Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

Because during contract negotiations in Stamford, Connecticut, someone might notice that the average teacher salary is about $80,000.

Because in Brevard County, Florida, someone might notice that more than $5 million designated for the employee health care trust fund was spent on an 8.5 percent teacher pay raise.

Because in Hawaii, someone might wonder if getting rid of school on Fridays is really that great of an idea.

Because in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, someone might suggest that the union is filing multiple grievances to get negotiating leverage.

Because across America, someone might actually get to read the New Haven teacher contract before deciding how reformy it is. In the meantime, you can see that the New Haven Federation of Teachers didn’t emphasize the same areas as Randi Weingarten, Arne Duncan and the New York Times when discussing the contract internally.

First, from the September 15 minutes of the union’s executive board:

Dave updated the board on the highlights of the past meetings. The following are issues that have been agreed to:

• There will be no non-union charter schools. All teachers will be union members.
• Tenure laws will not be changed.
• “Turnaround Schools” may be chosen by the BOE and become charter schools. No teachers will be laid off as a result of a school being chartered. There will be an “election to work” agreement which will outline the general parameters of this position. The extended work day, added responsibilities, and compensations will all be clarified and teachers will be informed up front.
• There will be an Advisory council that will govern the school and provide teachers with many levels of involvement.
• There will be Peer Assistance and Review program, which would include a “peer review person”, chosen by the union to model, assist teachers, and provide support.
• The district will ultimately make the determination of tier schools. But still being discussed is the “ waiver of work rule” provision, which allows work rules to be changed if more than 75% of the staff agrees.

There will be committees formed this year to finalize issues so that this reform can be in place for the 2010 –2011 school year. One of the first agenda items is to survey teachers to assess their principals and the principals to assess their administrators as a way to impact change where needed.

Then, from the September 22 minutes of the union’s stewards’ meeting:

Contract negotiations:

The main points have been:

Minimum four year contract

Step movement for all

Minimal cost increase for medical benefits

No contract language change

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 09:08 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.