ARC (Appraisal Review Committee): At the April 24 meeting we discussed process for evaluations. Lombardo will discuss with principals. We also updated the chart stating what student growth measures will be used next year since value added is back. Dejunee Lawson is going to a 2 day national AFT SLO training. Next meeting May 22.
Community in Schools Task Force: Initial meeting held on April 11. The second meeting was cancelled. Next meeting is unclear.
Cuyahoga County Educators Summit – nothing new
DLT (District Leadership Team): Next Meeting April 26. Next year’s dates are set. The district would like an elementary and a high school IS to be on DLT.
ER&D: Summer Registration is coming to a close. Three classes need more participants. Aimee Banas has been selected to be a national trainer!
INSURANCE: Nothing new since November 2 meeting.
MASTER TEACHER: Lawrence will serve on the committee next year, but will help with scoring this year. New Master Teachers and renewals will be announced shortly.
MOBILIZATION: meeting was held May 4. Among the topics, President Klein asked for the group to be involved with BOE member selection, screening, and campaigning. The group is also going to gather information from members one on one.
CHTU Listening Project Works In Tandem with Heights Coalition – The debrief meeting was May 15. There are interesting stories as to why families decide to send their children to charter schools. The group will be gathering all of the information we can and will present to the Board of Education.
RETIREMENT: COLAs are gone.
SOCIAL: Officers discussed how our spring social went. We are considering a hybrid event next year that combines some of the nice aspects of a formal banquet with the informal parts of the Spring Social.
SUMMIT: Met May 12. We discussed procedures for the last day of work, start/end time issues for next year with the increased middle school bussing, and the OIP timeline. An issue of professional staff photos for the new email system was mentioned – since gmail is our work email staff members should have a nice photo of themselves in their profile, not their dog or kids. We were informed that if we give end of year principal evaluations that all principals would refuse to accept feedback.
TRANSITIONAL WORK PROGRAM: nothing new
1. Negotiations – A bargaining session with reduced teams for the Monitor Agreement on May 11 produced some movement toward a tentative agreement. On May 16 we conferenced on the phone and have a tentative agreement that also settles the subcontracting grievance. We will be getting information to monitors and will be taking a vote next week. Additionally, the Teacher contract edits were discussed. Formatting is the only thing left for us to have electronic copies of the new contract.
NEW BENEFITS – start July 1.
2. Grievances
Assault Leave Grievance: A member was denied assault leave for documented mental anguish associated with an assault leave. The Step 2 hearing was held on April 6 and denied. Although the executive board authorized us to move to Step 4, arbitration, we decided to try grievance mediation first. We are scheduled to meet May 19.
Refusal to Bargain: A grievance was filed April 21 because administration refuses to bargain the subcontracting of monitor positions at 3 elementary schools. Work that has been and can be performed by our bargaining unit (signing in visitors) will be taken over by members of another bargaining unit. The Step 2 hearing was held May 5. We folded this grievance into the tentative agreement for monitors mentioned above.
3. Fact-Findings -
a) A member had a fact-finding on January 20 because the principal thought the member sent an email with a “disrespectful tone.” Awaiting a disposition.
b) A member had a fact-finding on January 27 for a plethora of accusations of poor IEP documentation. While awaiting disposition we received a second invitation to a follow up fact-finding for February 16. Another fact-finding was scheduled then postponed. The member refused to answer fact-finding questions when attending a grievance hearing on April 6. Administration sent a notice May 1 for a pre-termination hearing May 12 (which is being rescheduled to May 19 now being revised to be held May 31).
c) Follow up fact findings have been held and scheduled for three of the high school monitors to review video footage from the high school hallways the day of the alleged sexual assault in October. Two were given official reprimands and one a written reprimand.
d) A member will have a fact-finding May 17 concerning special education services not given to students.
e) A member had a fact-finding scheduled for May 16 over concerns on how the teacher has implemented RTI. More information was requested by the principal so we paused the meeting until May 22.
4. High School Scheduling – Dr. Dixon told us on May 11 that we would stick with the current schedule for next school year as we look for better alternatives.
5. Lay-Offs: A member questioned why seniority was not used in lay-off and challenged the answer given. The member was recalled and another member was laid-off (but subsequently recalled on account of a resignation in the same area of license.)
6. Administration Union Concern Monticello – VP Rego conducted a meeting May 11 with administration and Monticello teachers who contributed to the AU Concern over discipline and cell phone use at Monticello this year. Many issues were discussed, including the transition to different leadership in both middle schools, the addition of a student conduct specialist, and investigations into an “options-like” program that could be implemented no sooner than 2018-19.
7. Teachers who are injured – there are at least 3 teachers who were injured at work that are not currently at work. Two of these teachers are on assault leave. Stewards should be aware of the proper procedures to help members who are injured at work. There is a district incident form and supposedly the district requires a drug/alcohol test within 24 hours of the incident. There are cases when this is not possible. The “First Report of Injury” form from the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation must be completed so that a case number can be issued. This case number is given to all providers whose services are used in the care of the injury. See the FAQ “Workplace Injury” on our website for more information.
8. Move to Amend – Corporations are not persons and have no inherent inalienable human rights under the Constitution. Money is not speech. Money is concentrated capital and it cannot speak. Our officers recommend that our local endorse Move to Amend.
9. ULI – Registration has started for June 20-22 in Columbus. There are three sessions; Stand Up and Fight Back, Updating Your Contract, and Student Debt Clinic: Train the Trainer. If interested in attending let President Klein or Vice President Rego know. Executive Board members will have first choice, but if budgets allow we will send other members.
10. District Communication – Reaching Heights Director Krista Hawthorne is pulling representatives from several community groups together to discuss how we want to hold Board of Education members accountable for district decisions being made with appropriate input and research. At the May 10th meeting we discussed a general procedure that we would eventually like adopted by the board.
11. District Calendar – Executive Board will take a look at the dates for PD and conferences for next year to see if it warrants feedback.
12. AU Concern – Morale. We are gathering stories from as many members as possible about how building and central administration decisions and actions lower morale.