Minutes from last nights meeting - (Letter to the Superintendent and Board President follows)


May 10, 2007 4:30 P.M.
Española Valley High School Room 503

The regular monthly meeting of the Española NEA was duly called to order by Brian Every, president.

In attendance were Lucille Martinez-Holguin, Edward Holguin (President NEA-NM), Brian Every, Michael Lapcevic, Michael Trujillo, Michael Throne, Damon McGinn, Rebecca Caudill, Karen Martinez, Theresa Chavez, Beverly Averitt, John Reese and Eileen Ulibarri.

New Business:
· John Reese is working on updating our local membership roster into a data base.
· NEA-Española filed on Monday with the State Labor Board to become the sole bargaining agent for Española School employees.
· The card drive was extremely successful. So far 77% of the employees have opted to have Española NEA as their Collective Bargaining agent.
· CVMS has returned very few cards. We are hoping that someone at that school is getting the cards signed.
· Brian Every is e-mailing a letter to the School Board members and the Superintendent on Friday, May 11, 2007. He will be informing them of the petition to be the exclusive representative for Collective Bargaining with the district and giving them the opportunity to accept us as the bargaining agent.
· We are on the School Board agenda on the 15th of May. We are asking for as many of our members as possible to attend this very important meeting.
· We still need to set up a committee for Employee Rights to ensure that the agreements we reach will be enforced. Anyone interested in being on this committee please e-mail Brian Every.
· July 9, 2007, has been set for CB training at the local level.
· Lucille Holguin made a motion to allow a $100 per day per diem for the Ruidoso training on Collective Bargaining, pay for registration for the Ruidoso and the Santa Fe trainings with a budget allocation of $25 of SAR training. The motion was seconded by Rebecca Caudill. Motion passed.
· Brian is looking into the possibility of renting a large van for transportation to Ruidoso.
· The following individuals have volunteered to help on the Bargaining Team or the Support team; Eugenia Cornelius, Lucille Holguin, Paulette Lopez, Beverly Averitt, Michael Trujillo, Michael Lapcevic, Brian Every, Andrea Schelter, Michael Throne, Rebecca Caudill, Janelle Guitierrez, Eileen Ulibarri, Laurel Fain, Pat Littlefield, and Karen Martinez.

Michael Throne moved that the meeting be adjourned. The motion was seconded by Brian. The meeting adjourned at 5:35 P.M.

Letter to the Superintendent and Board President -


Superintendent David Cockerham
And President Andrew Chavez, Board of Education
Española Public Schools
714 Calle Don Diego
Española, NM 87532

Friday, May 11, 2007



Superintendent Cockerham and President Chavez:

The Española – National Education Association, an affiliate of the National Education Association – New Mexico is hereby notifying the Española Public Schools that this Monday, May 7, 2007 we filed a Petition for Certification as the exclusive representative for Collective Bargaining with the district.

We presented authorization cards from a vast majority (seventy percent) of the employees in the district wide bargaining unit to the State of New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board (PELRB), along with the petition. Since Monday, additional cards have been collected, so the final tally of signatures from district employees asking for recognition of our Association as their bargaining agent will exceed seventy-five percent of the employees eligible to be included in the unit. The PELRB will be in touch with the district regarding the filing.


It is our sincere hope that our new collective bargaining relationship will be a major positive step toward increasing student achievement for our district’s students.


We are asking that the Española Public Schools voluntarily recognize the certified and classified school employee positions listed in the petition for the purposes of collective bargaining. Some districts have taken this step through action at their board meetings, then communicating such action to the PELRB. In the absence of voluntary recognition, we ask that the school district agree to a petition card count showing the Espanola-NEA majority status.

We ask that voluntary recognition from the School Board of Espanola-NEA be an action item at your next Board meeting. We also ask for time on the agenda both during the discussion on the action item and during public comment so that our leadership and interested employees may speak to the issue.


Respectfully submitted,


Brian Every
President, Espanola-NEA

Note – Hard copies of this letter to follow via USPS