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Executive Board Minutes - March 10, 2022


Cleveland Heights Teachers Union

Executive Board Meeting

Thursday, March 10, 2022

4:30 P.M. Zoom

Present: 

Officers:  K. Rego, T. Underhile, C. Pavel, T. Reynolds, D. Lausche, B. Ammon,  J. Bennett, D. Frost (M), J. Shelton-Townes, T. Gray

High School (HH): M. Mrazek, Q. Tucker, V. Larkins-Forte, G. Wroblewski, G. Nachmanm,  J. Boris

Middle School:  L. Lorek (M), M. Searcy (M), M. Friedman (R), D. Hershmann-Rossi (R), W. Ward-Price (R)

Elementary: G. Gee (F), N. Davis (C), K. Hodson (O), D. Hirsch (RE), S. Malek (G), T. White (N), 

Other: , A. Klein (Past President), K. Cooper (Delisle), D. MacDonald (Ret), S. Austin

Absent: N. Williams,  K. Minnillo (B), M. Mazzone (St.Serv), H. Abdulrasul, S. Glenn (Monitors), M. Johnson (Monitors)

  1. Call to Order - Roll Call 
  2. Secretary’s Minutes 
  3. Officers’ Reports:
    1. Divisional Vice Presidents
      1. High School - Grade window closing on the last day of the quarter (March 25 / full district PD day); March staff meeting will continue to be virtual; April & May meetings planned to be in person; CTE teachers want to complete an end of the year evaluation for their director Katrina (who supervises all teachers in the consortium), reach out to other unions in the consortium to evaluate her as well, and send evaluation results to our superintendent's office; Low IS staffing is impacting teaching and learning
        1. IS co-teacher who is now teaching TVA has not been replaced, so gen ed teacher is managing entire class with over half of students on IEPs (She is receiving sub coverage pay, but having a co-teacher would be far preferable); 2. Concern about insufficient resource classrooms; worry that next year's IEP students coming from MS might not have a place and be pushed into co-taught classes, increasing the ratio there and possibly pushing other students into non-co-taught classes. Would negatively impact the servicing of many students. Teachers are stretched to their limits with class sizes and ratios already.
      2. Middle School - 
        1. Monticello: The fighting. The building is only going to get worse as Spring  comes. Fear that staff members will get injured.  Members do not feel safe. Coding of fights as Disorderly conduct-Disturbance instead of fighting; Both codes are the same tier with the same consequences; Jeff reported that it was because the fighting impacted the building and not just those two students; Congestion and poor hallway behavior -  The 6th grade team met with Dr. Johnston on 3/10/22 to develop a new transition procedure. Team B will dismiss at the normal bell and team A will dismiss at a new bell that will be set halfway between the class transition times. New parts for lunch were also developed.
        2. Roxboro;  Fighting - problem too!  Disrespectful behavior of students
      3. Elementary - 
        1. Masks: The battle to keep students in compliance with the district mask mandate is increasingly difficult, but may not necessarily need to be addressed with the latest information coming from Central Office.  Of concern, though, with the mask optional policy is having clear communication of whose parents are requesting their child(ren) remain masked and who is ultimately responsible for enforcing that.  Teachers cannot spend all day enforcing an optional policy.
        2. Discipline: Lack of follow-through with referrals.  We continue to recommend teachers write their recommended outcome in the narrative of the referral (as allowed by contract), printing out the referral before submitting, and recording the consequence that is, or is not given, so Stewards can follow-up with building administrators.
    2. Vice-President - Insurance committee met, encourage members to use Express Scripts for maintenance medication, legislative action currently pending in Columbus (HB322)
  4. Old Business
    1. Banquet - A tickler was sent and there seems to be enough support to hold this event
    2. Future Executive Board meetings will be in-person in April and May
  5. New Business
  1. Union Lunch
  2. STRS ballot coming in April - Julie Sellers
  3. Pre-approval for extra hours
  4. Other New Business
    1. Motion from Nachman to keep executive board meetings virtual, second by Boris - Motion Failed 15 - No, 10 - Yes, 5 - No Vote, 4 Abstain
  1. Action Items
    1. Motion by Bennet, second by Underhile to make Ari Klein a CHTU lifetime member - Motion carried (28 - Yes, 1 - No, 5 - No Vote)

Meeting adjourned at 5:57


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