This email is going to all PFT Members.                                                           May 7, 2025

Dear PFT Members,

As you likely already read in our joint communication, the PUSD/PFT Interest Based Problem Solving Team (IBPS) has reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) for the 2025-26 school year!

Our district continues to face a significant budgetary shortfall, which resulted in about $12.5 million in budget solutions for this school year, and approximately $10 million more for next school year. Budget solutions for next year include a district office reorganization (5 departments reduced to 3) and unfortunately, layoffs within each bargaining unit.

These budgetary conditions make negotiating a settlement agreement challenging. Despite the economic environment, the joint IBPS team has reached a tentative agreement that protects and respects employees, as well as class sizes.

Details have been shared with your elected PFT Site Representatives during our monthly Representative Council Meeting today at 4:15 p.m. Your PFT Site Representatives have unanimously ratified the agreement. The Tentative Agreement is attached to this email for your review. We are also developing a Q & A document, which we will send to you ASAP. Please see your Site PFT Rep if you have questions while we are preparing the Q & A document.

The attachments to this email are many pages long. Please take special note of the updated and revised language in the attachment that contains the 2025-26 Tentative Agreement and the PFT Proposed Contract Language for Section XI Wages (highlighted in yellow). This language clarifies what has been agreed upon and codified in past Tentative Agreements and Memorandums of Understanding for several years – it does not constitute a new change to practice. That said, the proposed language does differ from the current PFT contract language (also provided in an attachment titled, PFT Current Contract Language for Section XI Wages, highlighted in blue).

PFT Members will vote electronically on the Tentative Agreement on Monday, May 19 and Tuesday, May 20. If the TA is ratified by Members, it will go before the PUSD School Board for a vote, likely on June 5 (or possibly June 17). Please direct questions to your Site PFT Rep until we can finalize a Q & A document. We will send it to you just as soon as possible.

In Solidarity,
Kelly

This email is going to all PFT Members                                                               April 9, 2025

Dear PFT Members,

The transfer process for spring 2025 is attached. This document outlines how the transfer process works. We are also frequently asked, “When does the transfer process begin?” Staffing schools and programs is complex, and the data needed to determine how many teachers are needed, in which programs, and at which sites depends on many factors. These factors include things like student enrollment, the number of teachers declaring retirement or resignation, and the number of teachers requesting or returning from a leave of absence. This data becomes more and more definitive over time.

The PFT/PUSD Joint Staffing Team will be meeting soon to review preliminary enrollment and staffing projections at sites for next year. We anticipate the transfer process beginning now and continuing over time, as projections become more certain. The number of teachers needed at many sites will remain the same, but some sites could be overstaffed.

The transfer process begins with placement of teachers who are at sites that are overstaffed, typically due to a lack of enrollment. (The contracts of temporary teachers end, typically when school ends in June, so they are “out” of the matrix/do not have a position at the site at this point in the process and are not considered in determining overstaffing).  In an overstaffing situation, the site principal will seek a permanent or probationary teacher volunteer willing to transfer.  Typically, voluntary candidates come forward.  If there are no volunteers, district seniority is the criteria used for involuntary transfer.  If a teacher is transferred due to an overstaffing situation (as a volunteer or as an involuntary transfer), the teacher will receive “priority placement” for all known vacancies within their credential area. These teachers will also receive two paid workdays to move, compensated at the teacher hourly rate of $45.28. Teachers must submit a timesheet to receive this compensation. The district and school site administration will coordinate with the teacher to facilitate the process of moving. (Teachers in itinerant positions do not qualify for compensation for moving).      Read more

 Congratulations to our 2025 PUSD

Teachers of the Year!

 The Poway Unified School District (PUSD) is proud to announce that Alyssa Roscoe, Elementary Teacher at Midland Elementary School; and Christopher “Chris” Koreerat, Extensive Needs Support Teacher at Bernardo Heights Middle School; Carissa Jones-Fletcher, Physical Education Teacher at Poway High School have been named the 2025 PUSD Teachers of the Year. These outstanding educators exemplify PUSD’s commitment to academic excellence, innovation, and student support. Their names will be forwarded to the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) for consideration in the countywide Teacher of the Year recognition program.

Read more

TPLES - Teacher Professional Learning and Effectiveness System

Dear Colleagues,

The demands on a teacher's time are endless, and the school year seems to go so quickly from this point on. The below link Teacher Professional Learning and Effectiveness System (TPLES) reminder sheet is intended to provide support and suggestions for teachers in the evaluation cycle this year, as they monitor and document progress on their SLO/PLO.  It can also help make the final evaluation conference, for both traditional and alternative evaluations, more meaningful for the teacher and administrator.

Teacher Professional Learning and Effectiveness System (TPLES) reminder sheet - click here

In Unity,
Kelly

Classroom Supplies using Online Donation Site

What teachers need to do first to be eligible for donations: Go to www.pusddonate.org. Click your grade level (elementary, middle, high), click your “Site”, click “Teachers”. Please be sure your name is listed. The website is linked to the district’s payroll system.  Therefore, the donation website uses the same name you are using for payroll purposes (legal name).  Unfortunately, we cannot change that name.

What the Online Donation website provides:
1. Parents have the option of donating directly to their child’s teacher(s), program, department, grade level, program, or the school site’s general fund using this online donation website. The website is designed to provide parents with an easy and convenient way to help fund our instructional supply needs. Teachers and schools have received more than $100,000.00 in donations using this website. It works.

2. Parents may access the donation website by going to www.pusddonate.org.  Parents receive a tax deduction and email confirmation when donating. The website also includes a “Matching Gift Program” if a parent’s employer provides that benefit.

3. Teachers receive an automatic email confirmation stating the amount of the donation, donor’s name and email, and student’s name, if provided by the parent. Our District uses a spam filter. Therefore, to receive confirmation emails from the donation site you must check your spam folder. When you see the link, pusdonline@firstlinemerchant.com that’s the Online Donation secure banking (when using a credit card) email address. Please “whitelist” this email address. For accounting purposes, your site finance clerk or site secretary receives a monthly report of all donations. If you have not received an email confirmation but think you have received a donation, check with your site secretary or finance clerk.

Donation: Teachers access these donations the same way they would their regular supply budget/s at the site.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: Teachers may communicate this website to parents via their MyConnect site, newsletter, and/or during Back-to-School Night (see Common Message on Q&A attached). To promote greater equity among all our classrooms, we suggest grade-level teams or departments come together to identify their “collective” supply needs and request donations be made to the grade-level or department, rather than individual teachers.

Please note: Donations to this account may only be used for instructional supplies (e.g. school supplies, software, workbooks, art and science materials…). If requesting donations for technology, check with your principal. The primary function of your site Foundation is to purchase software and technology and teachers should be coordinating their efforts.

Field Trip Fees: The Classroom Supplies ~ Online Donations website now offers the option of collecting Field Trip fees. More information and directions for teachers will be coming soon in a separate email.

I've attached an FAQ and a handout you may wish to provide to parents.  

Attachments:

FAQ Classroom Supplies
CSOLD Parent Handout

In Unity,
Kelly