Dear Colleagues,
COMMITTEE REPORTS
ARC (Appraisal Review Committee): Nothing new.
DISCIPLINE: Met February 6 to review discipline data view. Expecting OCR review of our proposals for addressing the complaint by March 11. After committee review it is sent to Superintendent, then to Board for approval.
DLT (District Leadership Team): Next meeting February 27, 2019.
ER&D (Educational Research and Dissemination): Link here for registration (link)
GRADING TASK FORCE: Met January 23 with Doug Reeves for a round table discussion with questions, answers, pilots progress, best practices. Reeves shared data. Next meeting March 6.
INSURANCE: Insurance Committee meeting scheduled for February 19 was cancelled. Reschedule date unknown.
MASTER TEACHER: The last 3 writing sessions will be at Delisle on Feb 28th, Mar 21st, and Apr 30th from 4pm to 5:30 pm. Profile due May 6th to the BOE.
MOBILIZATION: Parma Summit Academy Teachers need our support. Make a donation to the Solidarity Strike Fund through the Ohio Federation of Teachers online (link) or send cash or check made out to "Summit Academy Solidarity Fund" and we will deliver it. We will be getting info out about Wear Blue on Friday, March 8 to support Lordstown in the Drive it Home Campaign (link).
OFT (Ohio Federation of Teachers): There was an OFT leadership conference for Executive Committee and Council and some OFT committee members in late February.
POLICY TASK FORCE: Met February 12. Reviewed policy for the BOE to consider adopting.
PTA: Sandy Womack will be the speaker on February 28.
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: Join us for a TUSH on March 1 at Boss Dog on Lee Road after PD. The spring social will be May 3 at Nighttown. Start getting a basket together for our scholarship raffle.
SUMMIT: Met February 26, 2019 for a co-teaching presentation, discussed a PBIS grant, parent conferences for next year, middle school honors classes, and the middle school move.
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. It ended up with the union filing a notice with the State Employees Relations Board for bargaining unit clarification for this position. We met for mediation in Columbus on February 7. We have a follow up phone conference on February 28.
c) 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. Grievance Mediation is to take place March 6.
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 has been rescheduled for February 19 since our original date ended being a calamity day. We are awaiting a letter from administration chronicling the items agreed upon at the meeting.
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 and denied on January 23. Grievance Mediation is to take place March 6.
g) Unwarranted Discipline: a member filed a grievance February 13 concerning a written warning she received for videotaping a student. Administration did not consider the destructive and violent outbursts the student had before he attacked the teacher to be an “emergency,” therefore she was issued discipline.
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 an untimely 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 December 11 for concerns over statements supposedly made about a student. Awaiting disposition.
e) A member was called to a fact-finding December 21 over concerns about not being in the building. Although we thought it was dismissed on February 11 the member was given an official reprimand.
f) A member was called to a fact-finding on February 12 over concerns with a specific interaction with a student who was not in the proper place. This fact-finding took place even though 2 adult and 2 student witness statements placed all of the blame for any negative interaction on the student. The case was dismissed with no finding.
g) Two teachers were called into fact-findings February 14 for “inadequate supervision” issues.
h) 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. The member was given a written warning on February 1 (see Grievances “g”)
i) A security monitor was called to a fact-finding on February 14 over concerns that the monitor did not respond to a situation properly. Awaiting disposition.
j) A teacher was called to a fact-finding on February 22 over IEP concerns. Awaiting disposition.
3. Heights Coalition for Public Education
60 people reported to the first book discussion including 8 members. The discussions were rich, but poorly attended by CHTU members. Several action steps were discussed for people to try on their own. The group meets February 27 to debrief and to consider action steps with former house member Steven Dyer.
4. Fairfax Air Quality –Results were sent January 24 – all results were within normal parameters. We have asked a local expert to review the information from the report and give us feedback.
5. Negotiations –We have two dates set for March for negotiations. March 13 and 20. We were asked to provide April dates.
6. CHTU Red Shirts –Our pre-orders have gone well. We will send our order February 28. (link if you want to pre-order online)