COMMITTEE REPORTS
ARC (Appraisal Review Committee): Nothing new.
DISCIPLINE: Met December 5. OCR says our plan in compliance with what was requested. Still unsure when we will have to implement the new Student Code of Conduct. Next meeting February 6.
DLT (District Leadership Team): The November 28 meeting was cancelled. A meeting was held in December.
ER&D (Educational Research and Dissemination): Flyers for our spring offering will be coming out shortly. We are paypal active, so members can choose to pay online with a $5 fee.
GRADING TASK FORCE: Met January 9. A webinar with Tony Flach was held to discuss an article "Busting Myths about Grading" by Douglas Reeves. They also discussed pilots for willing task force teachers. Next meeting January 23.
Middle School Subcommittee – in the process of reviewing grading practices specific to middle school and middle school retention/promotion.
INSURANCE: The Express Care Online pilot ended December 31. Medical Mutual issued new medical/prescription cards with the new extended network on the reverse side. Dental/Vision cards were not replaced. Members can order new cards online through an MMO account or call customer service.
MASTER TEACHER: nothing new.
MOBILIZATION: Los Angeles teachers are out on strike. We will be looking into how CHTU can be supportive.
OFT (Ohio Federation of Teachers): There is an OFT leadership conference for Executive Committee and Council and some OFT committee members in late February.
POLICY TASK FORCE: met January 8. The Board will be voting on the second set of recommendations starting in February.
PTA: PTA council meets January 24. February 28 is their next event in their speaker series.
RETIREMENT: The deadline for notification for retirement for members eligible for the Retirement Incentive is March 1. Please contact our office if you are thinking about retirement this year.
SOCIAL: The spring social will be May 3 at Nighttown.
SUMMIT: will met Friday, January 18. We were updated about Home Instruction procedures, discussed the PD session, parent conferences, middle school facilities, EL Aides vs teachers, and task force updates. We discussed the state definition changes for EdChoice schools and how that might affect our district. Next meeting February 26, 2019.
1. Grievances:
a) Unfair Discipline: A grievance involving a member who we believed was disciplined unfairly will be heard by an arbitrator September 25. Additional dates were October 29 and 30 and December 17. We await the arbitrator’s decision.
b) Subcontracting – the union filed a grievance on September 26 over sub-contracting of a position at the high school. The union sent a notice to negotiate this issue when it first arose several years ago, but we did not move forward. We had a step 2 hearing October 11. The grievance was denied on October 18. The union filed a notice with the State Employees Relations Board for bargaining unit clarification for this position. We will meet for mediation through SERB on February 7.
c) Changing Salaries – the union filed a grievance on September 21 because the letters of intent given and signed by two members listed them as 200 day employees with the corresponding salaries. Three weeks into the school year administration called the members to tell them of the clerical error – they are really 192 day contract employees and will be making 10% less than promised. A Step 2 hearing was held on October 4. On October 11 the grievance was denied because the administration believes that it is allowed to make clerical errors – even if people have left their previous employment based on erroneous information. Grievance Mediation was held on November 28 with no resolution. Our Executive Boardapproved taking the issue to arbitration at the December meeting. After the Boardwas notified of the Union’s intention a settlement was offered. The Union will be accepting the offer and the matter will be considered resolved.
d) Long-term Substitutes –A grievance was filed Friday, October 26 over a dispute over the reading of the long-term substitute language. We believe that long-term is not necessarily a minimum of 60 days if the substitute is properly licensed and doing all the work of the teacher. The Step 2 hearing was held November 13. The Union waived a deadline for the Board’s response for purposes of clarification. Some language has gone back and forth, but there has been no resolution. The Union will move to Step 3 – Grievance Mediation.
e) Administration Union Concern - Related Service Providers: An Administration Union Concern was filed January 14, 2019 on behalf of our Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists based on workloads. A meeting is set for January 31.
f) Caseload Compensation: a member filed a grievance because students who take two different classes in the same period at the high school are not counted on each teachers’ caseload even though they are two separate curricula. A step 2 hearing was heard on January 11. The Union waived time for a response until January 23.
2. Fact-Findings:
a) A member was called to a fact finding on October 1 over concerns that deadlines were not being met. Awaiting disposition.
b) A member was called to a fact-finding on October 16 over concerns of untimely response to parent communications. Awaiting disposition.
c) A member was called to a fact-finding on October 15 over concerns of “patterns of absences” even though the member has a known condition that indicates intermittent FMLA is needed. Awaiting disposition.
d) A member was called to a fact-finding on December 7 because smoke from a microwave that caused a building evacuation. The member was given an official reprimand on December 21.
e) A member was called to a fact-finding on December 7 because the member was reported to own and to have moved the offending microwave in e) above. No evidence of wrong-doing was found so the matter was dropped.
f) A member was called to a fact-finding December 11 for concerns over statements supposedly made about a student. Awaiting disposition.
g) A member is being called to a fact-finding on January 7 for issues related to a video made of a student back in October. Awaiting disposition.
3. Heights Coalition for Public Education
Save the Dates: February 6 and 13 for a community book discussion on “The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better” by Daniel Koretz. Graduate credit is available through Lake Erie College for participation. Contact hour documentation will be given for license renewal for participation.
For more information including where to buy the book, discussion guides, and chapter by chapter summaries, go to www.chuh.net/coalition.
4. Fairfax Air Quality – after several members showed concerns over air quality issues at Fairfax the union leadership requested air quality testing from the district. Administration asked for more specific information, so we surveyed the membership and forwarded the results to administration. Administration is setting up to start testing December 17. We await results.
5. Negotiations – The bargaining poll was sent out the first week back to school in January. A notice was sent to the Board on January 15 stating our willingness to start negotiations as early as February 1.
6. CHTU Red Shirts – We will be pre-ordering red CHTU T-Shirts. Look for an order form soon.