Soquel
Education
Association
Embedded Files
ABOUT USThe Soquel Education Association is a membership of teachers and certificated service providers in the Soquel Elementary Union School District. Our goal is to support our members' ability to provide quality education to our students, as well as members' ability to live and maintain quality of life in the community where they work. We serve students in the communities of Soquel, Capitola, Aptos, and Santa Cruz, California, on the Monterey Bay.
Updates
January 8
Ratification Vote Passes Unanimously!
Today the Tentative Agreement was unanimously ratified by all members present.
The next step is for the tentative agreement to go to the Board, who will vote on whether or not to approve the Tenative Agreement at their January 17 meeting, then on to the COE for their review and approval.
Look for updates here!
Yeah, it's a little like that...!
October 19
Tentative Agreement Reached
SEA reached a tentative agreement with the district for the 2023-24 contract year.
Some negotiated items include:
increases and expansions to specific stipends
updated bereavement language
restructuring of the salary schedule to remove the 90 unit column, remove frozen salary cells, and include longevity stipends
and more!
Our negotiations team is particularly happy to be able to present to our membership a new salary structure which rewards, rather than penalizes, teachers for sticking with the district long-term through the removal of salary freeze years and the addition of the longevity stipends.
This in turn benefits students and families because we retain more experienced teachers, we are able to implement long-term plans for reaching educational goals for our students without the interruption of high turnover, and we benefit from the investment in training new hires who stay with SUESD rather than leaving and taking that training investment with them.
Our next step is to bring the tentative agreement to our membership for a ratification vote. Watch this space!
October 17
Local Feline Shows Support for SEA
SEA Kitty, Goose, says, "SEA is Mew-nion Strong...!"
Thanks, Goose!
September 22
Celebrating Our "Small But Mighty" SEA and Welcoming New Hires!
Members from all sites came together to celebrate the fact that we have such great coworkers, and to welcome new hires. A bit blurry (and didn't capture everyone who popped in and out), but a good time was had by all!
September 10
SEA Represents at the CTA Region 1 Leadership Conference in Burlingame
SEA President D-R. Martin and 2nd year member Nicole Langsam spent the weekend with other Region 1 educators sharing information and inspiration. It was a great opportunity to learn ways to strengthen our membership with a goal towards improving teachers' working conditions and students' learning conditions - the two are intrinsically connected!
Above: Representatives from Live Oak, Scotts Valley, San Lorenzo Valley, Hartnell College, and Soquel continue to build solidarity at the Region 1 Leadership Conference.
Right: SEA makes the big screen - our union made an appearance in the Conference slide show that was repeated in the main conference room all weekend. Go SEA!
1ff02d5a2.mov50723b9a5.movPsst...we don't go to conferences for the food, but we also don't NOT go to conferences for the food... 😉😄
May 19
SEA Congratulates Hillary Ojeda of Lookout Santa Cruz, Winner of the 2022 John Swett Award for Media Excellence
photo credit: Lookout Santa Cruz
The Soquel Education Association congratulates Lookout Santa Cruz journalist Hillary Ojeda on winning the 2022 John Swett Award for Media Excellence for her continuous coverage of educational news in the category Community Daily.
SEA appreciates Hillary’s objectivity, dedication, and professionalism in her work. She has a natural curiosity, and spent a lot of time fact-seeking, digging into the research, and analyzing the data during our spring contract campaign last year. Her series of articles brought a lot of public awareness not only to our struggle, but also to the struggles of teachers in Santa Cruz as a whole. Thank you for your great journalism, Hillary!
March 23
SEA Negotiations Team - Back to the Table for 2023-2024
SEA had our first negotiations session with administration today. Looking forward to a productive series of meetings!
L-R: Lead negotiator Ann Wilson, Portlan Beckman, D-R. Martin, Bryan Koch, Laurisa Kanzler, and Gordon Barratt.
January 27
SEA Supports United PCS
Santa Cruz Sentinel: PCS faculty and students rally for increased pay - A third of faculty resigned last school year
Click here or the image above to read the Santa Cruz Sentinel article. (photo credit: Aric Sleeper, SC Sentinel)
January 27
REMINDER: CTA Disaster Relief Fund is Available!
SEA would like to remind all CTA Members that the Disaster Relief Fund is available if you have been impacted by the floods earlier this month. Information was sent to members by email earlier and we are posting it here, too.
Click here or the image below to find out more about the Disaster Relief Fund - and while you're there, check out other CTA Benefits that might be available to you!
photo credit: Julian Peeples, California Educator Magazine, 2022
September 30
California Educator Highlights Collaboration Between SEA and Other Santa Cruz County Education Associations
The next issue of California Educator highlights several education associations in Santa Cruz County and how we have been working together to improve conditions for all of us. SEA is very proud to be working with such outstanding colleagues throughout the county towards being able to better retain and recruit the highly qualified, stable education workforce needed to give the students in our communities the school experience they deserve. To read the full online article, click here.
September 18
Dawn Addis Visits SEA
This past week, CTA Endorsed State Assembly Candidate Dawn Addis visited the general monthly meeting of the Soquel Education Association for the second time. Dawn is a Morro Bay City Councilmember who has an extensive background in education, having taught special education for over a decade, as well as working with English language learners, serving on equity leadership teams, and more. As both an educator and a parent, the issue of education is a top priority for Dawn.
District 30, the district which Dawn hopes to represent, starts at 7th Avenue in Santa Cruz and extends all the way down to the San Luis Obispo County line.
We appreciated the opportunity to speak with Dawn and wish her luck in the upcoming election! Learn more about her campaign at dawnaddis.org.
Dawn Addis
photo from dawnaddis.org
August 17
It's Official!
At the SUESD school board meeting tonight, the board of trustees voted to approve the tentative agreement between the Soquel school district and SEA. The day started with a positive morning rally to thank our community for their support of our efforts during the spring to reach an agreement that included more competitive compensation to attract and retain more educators.
In the evening, members attended to board meeting to show their support for the tentative agreement. Even though we still have some catching up to do to other districts with regard to compensation, this was a big step and we are already seeing the benefits - some teachers actively searching for positions outside of the district put their searches on hold, which means we have already successfully retained teachers! We plan to continue to work with the district to ensure that Soquel is capable of attracting - and keeping - the best education team to serve our students and our community.
Even babies approve!
PXL_20220818_030258396.mp4SEA Members and supporters applaud the vote to approve the tentative agreement.
L-R: D-R. Martin, Ann Wilson, Laurisa Kanzler, Gordon Barratt. Team members not pictured: Bryan Koch and Portlan Beckman, and past members Leigh Ann Work and Ann Fendesack
August 1
Tentative Agreement Reached!
The negotiations team was happy to announce to our membership today that a tentative agreement with the district has finally been reached! This TA will go to membership for a ratification vote on August 8, but the negotiations team felt great about bringing something back to our membership that was a significantly better step in the right direction towards making our district more competitive in terms of retaining and recruiting the quality teachers our students deserve! This tentative agreement offers an improvement in compensation, more manageable class sizes and case loads, and elementary prep time. Having a consistent staff of highly-qualified instructors helps us maintain equity in education, work towards common goals and vision, and provide the stability that our students need now more than ever. For the teachers, it improves morale when they feel supported in their work with students, when they can afford to work in the community where they live, and when they aren't continually watching respected friends and colleagues leave for better work conditions.
SEA members have been engaging on a statewide level, attending conferences over the summer, and building community connections, and will continue to do so in the months ahead in order to foster a strong and healthy union to continue to improve the lives of students, families, and educators.
We would like to give a huge thank you to community members who supported us during our rallies, our classified coworkers in CSEA who stood by us, the parents (and students!) who gave so much of their time and energy to support our efforts, and outside labor organizations who demonstrated solidarity with us in big and small ways.
"Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable." - Kenyan Proverb
July 19
Meeting with State Senator John Laird
Several local association presidents had the pleasure of joining with representatives from CTA at a lunch meeting with State Senator John Laird and members of his staff in downtown Santa Cruz today. Senator Laird was very interested in hearing about the experiences of local teachers and gaining their perspective. We appreciated the time he made for us and look forward to more opportunities to meet with Senator Laird in the future!
(And thanks to those of you who have attended board meetings over the summer...we don't have photos to share, but your dedication and support is valuable and valued!)
L-R: D-R. Martin, Soquel Education Association president; Julie Maxwell, Scotts Valley Education Association president; State Senator John Laird; Jeremy Powell, Live Oak Elementary Teachers Association president; Taunya Jaco, Teacher/CTA Board of Directors; Kim Dudley, Mountain Teachers Association president.
L-R: Jeremy Powell, Kim Dudley, State Senator John Laird, Rick Wathen (CTA), D-R. Martin, Jonathan Engleman (Senator Laird's District Representative for Santa Cruz), Julie Maxwell, Angela Chesnut (District Director for Senator Laird), Taunya Jaco, Josh Kob (CTA)
May 11
Still Going Strong!
More rally action by our members last Wednesday, May 11! We appreciate all the support from our community - this week's shoutout goes to the members of other unions who drive past and honk in support. We see you and appreciate the solidarity!
SEA and CSEA continue to support each other in our efforts to organize for improved work conditions to the benefit of our teachers, support staff, and students.
We invite members of SEA, CSEA, and community members to attend the board meeting this coming Wednesday, May 18, at 6:30 pm, in the NBMS performing arts center to show that you care about keeping our teachers. (Wearing masks encouraged!) The more teachers we lose to districts that offer competitive compensation, the more we lose out on the investment we've put in to training teachers (only to make them more desirable to other districts), the harder it is to maintain program continuity and shared vision, the less stability and equitable access to education for students, and the lower the morale as we watch our beloved colleagues make the tough choice to leave for pay that allows them to live here.
CSEA president Enrique Dolmo and SEA president Gordon Barratt.
Above: Out raising awareness on Wednesday.
Ugly Mug, you rock!
May 4
Rally and Board Meeting
SEA Members persevere, showing their commitment to their goals by continuing to rally every Wednesday morning bright and early.
We'd like to give a special shoutout to THE UGLY MUG COFFEEHOUSE in Soquel Village - they are supportive of Soquel teachers not only during teacher appreciation week, but all through the year. We appreciate the love, Ugly Mug!
SEA Members, CSEA members, parents, students, and supporters also attended the board meeting that same night to advocate for competitive compensation. A particularly big THANK YOU to the student and parent speakers!
SEA wants to congratulate Kallie Edmundson on her appointment to the Soquel school board. Kallie is a former teacher herself and a parent in the district, so we know she will be invested in the good of the community.
We also picked up coffee from Starbucks at the corner of 41st and Clares street to show support for their efforts at unionizing - and look what we found on our coffee boxes when we came to pick them up!! Thanks for the solidarity, Starbucks workers!
April 27
Rally and Negotiations
SEA Members were out showing their commitment to their goals early on Wednesday, 4/27. The negotiations team prepared another comprehensive presentation to support our position that our proposed salary increase is both feasible and necessary. Little to no headway was made on that point in negotiations, though we did come to some agreements on contract language.
Thanks to our student supporters, parents who have been asking how to support us (and doing so!), and all the community members who honked and waved to show they stand with us!
Top left: Soquel Elementary
Top right: NBMS
Bottom left and video: Main Street Elementary (filmed by a student supporter!)
(Santa Cruz Gardens also was out in force, but there were no photos today...!)
rally video.mp4
April 20
Rally and Board Meeting
SEA members once again showed up EARLY to rally for increased compensation to help retain and recruit teachers in our district. Then members showed up again LATE to the district board meeting to show support for teachers sharing their personal stories of the hard decisions they face as a result of working for inadequate compensation. There were other teachers, a 6th grader, and a parent who also signed up to speak (and we had one more speaker for whom we have no photo - great poetry reading, Bryan!), but due to the 20-minute-per-topic time limit they were not able to - we appreciate your readiness to speak publicly!
If you would listen to our members' comments, watch this video.
Several community members showed up to the board meeting for morale support as well, and big thanks to teachers from Santa Cruz City Schools who also showed up to express their support!
MORNING RALLY 4/20
Above: NBMS, Below: Santa Cruz Gardens
Above: Soquel Elementary, Below: Main Street Elementary
April 13
Rally for SEA
SEA members showed up early on 4/13 to rally for increased compensation to help retain and recruit teachers in our district. We are faced with high turnover rates, due at least in part to being the lowest paid teachers in one of highest cost-of-living areas in the country. Loss of experienced teachers with shared training and vision and the inability to fill classrooms with qualified teachers impacts students' learning experience and teacher morale.
Our rally generated many honks and waves of support! Shoutout to CSEA members and community members for supporting our efforts!
Soquel Elementary School
New Brighton Middle School
Main Street Elementary School
Santa Cruz Gardens
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