Only 9 More Days to Go!

Good evening NEA-Jurupa Family,

I hope that you have had a restful weekend and that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy. Only 9 more days to go! Again, I’d like to extend my sincerest gratitude to you for your continued grace, kindness, patience, and understanding. We continue to have more questions than answers regarding the ever-changing situation that we find ourselves in. It feels like every time we think we have some sort of idea as to how things proceed, something else happens. As such, I want to share a few updates with you.

• BUDGET: Last Thursday, the governor announced his plans for the May Revise to the State Budget. The state looks to be in a huge deficit, and you are probably hearing about cuts to services everywhere. As for the actual impact to the JUSD budget, we don’t have those numbers yet. Additionally, the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act on Friday. This bill would provide $3 Trillion to the economy, with over $175 Billion slated for Education Stabilization. It now heads to the Senate. Please encourage our Senators to take action here. Once we have a better idea of the what the numbers for JUSD are, we will begin discussions. It is our intent to keep cuts as far away as possible from the classroom and our members. Please remember: work year, working conditions, compensation, health and welfare benefits, etc. MUST BE NEGOTIATED. Our team will be working hard to advocate for our members and students. Unless it comes directly from the Association and/or District, everything else you hear is just rumor. This includes comments made by site administration or colleagues.

• END OF 19-20 SCHOOL YEAR: Last Wednesday at Rep Council, I shared that members would have to opportunity to go to their classrooms/worksites to pack up and gather their personal belongings. This was something that was requested by many members, but at the time, it was not mandatory and members were not required pack up their students’ belongings, although many members wanted that opportunity. The district initially offered 2 days, May 26^th and May 27^th, for members to go to their sites. On Friday, the district made the decision to include a third day, May 28^th, and added a couple of stipulations. Members are required to go in one of the three days and will need to gather up their students’ belongings. The district will be providing bags for you to put their things in, but you will not be handing them back to the students, that will be taken care of at a later date. Additionally, there are some minimal expectations to “prepare” your rooms for check-out. Finally, on the dates that you are at your site, you are not expected to “hold classes”. If you have specific concerns, please reach out to me or your site administrator. Closing out your classrooms may be a very emotional experience, here’s some tips on Crisis Classroom Closeout.

• NEXT YEAR: No decisions have been made. Many of you live in another district and are starting to hear things about what other districts are doing. This is very premature. The California Superintendent of Public Instruction stated in his press conference last week that there are task forces meeting to discuss “reopening” of schoools. The state will provide guidelines for reopening with the caveat that it is up to the local districts to decide. Again, anything that impacts our members’ working conditions, MUST BE NEGOTIATED.