If you are a counselor, social worker, nurse, school psychologist, SLP, OT, or any other position that is in Local 795 and not responsible for your own classroom, then you may have some specific contractual questions that differ from those of classroom teachers. Here is a start at trying to address some of these questions. Please contact Ari Klein (aklein@chtu.org) or Josephine Shelton-Townes (jstownes@chtu.org) if you would like us to consider adding other questions to this list.
Why am I called a “Teacher?”
Everyone represented by our contract is considered a “Teacher” even though we all play important roles than may not be a traditional teacher role. Using that term is not meant to minimize the essential and specialized work you do for our students, but is used in a generic sense in our contract to apply to all licensed professionals who are members of our bargaining unit.
What are the contractual differences between 200 day employees and 192 day employees?
Nurses, Counselors, Social Workers, Program Specialists are 200 day employees. Everyone else works 192 days. A 200 day employee has an 8.5 hour normal work day, returns from summer recess 3 days early, works 5 additional days after teachers begin their summer break, are required to log another 2 days of work outside the normal work day, and earn a 1.1 differential (10% more in salary). Most of our members are 192 day employees. Their normal work day is 7.5 hours and they report to work for 8 fewer days than the 200 day employees.
200 day employees can also have flexible schedules to some extent (discussed in the next question).
What should I know about flexible schedules?
Article 6A.4 of our contract defines Compensatory time basically as time worked outside of the normal work day or calendar. For 200 day members there is some flexibility on your work hours. When a social worker attends an 2 hour evening meeting that is approved by the supervisor, they can take 2 hours off their normal work day to balance the time. So, perhaps the social worker comes to work 2 hours later than the usual start time on a particular day without loss of sick or personal leave - giving prior notification to the supervisor. Unfortunately, this is not officially part of the contract for 192 day employees. Some administrators realize that the nature of the work for some employees makes it advantageous to allow a flexible schedule for special events, so there are times when 192 day employees have worked closely with their supervisor to do something similar. The difference is that such flexibility is at the discretion of the supervisor.
In both cases time outside of the normal work day cannot be mandated by administration. For example, a 192 day employee that voluntarily attends a supervisor approved meeting that goes 1 hour past the end of their normal work day shall be either paid the hourly rate of $23, or given the chance to use compensatory time.
What is Extended time?
Regular Work outside the school year is called Extended Time. This time is voluntary and must be pre-approved at the board level based on the number of 6 hour days that are to be worked. The time is paid at 60% of your per diem for each 6 hour day.
Pay for staying late for a meeting/activity
No one can be compelled to stay on the job after their normal work hours. When you decide to attend a meeting that is outside of your normal day you should get approval from your supervisor to attend for either pay or to add to your compensatory time. The same is true for evening activities that you would like to attend.
200 day employees - Why do we have to log 15 hours?
When we added two days to the work year in 2013 we did not want the members who worked the longer year to lose a weekend in the summer, so it was agreed that instead of working 10 extra days, as had been the case before, that 200 employees would report Monday of the week that most teachers start school (instead of the Thursday before). We determined that these employees would have to document 15 hours in lieu of returning to work before that last weekend of summer recess.
Travel between buildings and other mileage reimbursement
Employees who travel between buildings during a school day should document their travel and periodically submit a “Transportation Expense Form” to payroll for reimbursement. If assigned to different buildings on different days you cannot submit the request for reimbursement. Travel to meetings and training may also be eligible for reimbursement using this form. The form is found on the district website at www.chuh.org/Forms.aspx
Do I get planning time like classroom teachers? Lunch?
Many of our non-classroom jobs do not have specific planning time on their schedule since some of these employees have some control over their schedule. Those members providing direct services to students that is scheduled need to take care not to overbook yourselves. There needs to be time in your schedule for writing evaluations or other paperwork tasks that you have. We suggest that you document through email when your caseload gets to the point that it is not manageable within the work day. Copy a union official on this correspondence. The district has not been willing to use the Ohio Department of Education caseload calculator, so our union leadership needs to be made aware of unmanageable caseloads. All employees are entitled to a duty free lunch. This is not to say that most of our members do not work through lunch, but it should be a choice, just like most members stay at work outside the normal work day so, perhaps so they don’t have to take home as much work. It is their choice, but they can leave the worksite for lunch if they so choose.
Are Counselors on BLT?
Guidance Counselors are not members of the BLT, but may, at times, be asked to attend meetings. If asked to attend a meeting the counselor should leave at the end of their normal work day, not at the end of the meeting. If the counselor is able to stay until the end of the meeting and is interested in staying until the end of the meeting, this should be discussed with the supervisor to determine if compensatory time is allowed or if the counselor will be paid for the time after their normal work day has ended.
Who gets an extra $500 and why?
All Intervention specialists and several other categories of 192 day employee earn an extra $500 as part of their salary. With the exception of the Head Nurse, this salary differential is paid to anyone who writes or contributes directly to IEPs, like Speech Pathologists and Occupational and Physical Therapists.