MHFT Scholarships
Every year, MHFT awards modest scholarships to children of current or retired MHFT members. If you are the parent or guardian of a graduating senior who is going on to college in the fall (whether or not the student attends school in our district), please click here to access the file. We will also accept a copy of the common scholarship application. Applications are due in the Federation office by 4pm on April 15.
Teacher of the Year Nominations
Our district participates in the Santa Clara County and State of California Teacher of the Year recognition programs. The selection of our district’s honoree is determined every year by his or her colleagues, via the Federation of Teachers.
Each site will be submitting one nominee, and those nominees will all be honored at a Morgan Hill School Board meeting this spring. From that list, one person will be selected to represent the district at the county level, and will be honored at a special ceremony in the fall.
If you would like to nominate a colleague to be Teacher of the Year, please coordinate with your Building Rep. Sites need to submit a nomination letter to tsmhft@garlic.com by 4pm on April 15. Please be sure to include specific anecdotal evidence -- a single page description is sufficient. (You can view the selection criteria used by the state at here.)
CFT Convention
Election of delegates will be held at the sites this week. Be sure to vote!
MHFT has submitted two resolutions to the CFT Convention. The text of those resolutions is here and here.
MHFT General Meeting
A general meeting will be held on Thursday, March 26, at Hang Ten Pizza. In addition to important updates from Federation leadership, nominations will be taken for MHFT officers (President, 3 Vice-Presidents + Treasurer + Secretary). Please plan to attend and enjoy some time with your colleagues across the district.
Social 3:30
Program 4:00
Considering Retirement?
The district will not be offering a retirement incentive this year. If you know that you will be retiring at the end of the year, you are encouraged to submit paperwork, as your position can only be released when you have officially notified the district. There will be a job fair at the county office in March, but your site will not be able to seek a replacement for you until your official retirement form is filed with District. Your intent to (not) return form is not official notice.
HOWEVER... please do not file a retirement form unless you are sure that you are going to retire, as it cannot be rescinded once filed.
Also, all teachers who are considering retirement are encouraged to contact STRS for a personal review appointment.
Negotiations Update
The Federation filed “openers” with the District last month, in a public hearing at the February 10th board meeting. (Please see the next page below for the full text.)
Thanks to all of the teachers who took time to attend that meeting in support of our negotiations team.
The District will sunshine its openers at the March 10th meeting, and our first negotiations session will be on Friday, March 13th.
Teachers at the Mic
Thank you to Sobrato for presenting to the board on February 10th.
| Next up: | Britton | Mar. 10 |
| Central | Mar. 24 |
When it is your school’s turn to present, please try to attend if you can in support of your colleagues. If you would like to be a part of the presentation, please talk to your Building Reps.
Upcoming Dates
- 2/24 Grade Level Configuration Comm. 4:15 @ DO
- 3/10 Healthcare Committee 3:45 @ DO
- 3/12 Executive Council 3:45-5:15 @ MHFT Officew
- 3/26 MHFT General Meeting #1 3:30 @ Hang Ten
- 4/3 District Wide Professional Development
(no students, but this is a full work day for teachers) - 4/30 General Meeting #2 at Morgan Hill Cellars
Contract Negotiation Openers
February 4, 2015
Dear Board President and Trustees:
Upon your receipt of this letter, the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers formally begins the process of negotiating articles for a successor contract with the Morgan Hill Unified School District (as per article 24.8).
The District and the Federation were able to use the interest-based bargaining process to negotiate our last several collective bargaining agreements. The process was conducted in the spirit of collaboration and was respectful, productive, and labor and management maintained a positive working relationship.
The Federation and the District have worked collaboratively to implement significant statewide changes in our educational system. The Common Core State Standards have changed instruction throughout the District to help better prepare every student for success in the 21st century. The Local Control Accountability Plan brought more transparency and community involvement to the budgeting process. Although the new funding formula is designed to improve funding for districts such as Morgan Hill Unified, we understand that these improvements will only return our district to the funding levels of the 2007-2008 school year. According to EdSource, California is 50th in the nation in per pupil spending and Morgan Hill remains one of the lowest funded districts in Santa Clara County and thus the District and the Federation will need to continue to advocate to improve funding for our district.
The Federation and District’s critical priority as noted in the LCAP to recruit, hire and retain effective teachers that provide high quality instruction, student engagement, and a supportive school community for all of our students will be essential for the success of our District as we move to close the achievement gap. We have a high turnover in our teaching staff with 73% of our teachers having worked in our district less than 10 years and just this 2014-15 year, the District hired over 80 teachers. As there is a state-wide teacher shortage, we will need to ensure that our district is competitive in order to retain our recent hires and attract new ones.
Attached is the list of our interests regarding contract articles, which the Federation intends to negotiate.
We look forward to a positive and mutually beneficial negotiating process as we move forward to meet the opportunities and challenges facing our district.
Sincerely,
Theresa Sage
President, Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers
Openers:
Article 2: Recognition
Interest: To review and possibly revise the definition of MHFT membership.
Article 3: Rights
Interest: To review and modify the process for developing recommendations and engaging teacher expertise on issues of curriculum, assessment and instruction.
Article 4: Compensation
Interest: To review compensation for comparable districts within Santa Clara County in order to improve compensation and remain competitive. To improve incentive grants for critical need areas to attract and retain highly qualified teachers.
Article 5: Additional Compensation
Interest: To review comparable unified districts within Santa Clara County to provide competitive compensation that is equitable for extra duty stipends throughout the district.
Article 9: Health and Welfare Benefits
Interest: To improve health and welfare benefits in order to provide high quality and affordable health and welfare benefits that is competitive with comparable districts.
Article 12: Hours of Employment
Interest: To create up to 3 years of student and work calendars. To negotiate an appropriate work day schedule for special education pre-school teachers. To review hours of employment with consideration of employees assigned to multiple sites. To ensure that Transitional-Kindergarten and Kindergarten teachers have appropriate support for their programs.
Article 13: Leaves
To resolve issues and improve language around leaves in order to attract and maintain certificated staff.
Article 14: Transfers
Interest: To streamline the process for voluntary transfers in order to improve options for teachers and ensure that sites are appropriately staffed.
Article 15: Class Size
Interest: To analyze and consider modifications to elementary class sizes. To negotiate appropriate special education case load sizes and equitable workloads. To analyze and consider modifications to secondary physical education class sizes in order to align with comparable districts.
Article 16: Evaluation Procedures
Interest: To include the Teacher Support Network program within the evaluation process that is outlined in the contract.
Article 21: Mentor Teachers/ Peer Assistance and Review
Interest: To align language to reflect changes in the New Teacher Induction Program and to include the Teacher Support Network language in this article.
Article 24: Rules Governing
Interest: To negotiate a multi-year contract that includes a trigger if there is a significant change in the financial outlook or proposed MHUSD budget.