions please click on the picture or clickHERE. 
• To find a visual copy and more Ed. Code Rights please go HERE. 
• For more information please go to CTA.org/yourrights - or press HERE.

CONFERENCES- Please fill out a TEA conference request if you are interested in attending any conferences, each conference has been approved for a set amount of grants from TEA.  Form Here

• NEW TEACHER (SOUTH) - February 20-22, 2025; Hilton OC in Costa Mesa. The NEW Teacher conference is for educators in their first three years in the profession. The conference has everything that educators need to be successful in their first years of teaching, including sessions about classroom management, creating engaging classrooms, lesson plans and ideas, connecting with your union, student loan forgiveness information, member benefits, project grants and more. Your experience at the New Educator Weekend is both equal parts educational and transformational. You’ll learn new skills and find solutions to real-life challenges. You’ll leave the conference feeling inspired, motivated and with a knowledge of what you need to do to be even more successful on Monday morning in your classroom. We are fortunate to have it in Orange County so it’s close enough for us to send many teachers. Please click the picture above or CLICK HERE for more information.

• EQUITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS - March 13-15, 2026; Hilton OC in Costa Mesa. This conference is meant to capture  the essence in CTA’s Mission Statement: to ensure that the dignity and civil rights of all children, youth, and adults are protected and to secure a more equitable and democratic society. This year’s theme is Rooted in Resistance: Honoring Identity, Demanding Equity. Members will have access to dynamic speakers and interactive workshops that will provide them with a greater understanding of the issues of diversity, equity and social justice. CLICK HERE OR THE PICTURE FOR  A LINK 

• GOOD TEACHING (SOUTH) - March 20-22, 2026; Hyatt Regency OC, Anaheim. One of the most popular conferences within CTA is open to all teachers and local so we are able to send even more people. The CTA Good Teaching Conferences supports excellent teaching and learning practices for classroom teachers via peer-to-peer instruction. Offering a variety of diverse workshops focused on curriculum content areas for K-12 teachers, the conference provides opportunities for professional development and offers time to network and share ideas with colleagues and experts in the field of education. You’ll learn new skills and find solutions to real-life challenges. Click the link in the picture above or CLICK HERE for more information.

• Member Benefit Services - One of the perks of membership are the benefits that you have access to. Through our state (CTA) and national (NEA) partners we have access to a multitude of resources. CTA and NEA Member Benefits provide exclusive benefits and programs to our members and their families.  You can find discounts on travel, car rentals, school supplies, information about retirement planning and other exclusive member benefits programs. For a brief video of the different benefits that CTA/NEA has to offer, please visit www.CTAMemberBenefits.org/video Check out the member benefits webpages by clicking the pictures below:

This MAGIC has all of the benefits and discounts: Click the picture of the book below or CLICK HERE to find a digital copy. 

• Discounts for the holidays - Stretch your holiday shopping and traveling dollars by using the CTA Access To Savings program or book your holiday travel and car rentals through ACCESS or CTA Car Rental Program.  Check out all the discounts and see what can help to save you money this holiday season.

 

• FALL FUN AT BJ'S 
  • We had 100 members join us for our Pizza, Pasta, Pizookies and Prizes at Bj’s - Here are a few pictures of the fun event. If you were not able to join us this time, we hope that you will be able to join us at an event in the future! Please check out some of our photos from that night below and for the file to download any - click the picture above or CLICK HERE!

Have a wonderful, restful and relaxing two weeks - Here is hoping that you get to read a book meant for adults, spend all day in your PJs, travel as much and as far as you desire, and sleep without any alarms demanding you arise and get to work - May your break bring you everything you desire and more and may you all have a wonderful and happy holidays. 

In Unity and Appreciation,
Lisa Hickman

President, Tustin Educators Association