SPRING BREAK MESSAGE FROM ARE:
TOP 10 THINGS YOUR UNION WANTS YOU TO KNOW ABOUT OUR CORONAVIRUS DISMISSAL 
1. We are in fully paid status, including stipends. Retirement is not impacted.
2. These school days count, and the school year is not being extended. 
3. According to Executive Order by the Governor, we must provide continuity of education to the amount feasible. 
4. We do not believe administration has any intention of making this time evaluative. With that said, please know that we are absolutely here to protect the evaluation process in these unprecedented times. In many respects, we are learners right alongside our students and the risks we are taking in our pedagogy during this time this should not present itself in a negative way in any current or future evaluation. 
5. There is a “hold-harmless” policy on student grades due to access and special ed issues. Please adhere to the established grading policy during this time. 
6. Student instructional time has been greatly reduced from our normal brick and mortar setting. These guidelines were put in place with careful consideration about reasonable workload for students and staff. We encourage you to adhere to those guidelines even if you feel like you should be providing more work for students. 
7. Employees are not required to be constantly connected or “on-call”. We believe 24-hour response time is reasonable to parent, student, and supervisor requests. Teachers should be making efforts to provide synchronous instruction, but this is not done on a required schedule and should only be a portion of the modified instructional time we are providing.
8. We can not be directed to use live video or audio recording without our consent. There are other ways to provide synchronous instruction besides live video instruction. We encourage members not to use Zoom live video or other live video features until there are more guidelines and protections in place from the district. However, you are professionals and we realize you will make your own determinations during these unprecedented times. We simply urge you to weigh the risks and use caution. 
9. We do have a few matters pending as we work to reach a formal Memorandum of understanding with the district regarding these new working conditions. The primary issue we are seeking clarity on is our return to work procedures. Our union is adamant that employees only return to work when conditions are safe. Additionally, we believe there needs to be considerations around child care issues if we were to be asked to return to work prior to students. Please stay tuned for more updates around this issue. 
10. Enjoy Spring Break! Stay tuned for information about future organizing activities as we continue to remain focused on achieving a fair contract settlement.
News, Advice, & Quick Facts from CTA & ARE
1. Stay healthy.
2. We are in full paid status.
3. These days count towards the school year and retirement credit.
4. Do not use live Zoom or other live video platforms with students right now. We will work to have more guidelines in the coming days. Do not be alarmed if you have already done so! It is okay, we are all trying to figure this out. You did not do anything wrong.
5. Stick to the guidelines in Phase 1 and Phase 2 for now. We know that many of you are eager to connect with students and get to Phase 3, but we must also understand that there are still access issues for students, and they are also undergoing a great amount of change.
6. Union leadership has a meeting scheduled with management on Thursday morning, 3/26 to discuss guidelines for our new working conditions.
7. Yes, we are still bargaining our regular contract. We are focused on this transition for now and will provide more updates at an appropriate time.
Advisory on Using Zoom or Other Live Video Platforms with Students
Rowland Unified and your union have been taking the needed steps to help us prepare to provide an education in a different setting for an extended period of time. While officially we are dismissed until after spring break, we do believe we need to be prepared for this to go longer. Our ability to interact with our students is going to be key to our success at adapting to our new environment. For right now, the union advises that we do not use live Zoom video or other live video platforms to interact with students until we receive more guidelines and guidance. 

We understand the use of interactive technologies is going to be crucial in the coming weeks. The union will be supportive of making sure that the ability to use live video interaction is done in a way that is positive for students, protects parental rights, and our rights and privacy as Members. There are simply too many risks and legal implications involved with interacting and recording videos of minors on our personal devices for us to fully comprehend right now. Do not be alarmed if you have already done so! It is okay, we are all trying to figure this out. You did not do anything wrong. 

For the time being, we encourage you to look for other interactive methods, such as chat and message board features on Google Classroom, Padlet, or even traditional telephone calls to stay connected with students. We believe that the central purpose of Phase 1 and 2 is putting structures in place for a potentially longer situation, and taking care of our own health and the health of our community. 

Yes, this is a new paradigm for us. Yes, we need to take care of ourselves first, because we can't help others unless we are healthy. Yes, we will make this work, because we need to for our students, our community, and our own livelihoods.
STAY HEALTHY! STAY CONNECTED! STAY SANE!
Join our ARE Zoom Workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6:30-7:30 AM and another session from 3:30-4:30 PM. The sessions are free and will be hosted by certified workout instructors. We will use this as one avenue to provide updates and answer questions from members as well. You can blackout your screen if you want to keep your workout to yourself, and feel free to share this with any other educators in the area or classified staff looking for a way to keep some normalcy in a crazy world. Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday!
ZOOM ID FOR ALL WORKOUT SESSIONS: 437-728-9106 MONDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY 6:30-7:30 AM, 3:30-4:30 PM