President's Update January 17, 2025

Happy New Year TEA! 
We have made it through the first half of the year - now onto the next half. 

Here’s the latest from TEA:  

• CTA Disaster Relief - If you can help…in light of recent events in Southern California please remember that while many of us are a safe distance away we have some of our fellow educators and students who are in the middle of it. We were just told today of TEA members who have lost property while relocating over the last week. Our fellow Union members in CTA have lost homes and their schools. The second photo is from Altadena on January 8th. CTA has resources to help others and all funding is from. School districts across Southern California are closed and many families have been evacuated and displaced due to severe wildfires. CTA is there for members during times of need. Funded by voluntary contributions from CTA members, the CTA Disaster Fund provides financial assistance to CTA members who suffer significant losses due to natural and other disasters in California. If you have been affected, please CONTACT CTA TODAY THROUGH THESE RESOURCES AND GET HELP NOW! If you have not been affected or personally impacted by the wildfires in Southern California please consider donating to help. There are options from a one time donation to an ongoing donation. To learn more about his grant and it’s process CTA DISASTER FUND INFO HERE

  • One Time Donation through our CTA Site Click Here

• To continue with an ongoing donation click here or below paperwork picture to download paperwork; fill it out and then send it to our office or to make the donation monthly and have it automatically taken out of your paycheck. No amount is too small. 

• If you want to aid in other groups that are directly helping those in need and working with LA County and CTA to help those on the ground who most need it check out CTA WildFire Page. There are ways to donate, organizations to connect with and general information.  

• You will also hear from CTA through email and as of the 15th from text messages. If you are receiving messages from a CTA source and are concerned of the legitimacy - please send the message to me atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 949.378.6723 and I can confirm. I know that they started with texts who live and work in the fire zones and have since expanded out to those of us in neighboring areas. They are also sending to all members in the state and NEA is also supporting the CTA fund and asking for help nationwide. 

• Landmark Legislation - 

  • Some of you may have heard, or even watched online, but there is great news that was over 45 years in the making. As of Sunday, January 5, teachers may again be eligible for Social Security. This is all new and updating constantly, but if you came to teaching as a second career, or you work other jobs during the summer, you should now be eligible to receive your full social security. 

    • NEA created an initial FAQ, which you can read here

    • HR 82 Bill 

    • President Biden signs bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act | NEA

    • NEA on Facebook

    • NEA on Instagram

    • Associated Press article: Higher Social Security payments coming for millions of people from bill that Biden signed

    • NEA article: LANDMARK Victory! GPO and WEP repealed | NEA

  • Background - For years, many elected leaders were not well-informed about how these unfair provisions hurt millions of public employees across the nation. Fortunately, educators stepped in with the facts:  

    • More than 2.8 million public sector employees (teachers, firefighters…)in 26 states were impacted by GPO and WEP. Educators were affected in 15 of those states (see map), because they pay into their state pension system, but not into Social Security. 

    • WEP assumed that none of these public employees earn Social Security benefits—which failed to take into account that many educators hold second jobs and summer gigs that require them to pay Social Security taxes. The provision was often devastating to career-changers like Strader, who did not receive the full benefit of the years they did pay into Social Security. Also, because she did not spend her entire career as a public employee, Strader earned just 16.9 percent of a full teacher pension, which takes over 35 years to secure in Connecticut. 

    • GPO reduced spousal or survivor benefits. More than 70 percent of those affected by GPO lost their entire spousal or survivor benefit.

    • Some widowed educators received that survivor’s benefit while they were still working. But the minute they retired and started receiving pension payments, they no longer received the benefit that their loved one earned.

    • Pictures from the signing - first is Biden Signing landmark legislation the second is of CTA president with all other state teacher’s union presidents who will be seeing changes for their educators. 

• FOR YOUR TAXES - Please see the numbers below for your tax purposes. 

• TEA/ NEA-RA Elections - 

  • It is that time of year where we open up elections for candidates to apply to run for TEA Exec. Board and the National Education Association Representative Assembly this summer in Portland Oregon. You may reach the candidate declaration form by clicking HERE or on the picture above. Please refer to the picture at the end of this section as well to see it. 

  • Tustin Educators Association - The following positions will be open this coming election for the TEA Board. If you are interested all you have to do is fill out the candidate declaration form and send it in to the office by January 31st. 

    • Positions:

      • Elementary School Director (1 position) 

      • Middle School Director

      • High School Director

      • State Council Representative (1 position)

      • State Council Alternate (2 positions) one seat is an unexpired term that begins upon certification of the election through June 2027

  • National Education Association Representative Assembly - 

    • This year the largest democratic deliberative assembly will convene in Portland, Oregon  NEA’s Annual Meeting takes place during the final week of June and/or the first week of July. Various committees, constituencies, caucuses, leadership groups, and delegates from state and local affiliates gather to set policy and chart the direction of NEA business. The Representative Assembly (RA) takes place during the final four days of the Annual Meeting. It is the primary legislative and policy making body of the Association and derives its powers from, and is responsible to, the membership. The Representative Assembly adopts the strategic plan and budget, resolutions, the Legislative Program, and other policies of the Association. It is about 5-7 long days of meetings and work on the floor, but it is also a lot of fun if you enjoy the democratic process, meeting fellow teachers, and getting to explore a city. 

    • Interested Candidates are asked to fill out the local form (TEA has 7 seats for representation), but also the State Form. We run both and if our membership gets people to represent at the state level, it opens up more opportunities for more local people to attend. The state declaration is an online form. 

      • State Online Candidate Declaration

      • Local Candidate Declaration

• Attention All Temp Employees? 

  • Are you a temporary contracted employee? Have you been in that position for the last two years or more? We are looking at the number of temp employees and the years that they have been employed in TUSD. We would like to hear from those of you that are temp and have been in TUSD for longer than 2 years. 

    • First - Fill out the following Google Form to help us work with some data and accurate information. FILL OUT FORM HERE

    • Next - Make sure that you have copies of all the contracts you have signed since you began working in TUSD. Read each as to whether it mentions if you were hired from a budget source only (such as it states you are hired using Title 1 fund etc.) or if you are hired to fill a permanent teachers spot until they are able to come back to the classroom.  
       

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• The State of California’s Public Schools - 

  • In December, CTA  wanted to check in and see how educators were doing. They survived  more than 2,000 educators across the state and have published the results, which were shared with journalists and now they are sharing results with members.  Results of that survey surfaced significant economic hardship and concerns about resources in our schools for the majority of educators across California. It is an interesting example of the realities we all face daily - please follow the link HERE, or press the picture below to go to document. 

• State Budget and New Laws - 

• Budget - Friday, January 10th Governor Newsome released his state budget recommendations. COLA is currently projected at 2.43% - this is better than we have this year with 1.07%, and the state is projecting a surplus of +16 Billion. We do not know how this will affect next year financially, but we do know that it is more positive than we heard last year at this time. TEA is attending a roll out with TUSD at the end of January to hear the projected numbers/ facts and how it affects funding in all areas. In the meantime these are the points that have been given by CTA budget experts. Please keep in mind that this is a proposal and not the actual budget. This will be changed and negotiated and things will most likely change in some areas until it is finalized in May and the Governor signs the actual budget in June. The importance is that we may need members willing to also help push some of our interests over the finish line and call representatives to help get them to support our interests for the classroom. 

  • There are budget reserves estimated to be $16.5 billion higher than the Budget Act projections last year. But we have also been told that the current fires burning may affect the additional funds and where they are placed. 

  • This includes a COLA increase to the Local Control Funding (LCFF) - including fully repaying deferrals from the 2024 school year. 

  • Transitional Kindergarten - total of $2.4 billion ongoing Prop 98 funding so that all children who turn four years old by September 1 can enroll in TK (providing access to roughly 60,000 additional children). This also provides additional funding to support lowering the average student to adult ratio from 12:01 to 10:1 in every TK classroom. This will be one to watch and wait for final assurance when it is officially signed and is mandated to go into effect. 

  • Expanded learning for before, after and summer school in TK-6 grades to receive ongoing funds. 

  • There is more information on this topic and more will be shared after we hear from the state next week and from CTA the following weekend. 
     

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• New Laws that Affect Classrooms as of 2025- 

  • Safety Laws - 

    • AB 2429 (Alvarez) modifies the California Healthy Kids Act mandating all health courses include the danger of fentanyl use instruction.

    • SB 997 (Portantino) allows students in grades 7-12 to carry naloxone (Narcan) and fentanyl test strips on their person during the school day.

    • AB 2053 (Mathis) requires all health instruction (grades 7-12) to include a unit identifying signs of and resources to remove from abusive and/or violent adolescent relationships as a component in sex education. All health courses must define stalking and include local and national intimate partner violence prevention resources where students can get support.

    • AB 1858 (Ward) prohibits high-intensity active shooter drills and bans all simulated shooting, staged gore, or pretend victims.

    • The California Department of Education (CDE) must provide guidelines by July 2025 that will use trauma-informed research to monitor and control the current unregulated school active school shooting drills. Some of these staged events incited documented depression, trauma, and anxiety in both students and staff. Students, parents, and staff must be informed the week before the drill, and parents will be notified the day of the drill once it is completed.

    • SB 1063 (Grove) requires suicide prevention resources to be printed on all student ID cards. 

      • In addition - SB 1504 allows victims of cyberbullying and school administrators to civilly sue social media platforms for violations and allows for greater penalties to be awarded.

    • SB 976 (Skinner) prohibits social media platforms from sending notifications to minors during school hours or late at night.

    • SB 483 (Cortese) bans all use of prone restraints towards any minor at every school by any law enforcement or school administrator.

  • Instructional - 

    • AB 2927 (McCarty) and AB 1871 (Alanis) add the personal financial literacy class that parents have requested for the last decade. Required for the graduating class of 2031, by 2027/28, all public schools and charters that utilize public school funds will provide a one-semester, standalone class in grades 9-12 covering basic understanding of credit cards, budgeting, and loan liability. This will be a graduation requirement and count toward a student’s required social science units.

    • AB 1805 (Ta), AB 1821 (Ramos), and SB 1277 (Stern) expand high school social studies requirements to include instruction of Mendez vs. the School District of Westminster, California, indigenous people perspectives during the Spanish conquest, and genocides and the Holocaust as required topics by 2028 for all high school graduates.

    • AB 2074 (Muratsuchi) requires all public school districts and charter schools receiving state money to report to the CDE annual progress following an updated CDE English Literacy Roadmap Policy mandated in 2017 to provide all students a research-based, consistent policy to attain their English literacy requirements. It is currently not regulated, spotty, and inconsistent under the Local Control Policy.

    • AB 2999 (Schiavo) requires the CDE to create a healthy homework framework for all students grades TK-12 for districts to use as a guideline by the school year 2027/28. Includes how many hours of homework to give students per day - and even how homework is graded, or whether it should be optional. 

  • School Environment:

    • AB 1865 (Muratsuchi), which prohibits book bans in public and school libraries of any age-appropriate books. Applies to all libraries in California that receive public funding including school libraries. It prohibits the entities overseeing those libraries, whether a district, or school board, from banning books because of the views or themes in them. It would also prohibit the firing of any librarian who refuses to remove a book because of its content.

    • AB 3216 (Hoover) requires schools to carry out phone-free school environments by July 1, 2026. 

    • AB 1955 (Ward)  prevents schools from requiring staff to notify parents if a student identifies as LGBTQ, the law is in response to some districts requiring staff to notify. parents when students identify as a gender other than what’s in their official files.

    • SB 1137 (Weber) and AB 1815 expand civil rights by recognizing both multiple forms of discrimination and protecting traits associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles.

      • SB 1137 (Weber) prohibits any public or charter school that receives state funds from enacting any prohibitive dress code policy that includes hair texture or banning culturally protective hairstyles.

    • (Ramos) Native American History - A new law requires California students to learn Native American history in a way that includes the mistreatment and perspectives of tribal members, which will be most relevant to fourth-graders when they study California history. Assemblyman James Ramos, the first Native American state lawmaker, authored the bill.

    • AB 1255 (Carillo) Ethnic Studies - The law was passed in 2021, but high schools must begin offering ethnic studies classes in the 2025-26 school year.  The class of 2030 will be the first group required to complete the course to graduate high school.

    • SB 1445 (Cortese) expands the role of student board members, allowing them, with the permission of the student and parents or guardians, to be able to review a student’s expulsion case and recommend restorative justice actions. The student board members and student restorative justice boards would not attend closed board sessions or have any vote on the matter of the expulsion itself but would be privy to limited case information to provide recommendations.

    •  requires all schools to have a working, unobstructed, and fully stocked, un-gendered bathroom available for all grades by July 1, 2026. If a school is unable to accommodate this requirement due to funding, they can access state funds under the Greene Act, which provides facilities funding for school districts with high populations of low-income and housing-challenged students.

  • Additional - 

    • AB 1780 will ban legacy admission for colleges that accept state funding.
       

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• Ongoing Conversations with the District and Bargaining:

  • Bargaining :

    • Special Education - We continue to work and refine the Special Ed. Best Practices. There is discussion this week (January 15th) and more will be discussed and worked on in bargaining, working towards making it an MOU. 

      • We will be moving the SDC Preschool MOU into this and giving them their own committee to work on behalf of the teams to create their own best practices for SDC Preschool that will help like the MOU did. 

    • Compensation - Many have assumed that because they have not heard much regarding compensation we must not be having the discussion about how COLA, no matter how small, can be passed on in a compensation package. Our bargaining team has continued since the start of the year to have discussions and work with TUSD’s team on how even though it is small, it could still be worked. More will be coming on this topic. 

    • Staffing for next year - We have been asked by some members and at this time we know that we are still a district that has declining enrollment. We will not have numbers until TUSD does more in asking families of their intent to return while also working on upcoming changes that could help staffing through the current California Budget Start that was just released. 

      • Extra items - lower TK numbers from 12:1 to 10:1 creating more TK classes on sites. 

  • Elementary:

    • Dual Immersion Chinese at Hicks Canyon - The Wednesday before break Hicks Canyon was notified that they will be the home to the new Chinese Dual Immersion offerings. TUSD plans on starting with TK/K classes and building from there. They expedited this process, it was being planned with a later date of coming to fruition, due to an outside Chinese Charter School wanting to open in our district. The Charter would pull students away from our schools and into a school that might have to cohabitate/ share a site, or move another site out to maintain. By TUSD opening it means that we retain our students, and we build a program that seems to have families interested in joining. There is going to be much more on this topic as we head into the next school year. 

  • Middle School:

    • Like with HS we have been discussing the use of Schoology in classrooms and the concern that it may be going away. We have our HS Director and MS Director working to gather data so we may present to the district that members want to continue to use the program. We have also reached out to TUSD to schedule a meeting and present the data of the amount of use and the necessity of the program in our classrooms. 

  • High School:

    • Scheduling for 2025 - The following is for all HS campuses except for Legacy which has their own block schedule they have been working with since opening. Legacy also has their own MOU as it pertains to their scheduling across the campus, and that includes the HS classes. 

      • TUSD and TEA met with equal representation to discuss how the district can address the changes that are coming in classes needed for the graduation. The incoming freshman will need to have two additional classes added to their graduation requirements (financial literacy/ ethnic studies). Last year TUSD convened groups to discuss, but things seemed to stall when groups were at different decisions on how to progress and make the options work. TEA heard our members, through breakout groups at Rep Council, that members wanted to make sure they had prep daily and that they were not extending their teaching day beyond what it already has been since the 8:30 start time became law. With all of these factors, and with knowledge form the TUSD side that the district did not have an interest, should block schedule be a choice, TEA and TUSD decided that the easiest and cleanest way to make sure that our desires were met and the desires of the district were met (insuring we could fit in the two additional, while not cutting out other classes, and making sure that schedules allowed for all students to continue in different pathways) was to go to a 7 period day and teachers would teach 6 periods of that day. We know that increases the classes, but the spreading out of students, and keeping the class schedule within the same hours of the current day means that you are not teaching additional time, still keeping your daily prep time, and not extending your day. We know that this will not make everyone happy, but in negotiations we have to go with things that neither side is happy in order to make it work. Originally block schedule was considered, but that would have moved everyone to having their planning period be alternating and not be daily. It would have still been the same planning time, but in a different format. 

        • Why couldn’t we do block schedule and still have a planning day every day? TUSD and the school board would not agree to offering a 90 minute prep (which is about what it would be at that time) daily, while classes were increasing it decreased what teachers were teaching and teachers would have had to move to teaching 7 classes instead of the current 5. 

        • Why can’t we still teach 5 classes even though we are extending to 7 periods a day? TUSD felt strongly, again, that if we have teachers continue to teach 5 periods, but students have the ability to take 7 periods, that is then cutting down on teaching and we now have to hire and make up for the additional classes, at a time when we are declining enrollment. This would then account for a double prep daily, and goes back to the extended prep time ahead. 

        • The current plan will increase the teaching periods, but each period will now be a few minutes less to accommodate the addition of the seventh period. Students will be able to take 6-7 periods to add in the new mandated classes, and hopefully still be able to complete other classes as part of their program path (music, CTE, etc.) 

        • TUSD will be moving forward and you may hear from Student Services (Dr. Matos) and some of you may be asked to participate to move this process forward from this point. The sites, admin and teachers will now have to make this work with schedules, plans for each type of student and implementation.

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• Member Benefit Services - One of the perks of membership are the benefits that you have access to. So many of us forget that through our state (CTA) and national (NEA) partners we have access to a multitude of resources. You may see some below or check out their webpage HERE. 

  • CTA Member Benefits is excited to introduce a series of financial workshops to help members meet their “Financial Fitness” New Year’s Resolutions by introducing “Happy (Financially Fit) New You!”

  • If you are like most people, you probably made New Year’s Resolutions…things like, “Get into shape,” “Live a healthy life,” “Eat better,” “Spend more time with family and friends,” or financial goals like, “Get out of debt,” “Start saving for…a fabulous trip, retirement, kids education, etc…” As a new year begins, CTA Member Benefits wants to help you turn your goals into a reality. We’re doing this by hosting various webinars during January and February. They are:

Session - “More Month Than Money: Setting and Living Within a Budget” If you set a goal to get your finances in order, this session is one you won’t want to miss. We’ll focus on setting financial goals, learning about various investment vehicles, tracking daily expenditures, creating a cash flow statement, and establishing a budget. Throughout our discussion, we’ll highlight many CTA and NEA Member Benefits designed especially with CTA Members in mind to help stretch your dollar. CTA Members will leave feeling confident to get their finances on track.  Wednesday January 22, 2025 and Wednesday February 19, 2025 4:30-5:30

Session -  “Retirement 101: Where do I even begin?” - You know that planning for retirement is important…however, you don’t know where to begin, money is tight, you might be too busy, you have lesson plans to prepare, or maybe you hope to win the lottery. CTA Member Benefits can’t help you with lesson plans (and the lottery’s a gamble), but by attending this session, you’ll leave with a better understanding of retirement concepts, how to design your retirement plan, and be introduced to the CTA 403(b) Retirement Savings Plan. CTA Fiduciaries will explain how to open and fund a 403(b) to make sure you’re fully prepared for a financially secure retirement.
Wednesday January 29, 2025 and Wednesday February 26, 2025 4:30-5:30
 

CTA/ NEA - 

      CTA Grant- 

• CTA IFT GRANT  Window now Open - Apply now for the Institute for Teaching (IFT) Grant Program and bring your innovative ideas to life for the 2025-2026 school year. IFT Grant Submission Window has opened as of  December 1, 2024 and the deadline for submitting applications is March 31, 2025.That means if you have a fantastic idea and you lack the funding it’s your sign to start applying. TEA has had two grants funded over the last three years. They have several options to help support your ideas and implement changes for your students:

  • Environmental Education Cohort (NEW!): Up to $5,000 (Environmental Educator Grant) or $20,000 (Environmental Impact Grant) for projects focused on environmental education, plus networking opportunities and an in-person convening!

  • Educator Grant: Up to $5,000 for individual educators to impact a classroom or group of students.

  • Impact Grant: Up to $20,000 for teams of 2 or more educators (3 recommended) to make an impact across multiple classrooms or school sites.

• Applications close March 31—learn more and apply at cta.org/ift-institute-for-teaching - And If you have any questions, please email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

• The application may also be reached at the link (picture above). Please see the booklet below for more information with tips on how to apply for the grant. 

• OSCC Service Center Human Rights Poster Contest

  • All artwork must be delivered in person or by mail to the address on the flyer and the application for the contest is through this Google Doc LINK HERE or by touching the flyer below. 

• CTA Scholarships - Did you know that CTA offers financial support to CTA members and their dependents throughout the academic year? One of the benefits of being an active CTA member is having scholarships, grants, and awards available to you and your dependent children. Some of the deadlines are quickly approaching. See the list of opportunities below and apply now! 

• Please click the link here or click the picture above for direct links to those listed below.  CTA Scholarships Some of the scholarships have direct links to their resources. 

• The CTA Scholarships offer scholarships in the following categories. Scholarship funds must be used for education-related expenses only.

  • Dependent Children - Deadline: February 7, 2025 - This program offers up to 56 scholarships of up to $5,000 each to a dependent child of an active member of CTA, CTA/NEA-Retired or a deceased CTA member and be claimed as a dependent on the member's current year's IRS form.

  • Dependent Children in Honor of Del A. Weber  - Deadline: February 7, 2025 - This program offers one scholarship of up to $5,000 to a dependent child attending or attended continuation high school/alternative education programs. 

  • Members - Deadline: February 7, 2025 - This program offers up to 10 scholarships of up to $3,000 each to active members of CTA (including members working on an emergency credential).

  • CTA Aspiring Educators in Honor of L. Gordon Bittle Memorial -Deadline: February 7, 2025 -  This program offers up to three scholarships of up to $5,000 each to active members of CTA Aspiring Educators and pursuing a career in public education.

  • CTA Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Scholarship - Deadline:  February 21, 2025 - The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Scholarship Program encourages Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) students to become educators, school nurses, school counselors or school therapists and to promote professional growth for BIPOC teachers and Education Support Professionals (ESP) members.

  • The NEA Foundation Awards for Teaching Excellence - Deadline:  February 21, 2025 - The NEA Foundation Awards for Teaching Excellence recognize, reward, and promote both excellence in teaching and advocacy for the profession. The NEA Foundation (NEAF or the Foundation) and National Education Association (NEA) present the awards jointly.

  • César E. Chávez and Dolores Huerta Education Awards Program - Deadline:  March 7, 2025 - This award program provides recognition for educators and their students who demonstrate an understanding of the vision and guiding principles embraced by César E. Chávez and Dolores Huerta.

  • LGBTQ+ Safety in Schools Grant & Scholarship Program in Honor of Guy DeRosa - Deadline:  May 30, 2025 - The grant program will support groups, projects and presentations that promote understanding of and respect for LGBTQ+ persons. In addition, the scholarship program will support self-identified LGBTQ+ active CTA/CTA Aspiring Educators members enrolled in a teacher/counseling credential or graduate program who are pursuing a career in public education and who understand the importance of LGBTQ+ educators as role models in our public schools.

• Coming Soon! Look for a quick message soon about ordering more TEA T-shirts/ Sweatshirts - We hope you like to support and wear TEA (in black)! 

I don't do resolutions at the new year, but I do believe around MLK, Jr. time to put dreams and hopes out there for help in making the world a better place. Maybe that is from teaching and working with kiddos so much on what they see as the future. I am hoping, my dream, is that this year brings us all more good for our profession and our Union, more time to spend with those we love (especially if that includes your own kids, school kids), and more time for us to do that which we want to do that brings us joy. This is a passion based career, anyone can learn what it takes to be an educator, but you have to deeply love the work to actually be an educator (I'd like to tell people this is a fact, but sadly I worked on some opinion writing recently with students). Thank you for your passion for our profession and for all that you do in Tustin. You are why this district is a success and I am so honored to spend this year with you all. 

Have a wonderful rest of your week and an even better three day weekend! 

In Unity,

Lisa Hickman
President, Tustin Educators Association
Itinerant Teacher, Heideman Elementary