TalNewsOnline

Above: Jesse Aguilar, CTA Board Member, and Gina Whipple, TAL President

Please scan the QR code below if Gina forgot to give you a card when she visited you.

Congratulations for being elected to TAL Exec Board Amy Knipp (Treasurer) and Anna Hill (VP). Thank you Bill Clark for all the years you've dedicated to TAL, and for continuing to be our Negotiations Chair.

The election has been waived for the TAL (Local) Delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly (NEA-RA) due to the number of nominations being equal or less than the number of delegate positions to be filled (5).

Congratulations to Gina Whipple who will represent TAL as a delegate..

03/03/2025, email from Danielle Gates was sent to your school email:

Happy Monday,
As part of negotiations for the 24-25 school year, a 6.5% off salary schedule bonus was agreed upon. Please refer to the Final Agreement for details.

These will be LIVE checks (even if you have direct deposit) and can be picked up wherever you pick up your regular payroll check/pay stub tomorrow, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Please check with your Site Secretary or CPS for the time the live checks will be available to you.

Please be aware that each of you will have 2 checks. The largest check represents 6.5% of your annual salary BEFORE the 0.5% on salary schedule increase. The smallest check represents 6.5% of the additional 0.5% salary increase.

Have a great rest of your week.
--
Danielle Gates
Director of Risk Management & Payroll
Lancaster School District
44711 North Cedar Avenue
Lancaster, CA 93534
(661) 948-4661 x129
(661) 948-4297 FAX

Wear your TAL shirt every Tuesday! Shout out to Amargosa Creek MS for sporting all their colors!

Top left: Richard Ryder, EN, and Jay Berckes, F&A

Top right: Mechelle Reynolds and Greg Day, F&A

Left: Jennifer Patterson, IT Coach

Did you know if you've made 120 payments on your student loan, you can apply for loan forgiveness (even if you haven't consolidated your loans)? Many of our members have had their loans forgiven! Our Local # is 0821, if you need it for the application. Click here for more information on PSLF, and here for TEPSLF (if you didn't consolidate your loans).

When you are assaulted by a student, you are REQUIRED to report it by law enforcement. Ed Code 44014 states:

(a) Whenever any employee of a school district or of the office of a county superintendent of schools is attacked, assaulted, or physically threatened by any pupil, it shall be the duty of the employee, and the duty of any person under whose direction or supervision the employee is employed in the public school system who has knowledge of the incident, to promptly report the incident to the appropriate law enforcement authorities of the county or city in which the incident occurred. Failure to make the report shall be an infraction punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000).

(b) Compliance with school district governing board procedures relating to the reporting of, or facilitation of reporting of, the incidents specified in subdivision (a) shall not exempt a person under a duty to make the report prescribed by subdivision (a) from making the report.

(c) A member of the governing board of a school district, a county superintendent of schools, or an employee of any school district or the office of any county superintendent of schools, shall not directly or indirectly inhibit or impede the making of the report prescribed by subdivision (a) by a person under a duty to make the report. An act to inhibit or impede the making of a report shall be an infraction, and shall be punishable by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) and not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000).

CTA Conference Grants info here
NEA Learning and Leadership Grant info here.
NEA Awards for Teaching Excellence info here
Click here for CTA training/events
Click here for NEA training/events

If you have not designated your Beneficiary(ies) for your complimentary NEA Life Insurance, please do so here. You can also see the different levels of benefits included in this coverage.

***NEW*** 24-25 Calendar, Board Approved 2/6/24

***2024-2025 SALARY SCHEDULE***

For all other salary schedules, please look in the contract starting on page 70 or click here for the District website

Read about the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP):

2024-25 TAL Rep Meetings (via WebEx) @ 3 pm:
8/27/24
9/24/24
10/29/24
11/19/24
12/17/24 (in person @ CTA office)
1/28/25
2/25/25
3/18/25
4/29/25
5/27/25 (collect stipends in person @ CTA office)
5/8/25 Day of the Teacher

Board Mtg. Agenda click here
YouTube live broadcast click here
Facebook live broadcast click here

If you wish to make a comment, you must attend in person and complete a speaker card and present it to the Deputy Superintendent or other district official prior to the start of the main public portion of the meeting. Your name will be called during the “Addressing the Board” portion of the agenda and you may come to the podium to address the Board.

Please Note: The main public portion of the meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. Unless you are commenting on a closed session agenda item, you will not be called upon until after 6:00 p.m.

What are Weingarten rights?

One of a union representative’s most important duties is guarding against employer intimidation, particularly during disciplinary investigations, where the employer may attempt to coerce employees into making incriminating statements against themselves or their colleagues. For union-represented employees, one backstop against coercive investigatory interviews is Weingarten rights.

Named for a United States Supreme Court case, NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 420 U.S. 251 (1975), Weingarten rights have been extended to public employees under California’s labor relations statutes. Simply put, an employee has a right to request a union representative in an investigatory interview when the employee has a reasonable basis to believe that discipline may result from the meeting. The right to a union representative applies to investigatory questioning that is written as well as oral. Weingarten rights must be asserted by the employee — the employer has no obligation to notify employees of these rights, and employees may choose to represent themselves if they wish. Keep in mind that Weingarten rights only apply to investigatory meetings that might result in discipline of the employee. They do not apply to other types of meetings with the employer, such as a meeting where an employer is merely notifying the employee of a disciplinary decision that the employer already made.

Once the right is asserted, an employee is not entitled to their union representative of choice. The employer may proceed with the investigatory questioning as long as another union representative is available at the meeting time. But if an employee’s preferred union representative is available, the employer may not insist upon a different representative.

Additionally, the union representative has the right to sufficient information about the nature of the employee’s alleged wrongdoing before an investigatory interview takes place in order to allow for meaningful representation.

07/29/2024 - TAL members on a retreat to Solvang to work on grants and other Tal business. Tammra Freistadt, Wendy Perry, Lisa Moody, Jen Patterson, Gina Whipple, Teresa Cole

New Teacher Orientation - a new teacher won an iPad! Congratulations and welcome to Lancaster!