YCTA PAC Activities – Prior to Fall 2009

We have participated in CTA/NEA phone your legislators.

In a unique local event, we initiated a petition for public education campaign. WE gather signature s of more than 500 members and others. YCTA President delivered the petitions to the State Capitol to our local representatives in the Assembly and Senate as well as the governor. We were urging that our elcted officials to minimize the cuts to education.

President participation in President’s Lobby Day 2009 and 2010

We joined with other locals a rally for public education on Day of the Teacher in May, 2009.

We have been involved in two prior elections. Our first major effort was in 2006, we worked to supported four candidates without a PAC we secured CTA ABC funding for our candidates and worked for the candidates with some limited participation by the unit. We established our PAC in October at CTA Region at Leadership Conference. It was a late start but we had been collecting money in our School Board Election Fund. Two of the four we supported won. One of them was our former bargaining chair, which turned out not to be a good thing. In 2008, we managed to unseat a very unfriendly incumbent (He even wrote a negative letter to the editor about us in this election). The result of this election should have left us with four friendly board members out of seven. Unfortunately, our former bargaining chair was frequently the swing vote on the wrong side. Our membership participation continued to increase. Just before the 2008, we had a new PAC chair. While Susan Savage was very helpful, our PAC Chair will tell you she did not know what she was doing. She had just gotten involved, she attended the Emerging Leaders at CTA Region 2 Leadership in October just before the election. Since that election she has attended the Political Academy at Region 2 Headquarters in the Spring of 2009. She was ready to attack this latest election and she did so with a plan and the complete support of the YCTA Exec Bd.

2010 school board election- Some background.

Our district is characterized by a very fiscally conservative board and chief financial officer as well as an autocratic, hostile superintendent. The superintendent appears very knowledgeable on educational issues and presents these matters as the expert and characterizes the classroom teachers as simply the technicians that must be constantly monitored and trained to follow protocols. She controls the information going to the board.

Our first effort in the election of school board members was the election of 2006. We elected two candidates we believed to be teacher-friendly – including the former YCTA bargaining chair. In the later years of his term it became apparent that he was not only not teacher-friendly but very supportive of the superintendent. In the election of 2008, two teacher-friendly candidates were once again elected. If our former bargaining chair were still supportive of teachers, we would have gained the prized majority instead we had a contentious split board.

In the 2009/2010 school year, three board members have made it clear the climate at YCUSD needed to change. They brought attention to the decline in morale as well as the failure of district administration to involve classroom educators in decisions. One of these board members insisted that all administrators be trained regarding the impacts of hostile work environments. The superintendent appears to condone if not encourage this climate of fear. Board members have been working to address the “tone, culture and climate”. However, the sharply divided board could reach little consensus or affect much action. An outrageous case of fear and intimidation at one school site was completely bungled in the superintendent’s investigation (or perhaps intentionally mishandled). We knew we needed a fourth to remove our superintendent and that became our unstated mission in the election of 2010 – a school board that would hold our superintendent accountable or remove her.

We had previously elected teacher-friendly pro-classroom board members, however the board was split 4:3 on many issues of great importance to our membership. Unfortunately the swing vote was frequently our former bargaining chair, who we had helped to elect in 2006. The other large district across the river has outpaced our district in compensation for teachers in the last few years as well as the basic respect accorded educational professionals working directly with students. We knew we needed to accomplish two things: elect a school board that would shift the power balance and build the capacity of a unit. Both goals were related to building a stronger local with more involvement.

2009/2010 School year. Dinners with School District Board Members: Building a Relationship between our Members and our School Board

to increase communication and engage in open dialog

September 2009 Kick-Off BBQ for YCTA membership hosted by YCTA Executive Board and YCUSD School Board Members. More than 100 members attended with their families. Six school board members attended and even worked side by side with Exec Bd members to barbeque. The event was an opportunity to connect YCTA teachers and other educators with the school board members. The superintendent and Asst Sup for HR were both miffed and expressed their displeasure that we had not invited the entire district especially administration. They viewed it as our exclusive efforts to court board members. This was a YCTA meets the School Board event – not intended for all and the discomfort of our superintendent was a natural and intended consequence. She prefers to be the only conduit for

information to the board. Opening the lines of communication and building relationships between our membership and the board was our primary goal and her presence would not have allowed us to accomplish that.

Four dinners occurred during the year catered by local restaurants. The first twenty YCTA members to respond were invited to purchase their dinner and join YCTA for a dinner with two board members. The events were a relaxed opportunity for board members to hear both the positive and the not so positive from our membership. The board members heard directly from our members concerns ranging from excessive bubbling of assessments, rigid pacing guides, the challenges of teaching without a prep).

Spring and Summer 2010 -Candidates Recruited to Run for the Board

YCTA Exec Bd meets to assess unit and plan

We actively recruited two candidates to run for office (Ken Berri and Teresa Ball). PAC Chair, Krista Smith met with potential candidates to answer questions and encourage them to serve. In the future, we will also encourage them to pay the more $600 to file the candidate statement with the promise that we will help pay the cost if he/she becomes the YCTA recommended candidate. This year we had a not unpopular incumbent (our former bargaining chair) running against a candidate we recruited. The small difference in the outcome may have been influenced by the fact that our candidate did not have a paid statement in the sample ballot, while the incumbent did. He had previously won by a margin of 69% to 30% and in this election the margin was 52% to 47%. Our problem was paying for the statement prior to the pool of candidates being identified and any endorsement process undertaken. We will need to solve this problem in the future.

During the summer, the YCTA Exec Bd met multiple times to plan for both the upcoming election campaign and to assess the current strength of our unit to develop plans to build a stronger local. Three initial priorities were identified: Site rep recruitment and training, increased membership participation in the selection of medical benefits plans (training site benefits advisors) and the upcoming school board election. We were completely committed to these tasks in the early fall.

August 2010 – Selecting Candidates to Support

The filing deadline was in early August. All candidates were invited to complete an information sheet and come for interviews. Each candidate was not only mailed the invitation but also personal contact was made by YCTA PAC Chair, Krista Smith. All members were invited to participate in the interview and recommendation process.

Fliers and emails were sent inviting our members to the interviews. Our superintendent cautioned us about this email and we assured her that we would not use the names of any candidates on District email nor in mailboxes. The battle had begn. This careful worded reassurance we believed established our position and yet later she would go after one of our own who played within these rules without warning.

From: Nancy AabergSent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 11:08 AMTo: Dina Luetgens; Krista SmithCc: Tom WaltersSubject: RE: School Board Candidates/Rep Council

Many thanks! 

 Nancy H. Aaberg, Superintendent

Yuba City Unified School District

750 Palora Avenue

Yuba City, CA 95991

1530 822 7600

From: Dina Luetgens Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 8:01 AMTo: Nancy Aaberg; Krista SmithCc: Tom WaltersSubject: RE: School Board Candidates/Rep Council

 We will keep our endorsement and support for specific candidates off the District email.

Dina Luetgens

YCTA President

From: Nancy AabergSent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 10:24 PMTo: Krista SmithCc: Dina Luetgens; Tom WaltersSubject: FW: School Board Candidates/Rep Council

Hello All.  Just to keep consistent with our practice/policy about political news and District email--please use alternate emails for any communcation related to the election and/or related campaigns/support.  Thanks. Nancy

From: Krista SmithSent: Wed 8/18/2010 9:42 PMTo: Dina Luetgens; Barry Teachers; RB Teachers; Gray Teachers; YCHS Teachers; DO Psychologists; DO Literacy Coaches; TB Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.org; King Teachers; Bridge Teachers; AK Teachers; BV Teachers; Park Teachers; RV Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; West Walton Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Nurses; Lincoln TeachersSubject: School Board Candidates/Rep Council

Hello all,

     I hope your school year is off to a positive start!  Please don't forget to elect Rep Council members from your site.  Each site may have one representative for every 10 teachers. 

This opening exchange with the Superintendent. You will note later that she is NOT consistent. She will attempt to prohibit us in anyway she can. She seeks legal counsel as to what can we get away with.

YCTA has plans to utilize our reps more so we can accomplish more.  Please attend our first Rep Council meeting on August 30th to find out what's in store.

    As you may know, this is a School Board election year, and we've got eight candidates running for four positions.  YCTA will be interviewing the candidates next week.  If you are interested in sitting in on the interviews, please let me know and we'll be happy to make room for you.  The interviews are currently being scheduled for Wednesday, August 25th, and Thursday, August 26th, from 4:00 p.m. to about 8:00 p.m.  We will share our candidate support decisions at our Rep Council meeting the following Monday.

    I look forward to working with more of you this year as I continue Dinners with Board Members, participate in site visitations, and begin election activities.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or are interested in helping with any activities.  I appreciate it!

 Krista Smith

YCTA Political Action and Organization

Sample candidate info sheet and notes from interviews

Four candidates emerged as candidates we could enthusiastically support. This was different – we were excited about the balance these four candidates could bring to our board. We made this our election campaign theme.

The four candidates were presented (Flyer shown to here) to the Rep Council for their approval on August 30, 2010. Rep Council voted overwhelming to approve these candidates. Our timeline was greatly improved in this campaign from our last. We were able to complete interviews and secure Rep Council approval – not possible in the last election until after we had already moved forward.

SEPTEMBER 2010 – GETTING OUT THE MESSAGESite Reps bring the message to their members District Administration makes various attempts to silence our messageYCTA Leadership and CTA visit sitesBBQ to Meet the Candidates SITE REPS BRING THE MESSAGE TO THEIR SITES DESPITE RESTRICTIONS.

Flyers with the names and salient quotes from the interviews were distributed to our membership by our reps as well as opportunity to get involved sheets.. These flyers were hand delivered using a membership roster for each site.

At YCTA our district has precluded us from using the mailboxes or district email to communicate any information about the election. In the 2006 election, YCUSD threatened YCTA leadership with jail or prison time if we used district mail boxes to distribute any information endorsing candidates. At the time, CTA choose to pursue legal action in the San Leandro case rather than the YC case, given the politically conservative climate in Sutter County. CTA legal has since advised us to follow these restrictions and not risk it in our climate.

Thus all membership communication could not be done in any of our normal channels for reaching membership. We would need to use alternate modes of communication – quite a challenge. But the personal contact made the distribution more difficult as made it more effective.

We had been allowed to return the PAC deduction forms by intradistrict mail but the District even forbade this practice.

From: Tom WaltersSent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 2:55 PMTo: cmcguigan@cta.orgCc: Dina Luetgens; Nancy Aaberg; DO PrincipalsSubject: Yuba City Unified School District Site Visits

Ms. McGuigan

 The short notice given to the District makes it unfeasible for the District to fully evaluate, and our sites to prepare for, your proposed visits from members of YCTA and CTA on the schedule you have provided.   

 If approved by the District, our principals will require time to notify teachers that there are potential visitors to their classrooms.  Based upon the need for such preparation the District would anticipate that visits, if approved, would not commence prior to September 20, 2010.

 With regard to your proposal that school staffrooms be made available to YCTA and CTA for meetings with employees during school hours, this request is being evaluated as well.  The District has no objection to YCTA representatives meeting with employees during non-duty time.  However, to the extent that such meetings are to occur utilizing District resources during school hours, such use must limited to matters related to wages, hours and conditions of employment.  At this point any requests for release time for YCTA representatives will be handled on a case by case basis.  The District is not at this time approving blanket release from classrooms to teachers in connection with your request.

 The proposal to grant CTA the use of staffrooms during school hours is being evaluated as well and you will be notified of the District’s determination shortly.

 Tom Walters

Assistant Superintendent

Human Resources

Yuba City Unified School District

A DOUBLE TEAMING REPSONSE TO DISTIRCT ATTEMPTS TO SHUT US DOWN.Two Football games at our two high schools AND we were there.

Football is a community event in our small town and our cross-town rival high schools are big draws on a Friday night (Sept. 17, 2010). So after one the district administration attempts to shut us down again. We put YCTA members at both schools on the same Friday night (homecoming at one of the schools). We wore signs on our bodies and passed out fliers to our community. We chatted with people entering the game to get our message out. In addition to getting the message to our community members we wanted our superintendent to know we were there in numbers that we would not be deterred. We pulled off this impromptu event as an immediate response to her actions. We clearly identified ourselves as teachers, since our community respects educators especially as individuals.

DISTRICT ATTEMPTS TO STOP YCTA/CTA SITE VISITS

Members of the YCTA Exec Bd and Bargaining Team made the commitment to use release days to each visit two sites. Our goal was to increase the visibility of YCTA leadership to our membership, to make leadership more accessible and responsive, to allow leadership to gain first-hand knowledge about the climate and working conditions at each site and to bring forth our message about the election both locally and state-wide. We coupled our visits with CTA canvass cards campaign. We were committed to this one-on-one and small group meeting method of communication.

We coordinated the visits with site reps and admin. The full-day visits included meet and greet before school with treats, classroom visitations, participation in lunch discussions during every lunch period, and a closing meeting at the end of the day. Multiple contacts were made with the teachers at the sites both before and after the visitations.

Our District office administration attempted to shut down our efforts to meet with our members at their sites. On Thursday Sept. 9, in a joint YCTA Exec Bd and YCUSD Cabinet meeting, that included the superintendent, we informed the District of our plans – including all of the details of the political purposes to discuss both local and statewide elections and gather the CTA canvass cards. The Superintendent expressed her concerns regarding the political discussions. We assured her that these discussions would be strictly limited to duty free time i.e. the 30 minute duty free lunch. We fully believe she had acquiesced to our plan to visit our members. She directed us to work with the Assistant Sup for HR to proceed with our plans.

On Friday after being fully informed of all the details including the emails sent to site administration with all the details, he simply asked us to be flexible regarding dates with the administrators. We put the plan in motion and were fully ready for the first set of three visits to begin on Wed. Sept. 15. At 2:55 PM the day before (Tues Sept 14), the Asst Sup emailed our CTA PCS Cathy McGuigan to prohibit the visits scheduled for the next day. They were attempting to push us to postpone our visits until after the election. We were adamant in our demand to meet with our membership at their workplace. Fortunately for us that evening, was a YCUSD board meeting and we were able to make contact with several board members prior to the meeting and make public statements that evening. And that began the media blitz that blasted our District administration. Most of the blogs in the paper were in our favor.

Our upfront and full disclosure again left us on the high road. We had been given the go ahead and planned accordingly without full disclosure. We were playing the game within the very restrictive rules of the District and we were still getting our message out. Instead of being discouraged from action we spurred on with greater fervor. The superintendent resorted to lies in the paper to justify her actions. We maintained the high road.

The superintendent underestimated our determination. She believed that we would fold up and put off our site visits, but we instead fought back and won. WE completed all of our site visits except for one before our September 30 deadline. The only remaining site was that of the principal engaged in a potentially very embarrassing PERB case brought forth by YCTA regarding the falsification of attendance documents. The principal threatened the site rep with a reassignment after she refused to falsify attendance documents. This principal was delaying the visit by our bargaining chair, but that was well with our expectations. We were quite happy to continue to make her uncomfortable. And this case will be significant later in the story.

Front page above the fold!!!

Notice the name of our candidate in the headline on the second page of the article. We got free publicity for our four candidates within

this article.

Front page above the fold!!!AGAIN!!!!

And our follow-up letter to the editor gets our four candidates names in print AGAIN!!

We fought it out and CTA legal backed us up. YCUSD Board meetings are recorded and included on the YCUSD website, so we knew any public statements at the board meeting would get press attention. And we used this to our advantage. The Superintendent sparred with YCTA President on the record, even going so far as to call CTA an outside agency. Following the board meeting that evening, YCTA President, Dina Luetgens, met with the superintendent and Ass’t Sup for HR at 10PM and gained permission for at least the site visits to proceed the next morning and agreed to forego the political portion for the next morning until legal counsel could resolve. CTA staff responded that morning by accompanying all three YCTA leaders to the three sites. That morning they got word from CTA Legal Counsel, Priscilla Winslow that they could proceed with the political portion and they did just that.

Needless to say the superintendent was angry. At that point they once again attempted to stop the visits. The superintendent even resorted to misrepresentation of the facts to the press. She lied and we managed to call her out IN PRINT. Legal threats and letters were exchanged, but we were able to proceed with the remaining visits. We simply did the political portion at the end of the duty day at the site. We might have proceeded with further legal action, but instead we chose to use the moral high ground – in difficult financial times the district should be spending money on students and programs rather than legal costs. Just made us look even better.

We used this as yet another organizing opportunity to galvanize our members and our community. The District administration’s high-handed attempts to keep us from our members were viewed as yet more evidence for their practice of fear, intimidation and harassment. And we simply vowed to be more clever and determined

Our CTA attorney cites legal codes and theirs not much… We are so impressed to be represented by CTA.

We made sure to respond to all the District’s misrepresentations in their news release. Fortunately we have cultivated our local media. They came to us to respond and provided the District press release so we could respond point for point.

SITE VISITS INCREASE VISIBILITY OF YCTA and BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

Our site visits were an overwhelming success as members of exec bd and bargaining teams were able to fully interact with our members at their sites. They watched them in action in their classrooms and interacted with before and after school as well as at lunch. Listening and making one-on-one contact during these site visits was our third action in a Fall Campaign to build a stronger local with two primary goals: recruiting membership to work on the election and building local power.

The leaders made contacts during their visits to share the recommended candidates and encourage members to get involved in the campaign. They brought fliers with candidate info, forms for PAC contributions, and commitment cards to help with the campaign.

In addition to building our capacity, we also delivered our political message for the local election and state-wide elections. The full-day visits were very successful and we will engage in the same in the spring to continue to build relationships and to bring our message regarding negotiations.

A sample email to site principal from YCTA President. Every principal received a personal email.

From: Dina LuetgensSent: Friday, September 10, 2010 4:15 PMTo: Louise McKrayCc: Steve JenningsSubject: YCTA visits Bridge

Louise,

YCTA leadership will be visiting every site this September.  It is our goal to watch and listen to get a sense of the operation at all the sites in the District, as well as gather and share some information with our membership during their lunches and a brief after-school meeting.

      We will start the day with morning treats in the staff room.  We hope that staff will come in to welcome the YCTA visitor. 

      Introductions and treats to start the day will be followed by observations in the classroom.  We are hoping that our YCTA leadership may observe instruction at grade levels far removed from their own level of familiarity to better represent our diverse unit. 

      Joining all members for lunch in the staff room will allow our YCTA leadership to listen to our members.  Being present in the staff room for all lunch periods will allow our YCTA leadership to be accessible to all our members at a convenient time and place.

      At the end of the day a ten minute meeting will be held to close the visit.  We will share some information and listen to the concerns and interests of the members at the site.

 We appreciate your cooperation in this important investment by our YCTA leadership in better representing our diverse bargaining unit by increasing visibility and access between leadership and membership. 

 Steve Jennings, YCHS teacher on the YCTA Bargaining Team, will be visiting Bridge on Tues (9/21).  Alicia will be coordinating rooms that Steve can visit.  This is a great opportunity for us to improve communication.  Please let us know if there is anything else we can do or should know.

Thank you,Dina

A sample email to the site rep from YCTA President to set up visit.

From: Dina LuetgensSent: Friday, September 10, 2010 3:20 PMTo: Schorre Philyaw; Alicia Gonzalez; Lupe Rose; Steve JenningsSubject: Visiting Bridge Street

Schorre, Lupe, and Alicia,

Steve Jennings, YCHS teacher on the YCTA Bargaining Team, will be visiting Bridge Street to watch and listen.  YCTA leadership is visiting every site in September.  We would like to reach out to our members at our sites during the school day.  We want to get a sense of operations at all sites.  He will be there all day Tuesday (9/21).

Could you please ask for volunteers to allow him to watch their classes?   We want Bridge  Street teachers to feel better connected and represented.   I know you have looks to share.  Please show Steve what happens at Bridge Street.  I appreciate your help to make this visit to your site an effective way for us to reach out to our members.  See the details of the visit below.  You may contact Steve directly by email.

Thank you, Dina

Overview of the visit.YCTA leadership will be visiting every site this September.  It is our goal to watch and listen to get a sense of the operation at all the sites in the District, as well as gather and share some information with our membership during their lunches and a brief after-school meeting.

o We will start the day with morning treats in the staff room.  We hope that staff will come in to welcome the YCTA visitor.

o Introductions and treats to start the day will be followed by observations in the classroom.  We are hoping that our YCTA leadership may observe instruction at grade levels far removed from their own level of familiarity to better represent our diverse unit.

o Joining all members for lunch in the staff room will allow our YCTA leadership to listen to our members.  Being present in the staff room for all lunch periods will allow our YCTA leadership to be accessible to all our members at a convenient time and place.

o At the end of the day a ten minute meeting will be held to close the visit.  We will share some information and listen to the concerns and interests of the members at the site.

We appreciate your cooperation in this important investment by our YCTA leadership in better representing our diverse bargaining unit by increasing visibility and access between leadership and membership.

Dina LuetgensYCTA PresidentUnited as Professionalscell 530-218-4089office phone 530-671-3598alternate email dinayc@aol.com<mailto:dinayc@aol.com>

A sample email to the site teachers from YCTA President prior to visit.

From: Dina LuetgensSent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 9:14 AMTo: AK TeachersCc: Lisa HaleSubject: YCTA Lisa Hale visting AK

Please help welcome Lisa Hale to AK this Thursday.  Lisa  is a member of YCTA Executive Board and Alt Ed teacher.  Thank you to Jill and Trisha for coordinating for rooms for Lisa to visit.  These visits

Bridge Street

have been a great opportunity for YCTA leaders to see our members at their sites in their classrooms.

Members of the YCTA Executive Board and Bargaining Team are visiting every k-5 and k-8 site in the District. They will spend the entire day at the site. 

It is our goal

to make YCTA more accessible and visible. to observe the work at all of our diverse sites to listen to our members to build connections within our unit

Please make her feel welcome at your site.  Please introduce yourself and share your experiences and concerns. 

I would like to ask you to

come to the staff room before school to introduce yourself. join your colleagues for lunch with the YCTA visitor say good bye at the ten minute meeting at the close of the day

Please attend the ten minute meeting at the end of the day.  CTA will pay for our visit if you will attend a ten minute meeting in the afternoon.  We need to share some information with you after the duty day that the District is not allowing us to share at lunch - despite CTA legal's very clear and convincing arguments citing legal precedence that we absolutely have the right to do so at lunch.  There will be a prize drawing for those in attendance or who turned their cards in today in the meeting with Carl.

I thank the members of YCTA Leadership who have volunteered so much.  They are taking the day away from their students to see you at your site.  To watch you at work.  To listen to you before school, at lunch and after school. 

I thank you for connecting with them during their visit.

Please enjoy the visit and allow us to make these important connections with you,Dina

YCTA Leaders make contact with site reps to set up the specifics of their visits and also emailed the site teachers both before and after the visit. This is a sample of the pre-visit email from YCTA Exec Bd member.

From: Carl KnorrSent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 12:06 PMTo: Lincoln TeachersSubject: YCTA Visits Lincoln Teachers Tomorrow!

Good morning, colleagues:

 The YCTA Executive Board and Bargaining Team are working hard this year to be more visible and accessible to our members at all sites in the district, and personal communication is the key. As the YCTA Membership Chair, I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible during my all-day visit to Lincoln School tomorrow (Wednesday).

Lincoln School

Schedule for Board Visitation by Carl Knorr 7:55-8:20 Lunch Room 8:20-8:35 Lisa’s Office Next:  Mary Yacavace- Kindergarten Room 8  (1st and 2nd grade recess is at 10:00, so anytime before or after that works!) Lori Logan- 1st Grade Room 15 Ruth Dalske- 1st Grade Room 13 Nancy Teague- 2nd Grade Room 20 4th and 5th Grade recess is at 10:30 Durell Siplin- 4th Grade Room 17 Jonna Del Fava- Kindergarten (PM, 11:30-2:45) Room 11 Rosie Vasquez- 5th Grade Room 5 Lunches begin at 11:00 and go till 12:55 Early Release is at 1:00. 3rd Grade has invited you to their grade level meeting at that time in room 36.

 The day will start with treats in the staff lounge before school. This is a busy time of day, I know, and many of us have morning duty, but please stop by then if you have a chance.

 At lunch I will be joined by our local CTA regional staff person Cathy McGuigan, a real resource for our unit. She and I will have important information for you -- and more treats, too -- regarding the upcoming statewide election (candidates and propositions) and our own school board election, among numerous other topics. We will also be there to hear any questions or concerns you may have regarding school site or district issues, and you will have the chance to enter into a drawing for a prize any teacher will appreciate. Again, please come to the staff room if you are able. We'd love to connect with you then.

 After school, for anyone who may not yet have been able, I will be in the staff room once again and will draw the winning staff member's name for our drawing.

 In between, I will be observing your work in the classroom and on the playground. I look forward to seeing for myself the good work that so many in our district have talked about so positively for so long. (It's been about 15 years since I last worked as a substitute at Lincoln, and I'm sure a lot has changed over the years.) I look forward to seeing you all in the morning.

 Sincerely,

 Carl F. Knorr

 YCTA Executive Board

From: Steve JenningsSent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 8:00 PMTo: Dina LuetgensSubject: Visiting Bridge Street School

Since you are the "official" spokesperson for the Association, please peruse this email for sending to the Bridge St. staff.  I would like to cc Louise, Nancy, Doreen and Tom.  Let me know what you think.

To the staff at Bridge Street School:

I had the opportunity to visit Bridge Street School on Tuesday, September 21.  I can tell you

This is a sample of the post-visit email from YCTA Exec Bd member. Our bargaining chair shares his positive reflections on the visit. Other leaders also wrote individual thank you notes to people who opened their classrooms to observations

that I came away totally impressed.  I felt welcomed, invited, and observed some great teaching.  Practices at Bridge St. were so impressive that I intend to take some of my observations back to YCHS for discussion.  I know there was some confusion about whether I would be allowed to visit because of ongoing issues between YCTA and YCUSD, but all adapted to my visit and moved forward as the professionals we all are.

The Bridge St. staff has much to celebrate.  Exiting PI status is no small feat, and that exiting can be attributed to all of the hard work going on at your school.  It appeared to me that all--classified staff, certificated staff, and administration all embrace one goal--student success.

While I did not have the opportunity to visit all class rooms in the limited time I was on campus, it was apparent that there are school wide practices in place that will only serve to continue the immense progress going on at your school.  Again, I thank everyone I had contact with for your hospitality, your genuine openness, and for your dedication to the often overlooked work we do.  I hope to have the opportunity to visit Bridge St. again in the future under less "tense" conditions and learn even more from your exemplary practices.

Steve Jennings

Social Science Teacher, YCHS

YCTA Bargaining Chairperson

These series of email serve as record of our communication to put our plan into action. We had multiple goals: increase visibility of leadership, build relationships with membership, increase capacity of both leadership and membership by improving communication, carry forth the CTA election message and canvass cards AND bring the YCTA election message to gain the commitment of members to participate.

Back to School BBQ and Meet the Candidates 9/30/2010

This event was intended to be a membership building event and an opportunity to meet the candidates: a culmination to the month of site visits and the kick off to full-swing efforts for the campaign. All the YCTA supported candidates attended at least some portion of the event to mingle and meet our members. YCTA 4’ x 8’ street signs and 24” x 36” yard signs were debuted and distributed.

After the battle for site visits and the attempts by our district to stop CTA from meeting with our membership at their work place, we invited CTA Executive Officers to our BBQ event. Dean Vogel, CTA Vice-President and Dana Dillon, CTA Board Member joined us for the event. Our members were able to “check out” their local and state leaders. Many familiar faces were present but also some less often involved members turned out as well.

We asked members to take fliers to distribute to friends, family and neighbors as well as yard signs. We solicited their donations and singed them up to work the campaign. At least 150 members mingle and dined along with their families.

A positive event to kick off October Activities we ended our September Get Out the Message internally campaign. Our challenge in October was to get the message out to our targeted 13,000 voters. And we needed to communicate with our members without ever mentioning the election in emails or other communication.

Invitations to the BBQ

From: Krista SmithSent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 9:53 PMTo: Dina Luetgens; AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.orgSubject: RE: YCTA BBQ THURSDAY 9/30

Hello all,

     Just a little reminder that the Welcome Back BBQ for teachers and their families will be this Thursday.  Bring the kids and come on down for some positive fellowship with your colleagues and friends, and maybe get to know some others as well.  We'll have all kinds of goodies!

See you there--Sam Brannen Park, 5-7 p.m. 

Krista Smith

YCTA PAC

From: Dina LuetgensSent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 11:05 AMTo: AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.orgSubject: YCTA BBQ THURSDAY 9/30

Hello,

Don't miss the YCTA BBQ this Thursday (9/30) at Sam Brannen Park on Gray Ave.  Bring your family for an evening to connect with other members of YCTA. 

From 5 - 7 PM we will be gathering together to make the connections that allow us to be a stronger association.  Come visit with your colleagues.  Come  hear some important information.  Come meet some new people.  Come build connections with teachers at other schools.  Come and have a good time.  Come eat and relax.

It is our primary goal this year to build stronger relationships within our association - both between our members and our leaders.  YCTA Bargaining Team and Executive Board members have been visiting every site in the District.  We want to watch and listen.  Please come introduce yourself to these YCTA leaders. 

You may even consider taking on a leadership role within YCTA.  We are looking for Meet and Consult reps as well as new members for the Executive Board and the Bargaining Team. 

Come get involved.  I know how busy our work and our lives have become, but I urge you

to take some time to connect with YCTA.  YCTA is our voice - best spoken when we all contribute and communicate.

Please accept this invitation.  Bring the family.  Let someone else do the cooking.  (Or perhaps you may volunteer to flip a few burgers.)

Let's build a stronger association to exercise our professional voice.  Together we are the voice of the classroom. 

Thank you,Dina

INSERT bbq PICS

OCTOBER 2010 – “OCTOBER ACTIVITIES”CREATIVE Uses of District email – How do you communicate without using the “prohibited”?YCTA Website – another vehicle to give the detailsNew YCTA Facebook Page – another vehicle to give the detailsLetters to the Editor – using free mediaPhone Banking Mon – Thurs every weekPrecinct Walking – every SaturdayCTA internal postcards – mailing to all local CTA membersCTA subsided postcards to our 13,000 targeted householdsConnecting with other Associations - Yuba College and CSEAThe Site Rep who dares to use the words: “election, phonebanking and candidates”Precluded from posting election fliers on staff bulletin board – we fight back with “Where in YC is Dina’s Truck?”

Identifying Likely Voters and Contacting Them

With the help of Susan Savage, CTA Political Action Staff, we identified our likely voters (frequent voters in 4 of last 6 elections) Our goal was to make at least two contacts with every household. And we DID IT. Every household received the mailing and either a phone call or a flier delivered to their doorstep. Some received all three contacts. This was in addition to the many street signs and yard signs as well as letters to the editor. Precinct walk lists were packaged into folders so we could check them out to members for phoning and walking.

Mailing to likely voters.

We used the option of piggybacking on the CTA mailer regarding prop 24 to get the message about our local election to our target audience of 13,000 households.

Perhaps in conservative Sutter County, we would be better served to pay the full cost and make our mailing exclusive to our local election. In the next campaign we will raise the funds to do so. This was one of our recommendations at the end of the campaign debrief.

Communicating with Membership on District Email without using the contraband words instead we cryptically referred to “October Activities”

You will notice we never even use the word election nor candidates. While CTA legal could make a case for us that as long we are not endorsing a specific candidate, we can communicate with our membership about the electoral process; we instead decided to play it purposefully cryptic and yet effectively communicating our message. We choose to be able to use the mantra that we did not want our district to spend the dollars on attorneys. This has a two-fold message: tough financial times mean we should direct our limited dollars to programs that serve our kids plus it was a reminder of the insanity of the dollars spent on the law firm rather than settling issues with YCTA. This includes multiple unfair practice charges, grievances and investigations of harassment claims against admin by YCTA members. We got out our message and people still showed up and worked the election despite all the efforts from the District to silence our efforts – just another galvanizing issue to compel our members to take action.

Samples of October emails to the YCTA Unit

From: Krista SmithSent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 8:11 PMTo: AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.orgSubject: October Activities

Hello all,

     What a nice turn out at our BBQ last Thursday!  Numerous members and their families arrived for play time and food and good conversations.  Several representatives from CTA attended as well, including Cathy McGuigan our CTA staff person, Dana Dillon our CTA Board Director, and CTA Vice President Dean Vogel.  They all had positive comments to share about our membership.  Several School Board candidates made an appearance and enjoyed getting to meet some of us!

     Just a little reminder that we have plenty of activities for October.  Gray Avenue school is kicking things of Monday night at our office, with YCHS picking up Tuesday.  For every hour of acitivity, you can put your name in a drawing for a variety of gift cards, and the site with the greatest percentage of participation will win breakfast goodies delivered to your site!  If you'd like more informtion, please feel free to email me with your phone number and I'll be happy to give you a call. 

 See you soon,

Krista Smith

From: Dina LuetgensSent: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 8:21 PMTo: AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.org

Subject: YCTA: events and facebook

Hello,

This evening the YCTA Office is busy with activity as members from YCHS engage in our October Activities.  They have done an awesome job.  Please consider participating in one or more activities this October. 

The calendar of events appears on YCTA.net.  You can make YCTA.net your home page.  From the YCTA.net page you can get to district email, abi, seis, the sub system as well as many other useful links such as cta.invest or cvt. 

Have you been on Facebook?  You can now "LIKE" Yuba City Teachers Association.  You search for Yuba City Teachers Association.  Once you "like" us you can get our updates and post on our wall.  We can share our stories and have another way of staying touch.

Last week's barbeque was awesome.  Dean Vogel, the next CTA President, visited with many of members.  Jill Niederholzer went to Reno for the CTA Leadership this last weekend.  She met Dean and he shared his positive impressions of our event.  Thank you to Dean for joining us and Jill for going to the conference.  Dana Dillon, our CTA Board Director also joined us for the picnic along with Cathy McGuigan, our CTA staff person and Beth Curtis, our CTA GLS attorney.  Plus Lisa Jenson-Martin the President of Yuba College Faculty Association, also dropped by to meet us.  And best of all there were so many of our members there for the fun, friendship and food.  And a special thank you to those at the grill: Paula Manning, Steve Jennings, and Brent Smith.

Let's make this a great month.  I look forward to seeing you this month.  Watch for our events on ycta.net or our facebook page.

Thank you,Dina

This sign is at the cross walk and pedestrian entrance to

Lincoln School

From: Dina Luetgens Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 3:56 PMTo: AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.org

Subject: Urgent Call to Action from YCTA - Step up and update from CTA Pres.

 

We used the email to share the positives of the activities and continue to alert our members to our efforts to work together. We told the story of unity. We

encouraged our members to get involved; all done while playing the game within the oppressive restrictions of our district AND we had fun doing with the challenge.

From: Dina LuetgensSent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 8:03 PMTo: AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.orgSubject: YCTA - October Activities Come join in the fun.

Hello,

October Activities are in full swing here at the YCTA Office- just wrapping up another night.  Tonight we had dinner with Butte Vista teachers.  We have been able to spend time with members from many different sites over the last two weeks.  Our activities here at the office will continue every Mon - Thurs from 5 - 8PM in October, plus every Saturday beginning at 9AM.  Dinner or breakfast treats and opportunities to get involved are provided.  Please consider joining us.  You are an important part of our Association. 

Our goal for the year is to build a stronger local by building more connections between our members and YCTA as a whole.  Together we are a powerful voice to speak for our students and our teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists and speech and language specialists.  Please help us build a stronger local by getting involved.  Come down to the office during October to be a part of our union - be part of making a difference.

Hello,

Please don't dismiss reading this, thinking someone else will step up for you.  I am asking YOU to get involved in October Activities.  We must act together to build a stronger local so that we can gain the power to exert our influence in decisions at YCUSD.  Please act now before the end

We have enjoyed connecting and visiting over dinner in these evening activities and with coffee and muffins for breakfast on Saturday mornings.  We have gotten to know our membership better and enjoyed hearing stories from our sites.  These October activities follow our September activities - visits by YCTA leadership to every K-5, K-8 and 6-8 site in the district.  These visits were yet another way we reached out to make stronger connections to our membership, increase communication and observe the working conditions at each site. 

This weekend ONLY we have an extra activity planned.  Come to the YCTA Open House on Sunday from 2-4 PM for coffee and home baked delicious deserts.   You will have the opportunity to meet with YCTA members and other special guests.

Finally don't forgot the standard monthly activity - REP COUNCIL is Monday.  

You can "LIKE" Yuba City Teachers Association on FACEBOOK.  Use this social networking site to connect with other members of YCTA.  And you get more details about October Activities on ycta.net.  You can use the ycta.net members only portion to dialog with other teachers about common issues.  For example - Share your observations, questions and concerns with the new Treasures adoption. 

Stay connected.  Get involved.  Thank you,Dina

From: Krista SmithSent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 8:01 PMTo: AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.orgSubject: Get Involved for Change

Hello all,     October Activities are still going strong, but we could use some more help!  Barry School is in full swing tonight, and River Valley High School will be taking on Thursday night.  Wednesday is open to anyone who'd like to join in.  Dinner on me. :)     I know the weather service is calling for a bit of rain on Saturday, but that's what umbrellas are for!  (We've done it in the rain before . . .)  Partner up with someone, spend some time together, and help make a change for our membership.  The feedback we've been getting, from teachers and the public, has been very positive.  It really, really, really isn't that painful!     Again, we'll be meeting Wednesday and Thursday this week, Saturday, and

again Monday through Thursday next week and the last Saturday of the month.  We've had a few retired folks helping, one counselor, and some of our own children!  Paula Manning has literally put her blood, sweat, and tears into this (just ask her doctor), yet is still participating from home.  Help us help ourselves and join in the October Activities!    A big thanks to all have given of their time.  This is a bigger turn out than we've ever seen before!  Hope to see more of you and enjoy our time together--Krista Smith PAC

From: Krista SmithSent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 8:02 PMTo: AK Teachers; AL Teachers; AP Teachers; Barry Teachers; Beckie Kersting; Bridget McMahon; Bridge Teachers; BV Teachers; Christi Miller; CG Teachers; DO Counselors; DO Literacy Coaches; DO Nurses; DO Psychologists; Gray Teachers; King Teachers; Lincoln Teachers; Lincrest Teachers; Park Teachers; RB Teachers; RV Teachers; TB Teachers; West Walton Teachers; YCHS Teachers; cmcguigan@cta.orgSubject: October Activities

Hello All,     Just a reminder that Thursday evening from 5 pm to 8 pm at the YCTA office is Bridge Street's night of activities!  YCHS has taken the last two nights and has actually had an enjoyable evening.  Don't forget to check with your site rep to see what you can participate in.  We're also meeting Saturday morning at 9 am at the office for breakfast goodies and even more fun.  Please join us.  You could win gift cards from Jan-Yo Yogurt, Costa Vida, Cinemark, and more.     A BIG thank you to all who have already participated!  Krista Smith

P.S.  Check us out on Facebook!  "Like" us now!  :)  You can also make ycta.net your homepage for more information and continual updates.  Be informed--be involved.  Together we can make a difference!

YCTA Website. Communicating electronically outside the realm of the District.

The website showed the calendar of our campaign activities, encourage and info to participate, and candidate pics and bios. We started our website the prior year to encourage our membership to use a members only forum rather than the district’s email system. This was a natural progression. We used the public page to provide another venue to share our candidates with the community as we referenced our site on community flyers. They could go here for more in depth profiles of the candidates as well as details of our selection process.

Using social media to communicate – A New Facebook Page “Have you liked YCTA on Facebook yet?”

We used our facebook page to keep our members informed about the details of our “October Activities” We electronically invited them to our events.

Our members and community members placed forty signs in their front years. This one is viewed driving on Lincoln Road – a major cross town street.

Using free press to get our candidates in the paper – Letters to the Editor.

A few of our letters posted atthe door to the office

We orchestrated at least two letters for each candidate

Phoning our Likely Voters

Campaign 2010

Phone the voters. Mark the sheet to show their response. See codes on the bottom of each page.

Phonebank Script

Hello, __________. My name is __________ and I’m a classroom teacher at __________School here in the Yuba City School District. We’re calling local voters tonight to let you know how important the upcoming school board election is.

We wanted you to know that your local classroom teachers are supporting

Ken Berri

Lonetta Riley

Teresa Ball

and Mike Hudson

for our local school board. We’re supporting them because we know they will listen to teachers, parents, and members of the community, and make decisions that will provide supportive learning environments for students while maintaining high expectations for student success.

Can we count on you to support the teachers’ recommendation of Ken Berri, Lonetta Riley, Teresa Ball, and Mike Hudson?

If undecided:Is there any specific information we could get to you that would be helpful to you in making your decision?

The Wall of Fame Grows!!

MORE THAN 6,000 PHONE CONTACTSIN SIXTEEN DAYS OF PHONE BANKING

BY MORE THAN 60 VOLUNTEERS.

Thanks again for your time and have a great evening!

Visiting our Likely Voters – Walking the Neighborhoods of our students.

We sold this one as a Saturday activity. We met at the YCTA Office and signed fliers for delivering. We knew that if a voter received a flier signed by a person identifying themselves as a teacher, they would give it more notice. We served coffee, hot chocolate, donuts and other treats. We visited and chatted as we signed and then we left in pairs to meet our neighbors.

But we also sold this one as an afternoon activity at your school site, gather a few teachers and deliver fliers in your school community. Get out there together to and see where our students live.

We walked the neighborhoods of our migrant families, our section 8 housing as well as more affluent neighborhoods. It was informative to see the range of backgrounds from which our students hail There is new empathy as you walk their neighborhoods.

We also marketed this one as a simple task of walk your on neighborhood. You could check out the folder for your neighborhoods and deliver to the streets around your home.

Delivering flyers in

our YCTA blue shirts

Mission central-

The bins of completed foldersBags for prize drawings

Preparing to go out.

MORE THAN 9,000 FLYERS DELIVERED BY

MORE THAN 90 VOLUNTEERS

Creative Alternative Vehicles to get the word out - Dina’s truck at every site.

The District began removing our fliers from lunch room tables and YCTA bulletin boards. Principal told our site reps it was at the direction of the D.O. We had clear legal counsel that tells us we may do this. But once again, we decided to turn this one into yet another opportunity.

O.K. So, you won’t let us communicate with our members on YCTA bulletin boards or lunch room table inside the building, we will get our message out IN FRONT of each and every school – where everyone can see our message.

We moved Dina’s pick up in the middle of night to each site to get the front and center spot where all coming and going would see. It became a game of “where is Dina’s truck today?”.

Reprimands for a site rep. Oh My. She dared to say “phonebank and candidates” but she did NOT mention any candidate by NAME. This is within the realm of legal, but NOT in YCUSD.

And here it is……….simply innocuous…Hmm.

From: Jill NiederholzerSent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 12:15 PMTo: AK StaffSubject: Phoning likely voters!

DINNER WILL BE PROVIDED!  :-)

Please join AKS school phone bank on Monday, Oct.11., from 6-8pm at the YCTA office, as we call registered voters that have voted often in the past - "likely voters" to

Truck pics

From: Lisa Scott [lscott@kbtlaw.us]Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 3:00 PMTo: jniederholzer@ycusd.k12.ca; Dina LuetgensCc: Nancy Aaberg; Tom Walters; Paul GantSubject: Yuba City USD - Political Activities

Dear Ms. Niederholzer and Ms. Luetgens:

 Attached is correspondence from Paul Gant, counsel for the Yuba City Unified School District, regarding the use of District equipment and resources for political purposes.

 Regards,

 Lisa Scott

Legal Secretary

lscott@kbtlaw.us

 *****************************************************************

KINGSLEY BOGARD THOMPSON LLP

50 Iron Point Circle, Suite 110

Folsom, CA  95630

Phone:  (916) 932-2500

Fax: (916) 932-2510

 THIS E-MAIL TRANSMISSION IS CONFIDENTIAL and is intended to be sent only to the recipient stated in the transmission.  It may also be protected by the attorney/client and attorney work product privileges.  Any review, use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication by other than the intended recipient or that person's agent is strictly prohibited.  If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately by telephone at the above number.  Nothing in this communication should be interpreted as a digital or electronic signature that can be used to authenticate a contract or other legal document.  Thank you.

encourage them to support the local candidates YCTA has endorsed.

You will have a short script, so you won't have to worry about figuring out what to say.  Please come and be a part of the process that hopes to promote these candidates.

did I mention that DINNER WILL BE PROVIDED?

Even if you could come and commit to 30 minutes, it would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!  Jill

Jill Niederholzer4th grade teacherAndros Karperos School1700 Camino De FloresYuba City, CA  95993

Perhaps the most offensive was that this site rep has never done anything like this before as a matter of fact she is a new site rep this year. This site rep attended Emerging Leaders in Reno and returned enthusiastic and ready to act. AND only the day before we settled a PERB case after two days of testimony. Standing in the hallway we agreed to settle as our president reiterated our position that we should be able to resolve our issues in YC and not at PERB with attorneys. And then the VERY NEXT day more legal interventions and costs. A continuing practice designed to intimidate our members in their participation.

Did she get any contact from YCUSD admin? NO. Just a late Friday email from the attorney with an ugly letter that threatens jail or prison time – two days after the email. But we used this one to hammer home our continuing message about the tone, culture, and climate of our district and the over reliance on attorneys to work with personnel. Presenting this at the board meeting we made a point of noting that these actions occurred the day after our PERB settlement on intimidation of a YCTA member after she refused to falsify attendance documents. WE knew the reporter would pick up on that story

and we wanted to use it to further build our case for change at YCSUD. Board meetings are recorded and placed on the district website.

In bold “using district funds, services, supplies or equipment to urge passage or defeat candidate or ballot measure is prohibited.”

Remember, she did not actually mention any candidate.

In bold “misdemeanor or felony”

“imprisonment in county jail not exceeding one year ..state prison for 16 months, or two or three years.”

Intimidation and Fear

Threats of jail or prison.

Insert the newspaper for Holcomb case

From: Dina LuetgensSent: Friday, October 08, 2010 8:29 PMTo: Nancy Aaberg; Tom WaltersCc: cmcguigan@cta.org; Jill Niederholzer; Carl Knorr; Lisa Hale; Paula Manning; Krista Smith; Joshua Roberts; Jessica VandehovenSubject: RE: Yuba City USD - Political Activities

Nancy Aaberg and Tom Walters,

Within your interpretation of the law, a site rep made a mistake.  Perhaps you could have simply emailed either one of us yourself.  This was a simple misunderstanding.  I am disappointed that once again you have sought legal counsel when simple communication to a unit member would have sufficed.  When you threaten to throw me in jail, I, as President of the Association,  accept it as the apparent cost of doing business with a district that relies so heavily on legal counsel in employment relations.  However such scare tactics directed against a new site rep are excessive.  I believe we could have handled this internally.  Your tactics appear to border on seeking to intimidate Association site reps.  I would like to believe that was not your intent, but it would seem to be the effect.  Once again I am disappointed.  This was a single act of communication that you deemed to be a misuse of email.  And we may even find differing opinions on that, since at one point you indicated to me that as long as we did not name names we were within allowable communication.   We discussed just that on the night of September 14.  A unit member engages in a single incident that the District deems to be a misuse of the email and she gets no contact from a YCUSD administrator. Instead, she gets a threatening letter from your attorney.  I am disappointed to be working under such adversarial conditions, especially after we just settled the UPC in a manner that demonstrated YCTA's willingness to avoid long legal battles at PERB.  Perhaps YCTA must engage in legal battles since simple communication appears to fail at YCUSD.  While we still assert that we have the right to communicate with our members about any association business during their duty free lunch time, we have refrained from doing so to avoid extended legal battles that would have only cost the district additional legal fees.  YCTA's intent has been to allow the district to direct funds to programs that serve our students rather than to attorneys.  Our actions in the spirit of cooperation are obviously one sided.  On behalf of the membership of YCTA, at the risk of redundancy, I am disappointed.

Consider this to be an official request for information.  YCTA would like the itemized dollar figures spent on legal representation in the 09/10 school year and thus far this year.

Sincerely,Dina Luetgens

Taking Advantage of more free media. CTA mailing to members in our area.