End of Year Update – May 22, 2020

Congratulations to all of you for finishing up a very unusual, and challenging school year.  We have not yet determined the details of what next fall will look like, however we did work with the district on preliminary plans such as:

• MOU on an early start program (to test conditions)
• MOU on independent study programs for the fall
• MOU on committees to plan for special programs: PE, science labs, CTE, Art, and Music/Band
• MOU on the plans to start on distance learning/hybrid classroom instruction for the fall

Congrats to all the NUSD retirees.  May your retirement years be wonderful and restful.

Transfer and Reassignment has been completed by the district, and all of you should get letters in your email about your placement next year.  Some of you may not get letters, as a few positions (mainly sped) have changed, moved, are still being determined so HR will be contacting you with more information.  Many of you have emailed asking about T and R, and it will take some time for us to return these numerous emails, so please be patient with us.

NTA sent out a survey to get input from you (unofficial) about your preferences and ideas for the fall, such as are you preferring the classroom, or distance learning, or independent study.  We realize it’s a difficult dilemna since those have not been completely and publicly defined yet.   We appreciate all of you who have completed the survey so far.  Results will be shared the summer.  Members received the survey in their personal emails.

Keep in contact with your site reps, stay visual, stay informed, and look out for our summer zoom meetings to be scheduled to keep you updated.  In our last meeting, we talked to you about the need to support and participate in our PAC (political action committee) in order to actively support and elect teacher friendly school board members in Natomas.  Also, we want you to be aware that in November on the ballot, it’s important to support the Schools and Communities First Initiative which closes a tax loophole for CA corporations.  The money will help funds our schools, which is badly needed in these uncertain times.  (It does not tax regular homeowners, agriculture, or small businesses.)

Finally, at the last NUSD school board meeting, the school board approved the following cuts:

Superintendent Evans said they need 10.4 million in cuts in 1 year, but in reality may do 13 million over 3 years.  All of the cuts above gets them to 5.3 million cuts for this year.

No one is expected to lose their job.  Used up the reserves that were set aside for a rainy day.  Cuts in 21-22 may be different/more, depending on if feds send money for schools.