President's Corner
November 2022
President Editorial
By Maripaz Berlin, OGEA President
Hello, OGEA Members!
It is only a few days before our November Break, and it cannot come soon enough! It has been a very busy fall season.
We campaigned and helped win the election for Dr. Taunya Jaco, our endorsed candidate for Trustee Area 5! She is a San Jose Unified educator, CTA Board Member, experienced policy maker, and an organizer and fierce advocate for students, educators, and public education!
OGEA was also able to GET OUT THE VOTE for Measure P, which also PASSED. This means that $236 million dollars in bonds will be used to assess our students’ learning spaces and our work environments in order to modernize them, provide better safety and security measures, create more outdoor learning spaces, and make technological updates.
Our advocacy work for Special Education continues this month with our Email Campaign to get Special Education as a regular monthly information item at the Board meetings. We have collected 93 signatures on our petition. OGEA members have emailed the Board requesting that it be placed as a priority in OGSD’s work. We have been successful in placing it on the agenda for this month, however, the work is not over. We must continue to push Special Education as a regular monthly information item on the Board Agenda.
Our Membership Committee hosted the first ever New Educator Dinner on November 10. This dinner was for our educators who have five or fewer years in education. Gabriel Medina, our ME Chair, shared the values of belonging to our Union, tips on who to lean on (especially in the first few years), how to gain more credits, and much more. We have also started our First Friday! Over 20 members attended El Amigo on November 4! Join us for our First Friday in December at High Five Pizza!
Our Equity and Human Rights Committee will be starting our Service Project this month! Stay tuned for more details! They have also ordered more LGBTQ+ placards of the Progress Pride Flag for each members’ work space. Look for that in your work mailbox.
We are working to expand our Executive Board! Nominations for Diversity and Inclusion Director and 3 Learning Community Directors are open from now until November 28th.
Have an enjoyable second Fall Break!!
In Unity,
Maripaz Berlin
OGEA President
president@ogea.org