Executive Board Minutes - February 17, 2022

Cleveland Heights Teachers Union

Executive Board Meeting

Thursday, February 17, 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, H. Rasul, G. Nachman

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),  K. Minnillo (B)

Other: M. Mazzone (St.Serv), A. Klein (Past President), K. Cooper (Delisle), S. Glenn (Monitors)

Absent:  J. Boris, N. Williams, D. MacDonald (Ret), S. Austin, C.Meier (Anc), M. Johnson (Monitors)

1. Call to Order - Roll Call 
2. Secretary’s Minutes 
3. Officers’ Reports:
   1. Divisional Vice Presidents
      1. Elementary
         1. TVA - Students returning to in-person after semester has started.  TVA does not accept mid-semester transfers into the program, in-person should not accept mid-semester transfers back to the schools.  Causes additional work for teachers who already transferred information to TVA and now have no grades or information when student transfers back to classroom.  Some teachers had already removed students from apps and websites with the understanding that these families had to make a semester-long commitment.  Recommendation: The district should enforce its policies.
         2. Springboard - Pay issues continue.  Teachers were told to use two different pay forms for the two different rates. Miscommunication about hours of pay.  Top of the pay sheet says four hours of time per week.  That note does not including time waiting on buses or parent pick-up.  Recommendation: This should have been a supplemental. At Gearity, teachers not paid for Monday because Program Leader was absent and PLC not held as usual. 
         3. Building Subs & Technology Access - Concerned that Building Subs do not have the training and technology access to effectively sub in the classroom.  They need to have access to all the district-supported apps and websites (Study Island, RAZ-Kids, ReadyGen, Superkids, Math Expressions, etc.).
         4. Referrals - Referrals are not being addressed.  Teachers being told they are not completing them correctly, then ignoring the referral.  Teachers being told that setting behavior log doesn't have enough instances to warrant a referral even though there are more than enough to satisfy the minimum threshold for a referral.  Excuses by administration to not act on referrals.  Recommendation: Teachers are encouraged to print referrals and document consequences as a paper trail to help address issue.
         5. Recess - Students at multiple buildings are not going outside when temperatures allow it.  Students need to be able to go outside and have mask breaks and to at least walk or run around if playground equipment is surrounded by snow mounds.  Recommendation: Talk to the Principal and head of lunch staff.  Need to find out how the decisions are made, then document the dates and times that conditions were favorable and students did not get outdoor recess.
         6. SAT - Buildings are doing things differently from one another.  Lots of confusion on decision making processes by staff.  Some buildings told to identify priority students without guidelines on how to select.  Others told to complete intervention forms without guidance.  Recommendation: Stewards talk to SAT team members to get clarification on how building's SAT operates.
         7. HVAC Issues - In some buildings, there is a new heating system: constant blowing, no control of temp., no room temp shown. This system was put in place but was not tried first. Constant blowing is loud so no one can hear especially with masks and teacher can't turn off. Rooms are excessively hot or cold. At Gearity, some hallway heating units not functioning.  Told that there was a leak in pipes, so had to shut off.  No idea if they will be fixed.  Not a solution when trying to keep a building warm.  Recommendation: Submit maintenance requests.  Have multiple teachers submit, if necessary.
4. Middle School 
   1. Rox Mid: Temperature issues in the building:  freezing cold or super warm.  Admin. claims the boiler was broken and repaired but at the building level but a lot of the rooms are still cold, class coverage and lack of subs
   2. Monti: Safety issues to lots of fights lately  (spoke to Jeff.  He has been suspending students and reviewing expectations over PA and also during Tiger Time), concerns around a survey participation request and tutoring support.  Staff members have expressed concerns about being "volun-told"  for the survey and tutoring (Searcy will address this with Jeff ).
5. High School - Tutoring is starting to pickup, administration is questioning teachers when they are covering ; power failure two weeks ago, a teacher was stuck in the elevator during the power failure, Greg researched the ordinances and shared with upper administration, the direction is to contact Otis elevator, still a work in progress; complaints persist regarding tardy policy; career tech teachers have had their Infinite Campus courses changed by Myers (not a district employee but is supervisor of the consortium) and reclassified to semester programs rather than yearly courses, having many issues regarding just this decision
6. Vice-President - All apparel sales should have been collected by stewards, Tiffany and Karen will be in buildings on Tuesday, been getting a lot of questions about medical, don’t pay anything until you get an EoB
7. President - A member was called into a fact finding to an administrator said was not a big deal and they didn’t need union representation, this is just a reminder that members know their rights and that union representation can be requested
8. Treasurer - We should be at about 50% of budget and expenses, there was a big windfall from the Franklin Trust

4. Old Business
   1. Elementary Report Cards - Hoping to get a standard report card between all buildings and the simple form of the two proposals
   2. STRS
      1. Julie Sellers, CFT - Only 500 signatures needed, should have far in excess of that
   3. negotiations update - All is going well, waiting on the board

5. New Business

1. Exec Board- Move to in-person? - Officers will meet in-person next month, a decision will be made regarding exec board will be forthcoming
2. Calendar Committee Update - Committee has met three times, first day of work for 200 day employees is August 15, 192 is August 18, winter break is Dec 23-Jan 9, 2023, last week of March is spring break, 4 day Easter break, kids go until June 5 (Monday)
3. Springboard - There are issues with the payment, Bob has resolved this issue with the union
4. Independent work day, needs to be a supplemental for future years, teachers will likely not be volunteering again next year
5. Other new business 

6. Action Items
   1. Nominations Committee -I move to approve the appointment of Miranda Faust and Margaret Feiedman as nominations committee co-chairs. Motion by Underfile, second by Renyolds, motion carried

Meeting adjourned at 5:59