CHSSA General Membership
Meeting Minutes
September 2, 2009
Cape Henlopen High School
The meeting was brought to order at 10:33 am. Ed Murauskas welcomed everyone and wished them a great start to their new year.
Ed introduced all the officers to everyone present and announced that Lisa Thorp was asked and has agreed to be the interim Vice President for the next two years. Other officers include; Joan Williamson, Secretary; Mary Beth D'Amico, Treasurer; Peggy Kirby, Negotiations Chair; Charlie Shaffer, Uniserv Rep; and Jean Read, Membership Chair.
TREASURERS REPORT - Mary Beth presented both the Budget Summary Report for 08/09 and the proposed Budget for 09/10. Both were accepted.
NEGOTIATIONS - Ed explained that because this is a year to renew our contract that it is very important to have support within our negotiations team. Anyone wishing to join please write or email their name to Joan Williamson at H.O.B Elementary, JWilliamson@cape.k12.de.us. Ed explained that if you have an issue you want addressed you can also mail that to Joan. Peggy explained that it was discovered that the entire Cape Board of Education was misinformed and thought all Para Educators were receiving part of their income through a yearly increase in local funds. She had to explain to them that Paras have never been allotted a yearly increase from local funds. Peggy explained how this is an example of why it is important to be a part of the negotiations team to present our concerns to the District. The larger the team, the better we can serve our membership. Please join.
It was pointed out that the Cape Board did vote to give all Paras a 2% increase on 30% of their salary to help offset the cut from the state.
TRAINING / IN SERVICE Charlie Shaffer advised that several different training sessions will be made available to our membership and almost all will be held in our local area. In addition, if enough members request it, training can be held locally in conjunction with other districts, i.e. Cape and Indian River could share training sessions, keeping travel to a minimum for all.
Training Sessions that will be available are;
Association Representatives training in Sept & Oct
Know Your Contract - Oct.
Liaison - October
Disciplinary Meetings Training - Thurs 9-19 in Sussex,
Verbal Skills - Dec 5th
Grievance 1 & 2 - March 20th
Bargaining 1 on 10-17, Bargaining 2 on Jan 8 and Jan 9, and Bargaining 3 on Jan 22nd
Leadership training planning meeting June 17th.
To enroll in any of these please contact Ed Murauskas @ Emurauskas@cape.k12.de.us or CharlieShaffer @ charlie.shaffer@dsea.org
In addition there will be an ESP retreat held in our area this year. Dates and location have not been determined yet, but Charlie will advise when that becomes available.
Charlie did say this would be a challenging year. He hopes that Bus Drivers and Custodians along with Secretaries have adequate representation on the negotiations team. He also said that the problem may be with the state budget and the fact that they found all of us worth 8% less than what we made last year. Due to strong lobbying from our Union and members, we were cut 2-1/2% instead. However, he stated that we should not allow this to happen again this year or any other year. Cutting programs is one thing; cutting salaries is not to be accepted. How are we worth less this year than last? Charlie advised everyone present that we will need to be very vocal this year - we, in fact, deserve more in compensation for our work.
New Member Applications - Jean Read spoke about how minimal the dues are and yet how much they work to protect us. She requested that all building representatives promote greater participation within their buildings.
Sherri Oswald stated that she could not get new member applications after making several requests. Charlie Shafer will get more to Jean to distribute.
Mary Beth recommended that we make one master and distribute to all building reps showing how to fill out the application correctly. Jean will follow up on this to make sure everyone has one.
Flex Plan - Ed advised that the $500 flex plan allotment is one of the items our members and union bargained for. Flex plan renewal will be due November of this year.
Executive Board Meeting Times - It was discussed that due to changes in some members schedules, and to the difficulty that both custodians and bus drivers have in attending our 4pm meetings, that we should survey the whole Executive Committee to find out if another time would benefit more people, i.e. 5pm, 6pm, 7pm. Joan will send an email out to all building reps requesting their preference. Please be sure to respond with which meeting time you would most likely be able to attend.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30am.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Joan WilliamsonPosted on Sep 12 2009
