February 1st – SEA MEMBER ONLY meeting with Dr. Taylor to get an overview of the budget. If you have questions or clarification about the budget, Robin is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Please see your e-mail for the link.

We will take a membership vote after the presentation on whether to support his budget.

February 2nd – SEA Collective Bargaining Training – How to talk to members/nonmembers about collective bargaining and the process moving forward? Nonmembers are welcome to this because it will take everyone to get us to the table. https://veanea.zoom.us/j/81496490932?pwd=WURVd3BONlVva2J3NnUwcHpxREVTdz09

March 31-April 2nd – VEA Convention – Virtual There is still plenty of space available for you to be a SEA Delegate to the convention. Want to draft an NBI to help you in your profession? Want to have a say in what VEA focuses on for educators? Sign up to attend and have your voice heard.

Have you asked your colleagues to join SEA? As we start to prepare for our card campaign for bargaining, the more members we have, the quicker we get to the bargaining table. https://forms.veanea.net/view.php?id=39481

Things are happening every day so reach out and let us know what you need and how you want to be part of the union.  

In Solidarity,

Kathy, Laura, Christina, and Jenn

Dear School Board Members, Dr. Taylor, and SEA Members,

On Tuesday, January 11th, SEA distributed a survey to all SCPS employees. We asked for position, building level, and two simple questions:

1. Do you support the current policy requiring masks for everyone in SCPS schools?
2. Do you support the current policy requiring masks for everyone in SCPS non-school buildings?

We also gave staff the option to provide additional comments. Over 1700 employees responded to this survey, preceded in precedent only by the Wellness Days survey from earlier this school year. That amount of participation speaks to the level of employee concern over this topic.

As you can see from the survey results, SCPS employees overwhelmingly support masking for all in both school and non-school buildings. In fact, merely 22% of employees did not support masking in any SCPS locations.

Multiple school districts across the Commonwealth have publicly indicated that their mask mandates will continue to be enforced for all, including but not limited to Richmond, Alexandria, and Henrico.

SEA has already received nearly 50 reports of staff intending to resign in light of the Governor’s announcement, and we anticipate this number will climb through the remainder of the school year unless sufficient mitigation strategies are enforced for all.

Numerous staff and students across the county are battling serious illness, autoimmune disease, undergoing cancer treatments, or are otherwise at extreme risk from COVID-19.

The health and safety of SCPS staff and students should be prioritized with the continued enforcement of CDC guidelines regarding COVID-19. Anything less knowingly puts the entire division at risk.

Sincerely,

Kathy Butler, SEA President

Michele Wickman, Data Consultant

Robin Gardner, SEA Uniserv Director