EA Council of the AFT/IFT Local 604

Meeting of 1/21/2021

Draft Minutes

Attendance:  Cyn Citro, Beth Cotter, Jessica Fisher, Arlette Gomez, Alicia Gorski, Victoria Haier, Michelle Hanna, Matt Harding, Jan Kolodziejek, Janel Jaros, Joyce Ladewig, Stacey Martin, Jennifer Ortiz, Stephanie Paul, Lisha Pauli, Aviva Pollack-Paradise, Sandra Sarmiento, Alan Scott, Carrie Snyder, Mary Taylor, Melinda Thomas, Amy VanCura, Francisco Zafra

Leadership:  J. Mleczko (excused), Jennifer Gentile, Judy Durham, Rhonda Bass, Sarah Bonebrake, Loretta Holt

  1. Approval of 11/19/2020 Minutes  (Loretta Holt)
    1. Motion to approve.
    2. Minutes were unavailable to review.  Tabled.
  2. Approval of Treasure’s Report.  (Sarah Bonebrake)
    1. Discussion of the budget. 
    2. Motion to approve. (Thomas, Durham)  Approved.
  3. President’s Report  (Jennifer Gentile, in for Jeffrey Mleczko)
    1. New hires – keep recruiting; During the negotiation year we need members.
    2. BBT Meetings:  had the first BBT meeting.
      1. 1. Sub-committee for elementary, middle, high school workday committee 
        1. Melinda – working on getting a date for the meeting.
    3. Melinda T. spoke about the approval of the 6% TRS by Illinois General Assembly.
      1. It was confirmed that it had been approved.
      2. It was stated that Robert is on top of this.
      3. It will be put back into the contract.
      4. Secretary and Support got 6%. Needs to be the same for all bargaining units.
    4. Aurora Elections:  Just announcing that a former School Board member, John Laesch, is running for Aurora Mayor.
  4. Stacey Martin:  Google Meets: 
    1. She described the Google Classroom she set up with the Union representatives as co-teachers.
    2. Need to have a g-mail account to join.  
    3. Have most people in the Google Classroom. She has shared the link.  
    4. Jan:  excited to be able to push information out quickly.  For example, negotiations and other information.  Members need to be in Google Classroom.  Feels it is a secure place for negotiation information, polls, etc.
    5. Alan stated that the classrooms can use for meetings.  He feels it is a good solution.  
    6. Francisco is concerned that members may not want to be in the Google Classroom.
    7. Better way of distributing information than we have ever had.
    8. Stacey stated that the information is also on the website.  
    9. The website is a location of approved documents. She works closely with Jeff to make sure materials are sent out.
    10. Discussion of EA Facebook Site and its use for posting Union documents.
  5. Christy Harding will do a grievance report next month.
  6. VP 1:  Jennifer Gentile
    1. License renewal:  the window opens on April 1 and June 30. Need 120 hours of CPDUs.  It is a 5 year license. Put all the PD into the ISBE file.
  7. VP 2:  (Judy Durham)  If you see PPAs, 1:1, support staff, remind them that we are starting to negotiate.  Our number 1 requests are respect and money.
  8. VP 3:  No report.  I will have more information from our next BBT meeting.

Open Discussion:

Hermes Concerns:

  1. Student to teacher percentages due to Covid
  2. K-8 pregnant teachers are put at risk. The high school has another month.  It is not fair.  Jennifer states that the Union is still fighting for this. 
  3. Francisco:  As we, as Union members, know why there is such a big push to get the kids back into the school?  Jennifer said that the Board wants us to go back. We are the only school that has not gone back.  Judy mentioned that East Aurora needed a to have a plan so the Board, State, and community wouldn’t think that we are sitting on our hands.
    1. Judy stated that support and office have been in the buildings this entire time.  They had to do it.  They had to bite the bullet. 
    2. Sandra:  Reiterated what Judy stated. We felt that there were a lot of things that were not fair and equitable.  Didn’t have PPE ready for us.  We were working for the most vulnerable students.  We were not afforded the same precautions that the teachers are fighting for.

Hybrid Model:  

  1. Stephanie Paul: Parents are not aware of what the hybrid model looks like until it was discussed at the Board meeting Monday.  Didn’t know that it was still remote.  Parents feel lied to.  No clue. Feel tricked.  There is a lot of chatter on parent Facebook page.
  2. Melinda stated that when the parents are surveyed again, the district needs to share what the hybrid model looks like.
  3. Claudia Ruiz:  Parents are going to change their minds at the last minute.  There may be many.  
  4. Jennifer stated that the district will allow students can change to remote, but cannot change from remote to in-person.  
  5. Joyce:  Dual language.  They can’t do the blended part of the program from school.  It is not going to be beneficial for the blended population.
  6. Jennifer states that the plan will have to be worked on.
  7. If teachers have zero students, do we have to go in?  Discussion with Jennifer and Matt.
  8. Jessica:  Is there a Calendar Committee for this?    Jennifer:  No there isn’t one.  We have been asking for a calendar committee.
  9. Staff Survey:  Jennifer we have been asking for staff survey.  Jennifer:  We have been screaming for a survey.  We have asked.  We will do it. 
  10. Jen Waldo: Teachers will need headphones.  That will be an expense.  She doesn’t like expenses.  Everyone agreed.  
  11. Stephanie: The Wi-Fi crashes with 4 teachers at school.  Finally got splitters and put them into the ethernet connection.  IT needs to do a shake out.
  12. What are your thoughts as teachers about zero student teachers?
    1. Francisco feels they should stay home to reduces risk.  
    2. Need to survey our teachers.  There are people who say they will come in, but there are others of us who have family members who are at risk.
    3. Stephanie: Husband is at risk and she feels she will need to get a hotel room to stay away from him if she goes back.
    4. Pamela Miller: This will be an issue.  Stated that this is what we signed up for.  Administration is not going to change the schedule.  Her daughter has uncontrolled asthma.  We need to have a plan for our family to be separated.
  13. Pam:  Robert stated that we could negotiate and wait for all to have vaccines.
  14. Michelle stated that it sounds like we won’t be going back.
  15. Jan said that the lawyer said we can fight to stay out.  It is going to be a fight.  She is not convinced we are a team.  We are going to have to be united as a team.
  16. Jennifer stated that the Union leadership are fighting for everyone to have vaccinations.
  17. Judy: The district is saying we want to be “Healthy and safe”.  
  18. Jan:  Refers to Jeff’s letter to members.  “Our goal is to be vaccinated before we go back.
  19. Cyn Citro stated that she has 2 teacher assistants who have autoimmune issues.  Their doctors state they can’t take the vaccine.  How will this affect their job? 
  20. Can we survey the staff in Google Classroom?
  21. Jennifer stated that we will push for a survey through the Google Classroom. She will speak to Jeff about pushing something out to the members.
  22. Communication Committee will draft a survey for data, for us as well as for Norrell.  Stacey will help create the form. 
  23. Judy asked for a copy of the parents’ survey.  
  24. At the Board meeting a parent said that now that she understands what the hybrid model looks like, she wants to take the survey again.  She wants to change her vote to keep her child at home.
  25. Each district does the hybrid model differently.
  26. Jennifer stated that they are changing the middle school schedule.  Going from 7:15-noon without a break.  
  27. Discussion of reopening document. 
  28. Jennifer encouraged reps to try to calm our members down.  We all have fears.  We will keep you informed.  

BBT will meet Saturday, January 23, 2021.

5:34:  Motion to adjourn.  (Zafra, Kuehl)  Approved.