La Jolla Cluster Partnership Agreement

Receives Unanimous Vote

 

It is with great happiness that we announce the San Diego Unified Board of Education unanimously approved the La Jolla Cluster Partnership agreement.

  

A huge thank you to Fran Shimp, Julie Latta, Donna Tripi and Rob Tindall for their tireless hard work these last three years. Even with last minute revisions, they persisted and made this happen for our whole cluster. The unanimous vote was a great validation of all their hard work.

 

Thank you to Fran Shimp, Julie Latta and Kerry Dill for their eloquent presentations during public comments.  Thank you to all our cluster members who came to show their support - considering the short notice about the agreement coming before the board, it was heart-warming to see many parents as well as teachers from Muirlands and La Jolla High attend the meeting.

 

And a special thank you to all of you who spent time in partnership meetings, taking surveys and letting your voice be heard.  It was gratifying to hear our Superintendent and school board members praise the inclusive process.  What we have created can truly be called "Community Based Education Reform."

 

We look forward to working alongside the district with a new level of mutual respect and transparency through our new Partnership Agreement.

 

Thank you for your support,

The Board of LJCA 

 

FINAL AGREEMENT

 

Click here to watch the webcast of this historic event for our Cluster.

Forward to the 2:38 (2 hours and 38 minutes) time frame, just after the 3 minute recess.    

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GREAT NEWS LA JOLLA!

 

After three long years, the La Jolla Cluster Partnership Agreement will finally be brought before the San Diego Unified School Board at Tuesday's board meeting (July 29)!  Come and support your cluster at this historic event!  The Board meeting starts at 5pm at 4200 Normal Street, San Diego.

 

Superintendent Marten has been meeting with Donna Tripi, Julie Latta, Rob Tindall and Fran Shimp over the past many months. The last few meetings also included Kari Searles from the district's legal department.

 

Items to note in revised agreement:

• Many items have turned into procedures with timelines. For example, if a school site wishes to purchase something that is not currently available through the district, the school submits the request, the district then has 10 business days to approve or deny (if denied they must include justification.) If denied, the school may request a sit down and the district must comply within 15 business days. If a compromise is not met, the school may request to bring it before the school board for final approval or denial and the district must place it in on the agenda within 15 business days.

• Regarding the children of cluster employees - because of our agreement, the district is now in the process of changing this policy for all district employees and will be using the La Jolla Cluster for its pilot program.  This will allow teachers in every cluster to spend more time with their students outside of class time and be able to take on additional responsibilities such as ASB and assistant coaching as their own children will be nearby.

• Includes all items from the staff and community surveys, except the ability to “utilize outside district-approved vendors for work orders not fulfilled within 48 business hours". The District denied this provision as, once the problem was brought to light, steps have been made to make improvements district-wide.

• Note on "waivers" - NO waivers have been approved.  While teachers overwhelmingly voted to allow hiring committees to look at the full list of applicants instead of only five most senior, the union did not approve the waiver when it was presented.  However, SDEA did say they would ask all its members about changing that section for the new contract.  In regards to the Partnership Agreement, this clause merely states we are allowed to apply for and receive waivers from bargaining units.

 

To read the full agreement - please click here.

NOTE - there was a small error in the doc that was emailed out to everyone - the link above has the correct language.

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The San Diego Unified School District is committed to a community-based school reform model to elevate all schools within the district to higher levels of student achievement.  This model empowers teachers, students, and parents within a cluster community to improve student achievement. The premise of the community-based model is that true school reform can only be successful if built on a solid foundation across grade levels and collaboration between schools and through active parent engagement in the learning process. (From the SDUSD website)

 

The administrators, teachers, parents and staff in the La Jolla Cluster have spent three years engaging all stakeholders and collaborating through meetings and surveys to determine what La Jolla’s educational community needs to make our already solid foundation even stronger.  The final survey is the result of everyone’s hard work and it included the actual Partnership Agreement which we have presented to SDUSD for review.  The majority of the language in our Agreement has already been approved by the board in other Partnership Agreements. Items in our Agreement that have no history of approval will first be presented to the relevant departments at the district for review and possible revisions, therefore some language might change before we officially present to the School Board for approval.

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UPDATE (January 2014)
Principal Donna Tripi, Teacher Julie Latta, and Parent Fran Shimp have been meeting with Superintendent Marten about our Partnership Agreement.  Superintendent Marten is very supportive and working with the La Jolla Cluster to "fine-tune" the agreement so we may present to the school board with a united front.

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UPDATE (June 2013)
Over 1,200 teachers, parents, administrators, staff and community members took our final survey which resulted in a 98% passage rate in favor of our Cluster Partnership Agreement.  Thank you, once again, for your continued support and engagement.

 

As you know, one item in our agreement involves each site being able to interview all qualified applicants for a teaching position as opposed to the current contractual process where only the five most senior teachers in the district are eligible for an open position.  As with any contractual item, teachers at each site would have to submit and receive a waiver from their union, the San Diego Education Association (SDEA), in order for the request to be implemented.  To submit a waiver to SDEA, 66% of all the certificated employees at each site must first vote in favor of the waiver content.  Despite cluster teachers at each site overwhelmingly voting in support of the proposed waiver with an average approval rate of 84%, the SDEA board denied their request.

 

“While we believe this waiver would have expanded the rights of teachers by allowing everyone to apply for an open position in our cluster, our sitting SDEA board unfortunately did not see it that way.  Despite the disappointing outcome, we’d like to thank each and every cluster teacher for their continued support and engagement during this process,” said Julie Latta, Muirlands teacher and co-chair of the Cluster Partnership Agreement Committee.

 

As for the overall Partnership Agreement, cluster representatives have been asked to postpone submitting the document to the San Diego Unified School Board for approval until after our Superintendent Designate, Cindy Marten, shares her vision of Community-Based Education Reform, which should happen in early July, after she officially takes office.  The district Partnership Agreement co-chair, Fran Shimp, and past Area Superintendent, Mike Price, have already met with Ms. Marten to share the history of the Agreement as well as the inclusive, transparent and unifying process that was used to craft the document.

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The school board’s current vision of Community-Based Education Reform is explained on the SDUSD website as: “The San Diego Unified School District is committed to a community-based school reform model to elevate all schools within the district to higher levels of student achievement.  This model empowers teachers, students, and parents within a cluster community to improve student achievement. The premise of the community-based model is that true school reform can only be successful if built on a solid foundation across grade levels and collaboration between schools and through active parent engagement in the learning process.”  To read more, please go to http://www.sandi.net/site/Default.aspx?PageID=54.

 

La Jolla educators, parents and community members embraced the school board’s vision and spent three years determining how to implement the best possible educational climate in our cluster.  The final agreement is very similar to the Mira Mesa High School Agreement spearheaded by Board President Evans, but instead of representing just one school, it embraces all K-12 learning in our cluster to ensure collaboration between schools.  “We look forward to working with Superintendent Designate Marten and are hopeful she and the Board of Trustees will continue to view this Agreement as a collaborative partnership between cluster stakeholders and the district, and as a positive example of Community-Based Education Reform,” Shimp said.

From the District Website:
Vision 2020 (http://www.sandi.net/site/Default.aspx?PageID=45)

For Schools
•    Schools will be safe, attractive neighborhood learning centers supporting learning and interaction for citizens of all ages.
•    Schools will offer opportunities that increase the capacity of the communities to meet their own needs.
•    Schools and clusters will have increased authority to establish instructional strategies designed to assure the success of each student, and will be accountable for the results of those decisions.

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What is the La Jolla Cluster Partnership Agreement and how will it affect students and our schools?  The La Jolla Cluster Association invites you to watch this presentation regarding the cluster-wide partnership agreement between our five public schools and San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD). The goal is to have the agreement approved by the end of the current school year.  To view our 21-minute Partnership Agreement Powerpoint overview, click below: