Desertification Vote March/April 2023

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• If you are considering Union membership, please take the time to become informed about where your money will go. It’s time that you join to support our efforts to improve our profession, our school, and Opt-Out. The San Diego Education Association is not a friend of Gompers Preparatory Academy and the community.  The SDEA is anti-public charter education. The SDEA has engaged in cynical actions that hurt our school and community.
• Gompers Teachers Association with assistance from the San Diego Education Association circulated an EERA Representation petition during a stealth signing blitz to teachers and staff in classrooms and offices (most teachers were unaware this was to form a Union), no vote was needed (as the 9 teachers were able to persuade barely 51% of the teacher's sign by promising summers off and higher wages).  This one petition authorizes our teacher's and counselors' voices to were now exclusively represented by a 3rd party  San Diego Education Association/CTA/NEA), and under their Bylaws. This took away all individual rights to bargain.  Now the Anti-Charter Union San Diego Education Association/CTA/NEA, not just the SDEA is in charge!   On 11/13/18 (video: forward 37:28), the 9 organizers presented to the SDUSD Board of Education to ask for their support, in which Board Member Richard Barrera wrote this letter.  On January, 2nd 2019, PERB officially recognized the Exclusive Representative, and in an Email sent by the Gompers Teacher Association, it to confirms January 2nd, 2019.
• SDEA and Teacher Lay-offs: " Teachers unions have generally argued that seniority is the only fair way to make the painful decision of who to lay off. But the result of “last hired, first fired” is that disadvantaged schools tend to be hit harder by layoffs."

Top 6 Reasons SDEA must be voted out of GPA:

1. SDEA is Anti-Charter, and Gompers Teachers Association agreed with SDEA Anti-Charter Legislation support in April 26, 2019, GTA newsletter pages 4-6. Learn more about the SDEA Anti-Charter movement in the SDEA PROPOSAL (crippling Charter Schools) to SDUSD demonstrating their Anti-Charter bias, red lines are SDUSD edits, you can see how SDEA truly thinks and wants to control every aspect of every school.  Teachers did not come up with that, the SDEA did.  That's what's happening at GPA now. Truth is SDEA/CTA/NEA has begun a campaign to organize charter schools, while continuing to challenge their existence. It is a well-known fact that CTA heavily funds the Anti-Charter movement in California, $1million a month. The key reason SDEA/CTA/NEA are Anti-Charter, they claim charter schools are "draining funds" from district schools, thus they want to "Limit Charter School Growth".  The SDEA/CTA/NEA will say they are not Anti-Charter, they are against for-profit charters (yet there are only 35 for profit charter schools in California).   The truth, California Charter Schools Association President said " CTA is promoting an extreme legislative package that ranges from denying charter public schools, no matter how academically successful, right to appeal to the county or state for renewal (AB 1505) to establishing a cap on charters statewide (AB 1506). The bills would cripple the potential of all California students to receive a quality public education. If that isn’t anti-charter, we don’t know what is."
2. SDEA blocks reform (GPA 6 period day, teacher-supported, based on survey results and the voice of our teachers), SDEA sent GPA a “cease and desist” (see it here) preventing the 6 period day. SDEA could have done an MOU for 6 period day, or presented a “waiver of the right to bargain,” since a majority of teachers supported 6 period day. Instead the Union presented additional constraints along with the 6 period day that would have required additional bargaining beyond the 6 period day.  There was not enough time in order to prepare for master schedule, and the SDEA knew that. The SDEA sold us on the idea that this would be our union and we could run it how we wanted. Well, that hasn’t been the case here with the 6 period day. 
3. SDEA is actively against Director Riveroll (SDEA rep met with the NAACP to try and prevent Director Riveroll from receiving NAACP award, Gompers Teachers Association also knew. GPA response Letter.) NAACP Awards Video. Its also a well-documented fact that the SDEA never supported Gompers ever become charter and did whatever they could to prevent it from ever happening, including having Director Riveroll removed before the charter was authorized in 2005. ("they ordered Bersin in a closed-door meeting to remove Riveroll from the principalship at Gompers and put him in a central office job mentoring other principals.").  
4. SDEA promotes a strict pay scale, anti-merit. Be they exceptional or mediocre or lousy—incentivizing longevity and education, not performance.
5. SDEA advised teachers wrong and tried to cause or attempt to cause Gompers Preparatory Academy to violate the Education Employment Relations Act.  Once the union was recognized, teachers and staff could no longer negotiate wages and the SDEA know this, yet still advised otherwise.  This was brought up at bargaining meeting and GPA sent a letter to SDEA to stop.  
6. The SDEA has exacerbate negative interpersonal dynamics.  Since SDEA has been at our school, relationships have deteriorated and this huge divide is very awkward. Teachers have been pitted against leadership, yet both are essential in educating students.

ASK and KNOW: 

• The law does not require “full disclosure” by union organizers of all the facts needed to have a balanced view;
• If and when a union contract goes into effect, all employees in the bargaining unit are covered, whether or not they signed a card or voted for the union (no “opting out” of the contract);

ASK and KNOW (source): 

• Unions raise the costs of education, thereby draining resources away from inputs that raise achievement.
• Unions remove incentives for teachers to improve instruction – for example, by shielding ineffective teachers from dismissal and by tying salaries to seniority rather than merit.
• Increased formalization as a result of unionization hampers principals’ ability to manage their schools.
• Unions encourage distrustful relationships between teachers and principals.
• Due to their political clout, teacher unions can block promising educational reforms that threaten union interests.
• Teacher union strikes, or even their threat, disrupt instruction, lower morale, and damage community relations.

Bargaining---------The truth about collective bargaining:
********The union, not the teachers and other employees, decides what to propose in negotiations;

The parties must negotiate in good faith, but there is no time limit on how long it may take to reach agreement, and no requirement that an agreement actually be reached;
The union may have made many promises (for instance, tenure), but it cannot guarantee any of them will come true.

San Diego Education Association is not what teachers want at Gompers Preparatory Academy! 

Risks of Negotiations There is no guarantee a union will obtain higher pay or better benefits. In fact, the union cannot guarantee negotiations will not result in a reduction of wages or benefits.
SDEA History with Gompers: DURING THE FORMATION OF GOMPERS CHARTER MIDDLE SCHOOLS Representatives' from the  SDEA headquarters met with teachers and provided arguments against the conversion of Gompers to charter status, including the false claim that teachers would lose health and retirement benefits and the right to return to the district.  After the dust settled,  charter petitioners successfully obtained the approval of more than 50% of its teachers for it's charter petition (Gao 2005a)" Source: Is it wrong for us to want good things? The origins of Gompers Charter Middle School

Unions – by definition – are institutionally motivated to maximize the number of employees, control and minimize work load and to eliminate accountability. Many teachers chafe under union-imposed limitations on performance. Additionally, collective bargaining agreements can stifle the innovation and flexibility in curriculum and school governance that attract students, and teachers, to charter schools in the first place.

Union Control of Members Unions require members to obey their rules – under pain of trial and potential fines. A union will expect all its members to act and speak with one voice; dissent and individuality are discouraged. This also can extend to political activities beyond the workplace. In recent years, unions have increasingly pressured members to contribute and campaign for the union’s preferred political and social agenda.

On the SDEA website: Examples of how they encourage pressure tactics at our school.  Our school was a happy family before the SDEA got involved.  What other tactics are they going to use to take apart the charter they never wanted in the first place?  

Is SDEA breaching its duty of fair representation to the Teacher and Staff at GPA?   It is the obligation to represent all employees fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination.  Who did the SDEA represent when they Blocked the 6 period day?  Who did the SDEA represent when they met and acted in bad faith with the NAACP discrediting our Director and school?
After knowing this, do you still want the San Diego Education Association to be your exclusive representative, even though they have caused more harm than good? Whose best interest does the SDEA have?

• Similar Story from another charter school in San Diego "America's Finest Charter School" in October 2011, SDEA Newsletter touting their formation of a Union.  In less then 2 years the teachers realized the SDEA was a very bad idea for their charter school and voted the SDEA out.  (How A San Diego Charter School Beat The Odds)