Since everyone can't make the meeting this afternoon, IPS B.S. wants you to use this board to share details and your opinion on what we've been offered. This is a chance for all of us to help each other make sound decisions.
from the IEA site www.iea-in.org Bargaining Unit Members,
Your Bargaining Team Committee and IPS Administration has reached a tentative agreement. We now want to share the information with you. Come hear the information and vote your recommendation, Friday, August 7th, 2009, noon and 2pm at Arsenal Technical HS in the auditorium.
If you can not make either meeting, you can receive the information at the 1st day meeting with the Superintendent. You then have another opportunity to vote @ the IEA office Tuesday, August 11, 2009, until 5:30pm. All Alternative Calendar Schools will be able to hear the info and vote at Key River at 4:30pm
A lot of questions have been asked about the secrecy surrounding the tentative agreement. I hope this answers any questions you may have.
The Bargaining Team Committee is not trying to be secretive about the agreement, but we want the teachers to know the details before the news media puts their spin on it, and we want everyone to hear it from IEA's mouth, and in the past when we have let some know before we have had an official conversation with the bargaining unit, misinformation gets out, so we want to keep it confidential until we can make an official announcement. We decided to do it all on Friday, 1) if you vote for the agreement early we maybe able to have it applied on our first paycheck of the 09-10 school year. First check is August 28th. 2) We still have a lot of schools (a high percentage) who don't vote or AR's who don't turn in the ballots, we felt this was a good way to have some solidarity with this situation.
Here's the skinny--- The big raise: We got 1%, 0%, and 2% for 07-08, 08-09, and 09-10. Plus a 1% bonus to be paid before Spring Break. We will also get a retro check for over-paying insurance premiums since January but don't know when that will come in.
The retirement incentive will be available again this year, so that's great for teachers who are considering getting out after this year!
There is something new in that some Magnet School teachers are going to be given a little bit of protection in the case of a RIF, but talk to your building AR if you don't fully understand how it works.
Insurance costs didn't change much. We will have open enrollment now, so they will be in the buildings early on in the year signing people up. If you want to change, now is the time!
Our hourly rates for workshops and all that went up significantly. ($14.40 to $20 - things like that)
Those who were upset by the reduced hourly rates that appeared on the new pay stubs... The manner in which our hourly rates are determined is set by state law as well as by our contract. Take your salary, divide by 190 (days worked), then divide by 6 (hours paid in a day). The result is your hourly rate for homebound and those things that are covered in the contract. The reduced rate is a pro-rated rate and will only appear on your pay stubs. You should not be paid that rate for anything. If you find that you have been paid this reduced rate, contact the IEA office immediately.
Those are the biggest changes that I saw. If I've left something ou, please add it! If you have any questions, you should be able to get answers from your building AR's. Please try them first before calling the IEA only because they are so understaffed at this point and are in a period of transition.
Cost of living increase is 3% and they are only offering 3% over a 3 year time period??? Do the math people!! That's 1% a years. The 1% one time bonus is suppose to make us feel better. What a collection of idiots if the teachers vote yes.
Retired teachers are paid by the state....and they are getting up to a $450 stimulus check. I wanted more but I am realistic...IPS like many other school systems is broke.......and it will get worse as the property tax caps go into full force.....I not only teach for IPS but I am one of the rare characters that also lives in IPS.....I think IEA did as well as could be expected. Of course, there will be detractors who thought that there would be 6% to 10% raises but.......reality has to set in......what bothers me most is the addition of more administrators and the raises that they are receiving but the IPS school board and Mary Busch allow that to happen. Wait until election time.
Dr. White's secretary earns $68,000 per year. I have a M.S. degree plus 18 post-graduate hours and 27 years experience, yet I will still earn slightly less than his secretary.
Anon 2:50, now that is a sad commentary on the priorities of this district!!!!!!!!!! I have a MS plus 45 and make less, as well. I should have paid more attention to my typing skills....
Again, people, you might watch the complaining. Other people besides teachers come here, and I can't tell you how awful it looks for teachers to be bitching about 3% raises when the whole state is in economic crisis. And while I disagree with the top-heavy system, who am i to say that Dr. White's secretary isn't worth $68,000. It sounds petty and catty. It's exactly like when Joe Public says, "Stupid teachers make more than I do and all they do is sit at a desk and read from a book and take a million vacations all year." Sometimes I wish central office DID want to divide us up -- put all the toxic-attitude, gossip-mongering fools in their own school and let the rest of us fix this district and its image.
I have a question, a little off topic, but I'm very interested in finding out the answer: How is it that we have a new building administrator who neither has an administrator's license nor has completed her Master's degree, period? Do we give "emergency" Admin lisences now?? Makes perfect "IPS" sense - since we already have a huge excess of licensed and experienced administrators all over this district.
What building is that in? When administrative postings were opened earlier this spring, I applied and got no phone call or interview or anything. I called them myself and was told they did not interview anyone who did not have their administrative license on file. (Mine was in the application process) So how is someone working as an administrator but no license or degree? I would be very interested to know who that person is or what building they are in? I think the parents would like to know that also....
Cythnia Perkins, an Academic Dean at Tech, was hired for that position WITHOUT an administrator's license even though the posting said one was necessary. Others who were less than a semester short were not allowed to interview because it had to be in effect on the day school started. Perkins got hers over a year later and now has been promoted to Vice Principal........connections????
5:03 As I recall in 2007-2008 we weren't in an economic crisis, and the property tax issue wasn't an issue.
Once again we get two days vacation a year, that is it. So when your friends who are John Q Public bring this up, remind them we are only paid for the 190 contract days.
Additionally if Dr. White and his cronies were on top of these things he would have gotten the paper work straight to lay off the administrators he wanted to get rid of, and the wages paid to those 18 people would have been 1.5%, and what did we manage to lose when he violated state law and shortened the school year in the middle schools by 3 days?
We've got people making over $100,000 a year looking for dust and burned out lightbulbs, it is time for this non-sense to stop. The priority should be how we learn, not how we look. This administration is the triumph of style over substance.
When you get your piddly 4 to 5 hundred dollars, remember every month Dr. White gets $900 for his car, and free gas. How does this affect student achievement?
Anon 7:25 You need a real dose of reality...We get 3 vacation days not 2.....I will not defend Dr. White as he is a bully......IPS is broke...this is more than I expected....
Well, so we probably have a contract for this year.
I VOTED NO by the way! Will we waite another three years for another contract and then be told we are doing this for money your working conditions, that are even worse from Dr. White ramming more down our throat, are the same.
When will the bargaining committee go after the number of preps high school teachers have and the number of students seen. These things directly effect the quality of instruction and test scores. A teacher at the HS or middle school level seeing over 150 students and having four or five preps is not as prepared as a teacher who has 1-3 and less than 120 or 110 students. Grading, phone calls,etc have to be factored in. In addition to lesson plans, reports, and documenting when you sneaze for this evaluation tool being used now.
Preps, number of classes (at the HS level, etc. Working conditions need to be addressed. It was said at the meeting that they want to keep people from going to the townships and suburbia that is one reasons they took the money.
Well I hate to break it to you! People are leaving because of lack of respect from our adminstrators and working condition as well. WORKING CONDITIONS need to be addressed and made PRIORITY, IN ADDITION TO MORE MONEY!
Sorry for any typo's and gram errors. Doing this quickly while on break from my second job
(Another reason to pay more, so that educators are not tired from working other jobs to pay outragious student loans. What kind of quality does a teachers who has to work second jobs bring to the classroom? THE BEST THEY CAN, but still not what could be had! Even I know it, but dont' want to be living in squalor either.)
There is no guarantee that you will get supplies, and if you teach a supply dependent subject, art, music, PE, FACS, or sciences, it is really hard to teach with out supplies and that little $$ classroom reimbursement doesn't even come close to the real cost of supplies in those subject areas.
We shouldn't have to resort to BEGGING for the supplies we need to teach. It used to be in the contract.
Who had only three classes during the day? I had six classes, then PLC, which was unless and a horrible waste of time? Then I had to stay late to redo the Case Conferences, which Robb lied about to the special education teachers. Oh, only two classes were the same so more lesson plans and materials.
One school is asking each parent to donate tissue, a ream of paper and other assorted supplies that should be supplied by the school. Yes, hundreds of hours of sped teacher time was spent this year re doing conferences because Robb Warriner lied to us.
8:27 IPS isn't broke, if it was they wouldn't have four administrators at a school with less then 600 students, (one of whom is apparently unlicensed) nor would they have given the buildings and grounds supervisor a 21% raise. Dr. White would truly be putting students first and taking a pay cut, not an unearned bonus. Maybe he'd see the need and actually give up all his little perks.
It is a matter of priorities, and teachers and their financial well being and work condition aren't a priority. How sad is this, a system where the priorities are the aggrandizement of the superintendent takes precedent over the well being of students.
Where did the money come from to hire so many new people from outside of IPS? I heard in our building we have a new lead counselor who came from the townships. I know one of our counselors already in the building applied for the position so why go outside instead of hire from within.
Anon 7:27 IPS is broke. The examples you cited are just evidence of the inept leadership of Eugene White. We need to find out why Lori Elliot is holding an administrative leadership position at Shortride without the proper license? It has to be more that she is a friend of Prudence Bridgewaters.
Not only is Lori Elliot a new VP at Shortridge, look at the board report for her salary info. She is making about $5K more than her predecessor, who had years of experience as a VP. Ms. Elliot's salary jump this year is HUGE!!!!
This is an example of why teachers get a bad name. You guys are splitting hairs over petty stuff. Half of the things you guys want are not bargainable. If you REALLY want to change the shape of the district (and not just b***h about it), then use your American right to VOTE. Vote the current school board out. Research who you are voting for and KNOW about what they believe. Honestly, I wish we had guarenteed prep time, class size limits, and a plethora of supplies. The sad fact is the district is BROKE from years and years of wasteful spending. This is not a quick fix problem. Those of us who are committed to changing the business of education are in it for the long haul, the rest of you whiners, get out...you are giving us a bad name!
I understand that IPS is broke; however, there is always plenty of money at the top. The folks downtown absorb and over-spend whatever is there, and the few $$ that are left just trickle down. Teachers are left with pennies, but the real problem is that the people who suffer the most are the kids! I'm sorry, but doesn't anyone else have a problem with our big boss driving around in a Hummer? Or no! I mean a brand new Mercedes? Our district dollars are paying for that ridiculous car to the tune of $900 a month. And then he goes to IPS pumps to fill it up! Shameful. Most of our students (And most of us!) will never get a sniff of a Mercedes, and not because they are not deserving, but because their education is being shortchanged by this administration's power-hungry, over-spending, "Look at me! I'm important!" attitude. What about the kids? Huh?? What about them?!
Most of us remember when Goldsmith had the legislature strip IPS teachers of the right to bargain a contract. When we got our rights back, it was only a very narrow list of what we could bargain. Primarliy salary and some fringe benefits......teaching conditions, calendar etc...are not permitted to be bargained unless both sides agree and Eugene White will not agree.
As far as the opening meeting of IPS, this was the worst and most demoralizing one I have attended in the last twenty years. Did anyone notice the irony of being told how poor such practices of lecture and use of overhead projectors are in education only to see and hear Dr. White and building administrators rely primarily on those very things? The biggest irony of all, though, is the fact that none of the veteran and recycled administrators would ever have been able to teach our students under the rules and crap they invent and scheme against the "working" faculty. Think about it, please. These people fight like tigers to hold on their high pay and secret agendas of being important and "out of the classroom", don't they?
o) "Discuss" means the performance of the mutual obligation of the school corporation through its superintendent and the exclusive representative to meet at reasonable times to discuss, to provide meaningful input, to exchange points of view, with respect to items enumerated in section 5 of this chapter. This obligation shall not, however, require either party to enter into a contract, to agree to a proposal, or to require the making of a concession. A failure to reach an agreement on any matter of discussion shall not require the use of any part of the impasse procedure, as provided in section 13 of this chapter. Neither the obligation to bargain collectively nor to discuss any matter shall prevent any school employee from petitioning the school employer, the governing body, or the superintendent for a redress of the employee's grievances either individually or through the exclusive representative, nor shall either such obligation prevent the school employer or the superintendent from conferring with any citizen, taxpayer, student, school employee, or other person considering the operation of the schools and the school corporation.
Extra prep time is a DISCUSSABLE part of the contract, not a BARGAINABLE part of the contract. We CAN NOT hold up the ratification processes when one party does not want to DISCUSS something...
from the IEA site
ReplyDeletewww.iea-in.org
Bargaining Unit Members,
Your Bargaining Team Committee and IPS Administration has reached a tentative agreement. We now want to share the information with you. Come hear the information and vote your recommendation, Friday, August 7th, 2009, noon and 2pm at Arsenal Technical HS in the auditorium.
If you can not make either meeting, you can receive the information at the 1st day meeting with the Superintendent. You then have another opportunity to vote @ the IEA office Tuesday, August 11, 2009, until 5:30pm. All Alternative Calendar Schools will be able to hear the info and vote at Key River at 4:30pm
A lot of questions have been asked about the secrecy surrounding the tentative agreement. I hope this answers any questions you may have.
The Bargaining Team Committee is not trying to be secretive about the agreement, but we want the teachers to know the details before the news media puts their spin on it, and we want everyone to hear it from IEA's mouth, and in the past when we have let some know before we have had an official conversation with the bargaining unit, misinformation gets out, so we want to keep it confidential until we can make an official announcement. We decided to do it all on Friday, 1) if you vote for the agreement early we maybe able to have it applied on our first paycheck of the 09-10 school year. First check is August 28th. 2) We still have a lot of schools (a high percentage) who don't vote or AR's who don't turn in the ballots, we felt this was a good way to have some solidarity with this situation.
I hope this helps with any confusion.
Rhondalyn Cornett
Bargaining Support Chair
I love the contract the Bargaining Team Committee came up with and I am very happy. Glad to see all of my old team mates at the reunions.
ReplyDeleteHere's the skinny---
ReplyDeleteThe big raise: We got 1%, 0%, and 2% for 07-08, 08-09, and 09-10. Plus a 1% bonus to be paid before Spring Break. We will also get a retro check for over-paying insurance premiums since January but don't know when that will come in.
The retirement incentive will be available again this year, so that's great for teachers who are considering getting out after this year!
There is something new in that some Magnet School teachers are going to be given a little bit of protection in the case of a RIF, but talk to your building AR if you don't fully understand how it works.
Insurance costs didn't change much. We will have open enrollment now, so they will be in the buildings early on in the year signing people up. If you want to change, now is the time!
Our hourly rates for workshops and all that went up significantly. ($14.40 to $20 - things like that)
Those who were upset by the reduced hourly rates that appeared on the new pay stubs... The manner in which our hourly rates are determined is set by state law as well as by our contract. Take your salary, divide by 190 (days worked), then divide by 6 (hours paid in a day). The result is your hourly rate for homebound and those things that are covered in the contract. The reduced rate is a pro-rated rate and will only appear on your pay stubs. You should not be paid that rate for anything. If you find that you have been paid this reduced rate, contact the IEA office immediately.
Those are the biggest changes that I saw. If I've left something ou, please add it! If you have any questions, you should be able to get answers from your building AR's. Please try them first before calling the IEA only because they are so understaffed at this point and are in a period of transition.
A one time 1% deposit to your 403B, great job and glad to see we are getting money back on our insurance costs.
ReplyDeleteCost of living increase is 3% and they are only offering 3% over a 3 year time period??? Do the math people!! That's 1% a years. The 1% one time bonus is suppose to make us feel better. What a collection of idiots if the teachers vote yes.
ReplyDeletegreat news 21% for administration, and three % for teachers, maybe his secretary will bet another big boost in salary.
ReplyDeleteand what about our retired teacher, apparently we are just going to screw them....
ReplyDeleteRetired teachers are paid by the state....and they are getting up to a $450 stimulus check. I wanted more but I am realistic...IPS like many other school systems is broke.......and it will get worse as the property tax caps go into full force.....I not only teach for IPS but I am one of the rare characters that also lives in IPS.....I think IEA did as well as could be expected. Of course, there will be detractors who thought that there would be 6% to 10% raises but.......reality has to set in......what bothers me most is the addition of more administrators and the raises that they are receiving but the IPS school board and Mary Busch allow that to happen. Wait until election time.
ReplyDeleteI can't get too excited.
ReplyDeleteDr. White's secretary earns $68,000 per year. I have a M.S. degree plus 18 post-graduate hours and 27 years experience, yet I will still earn slightly less than his secretary.
Anon 2:50, now that is a sad commentary on the priorities of this district!!!!!!!!!! I have a MS plus 45 and make less, as well. I should have paid more attention to my typing skills....
ReplyDeleteAgain, people, you might watch the complaining. Other people besides teachers come here, and I can't tell you how awful it looks for teachers to be bitching about 3% raises when the whole state is in economic crisis. And while I disagree with the top-heavy system, who am i to say that Dr. White's secretary isn't worth $68,000. It sounds petty and catty. It's exactly like when Joe Public says, "Stupid teachers make more than I do and all they do is sit at a desk and read from a book and take a million vacations all year." Sometimes I wish central office DID want to divide us up -- put all the toxic-attitude, gossip-mongering fools in their own school and let the rest of us fix this district and its image.
ReplyDeleteI have a question, a little off topic, but I'm very interested in finding out the answer: How is it that we have a new building administrator who neither has an administrator's license nor has completed her Master's degree, period? Do we give "emergency" Admin lisences now?? Makes perfect "IPS" sense - since we already have a huge excess of licensed and experienced administrators all over this district.
ReplyDeleteWhat building is that in? When administrative postings were opened earlier this spring, I applied and got no phone call or interview or anything. I called them myself and was told they did not interview anyone who did not have their administrative license on file. (Mine was in the application process) So how is someone working as an administrator but no license or degree? I would be very interested to know who that person is or what building they are in? I think the parents would like to know that also....
ReplyDeleteCythnia Perkins, an Academic Dean at Tech, was hired for that position WITHOUT an administrator's license even though the posting said one was necessary. Others who were less than a semester short were not allowed to interview because it had to be in effect on the day school started. Perkins got hers over a year later and now has been promoted to Vice Principal........connections????
ReplyDelete5:03 As I recall in 2007-2008 we weren't in an economic crisis, and the property tax issue wasn't an issue.
ReplyDeleteOnce again we get two days vacation a year, that is it. So when your friends who are John Q Public bring this up, remind them we are only paid for the 190 contract days.
Additionally if Dr. White and his cronies were on top of these things he would have gotten the paper work straight to lay off the administrators he wanted to get rid of, and the wages paid to those 18 people would have been 1.5%, and what did we manage to lose when he violated state law and shortened the school year in the middle schools by 3 days?
We've got people making over $100,000 a year looking for dust and burned out lightbulbs, it is time for this non-sense to stop. The priority should be how we learn, not how we look. This administration is the triumph of style over substance.
When you get your piddly 4 to 5 hundred dollars, remember every month Dr. White gets $900 for his car, and free gas. How does this affect student achievement?
Anon 7:25 You need a real dose of reality...We get 3 vacation days not 2.....I will not defend Dr. White as he is a bully......IPS is broke...this is more than I expected....
ReplyDeleteDon't know anything about Cynthia Perkins at Tech, but take a look at Ms. Elliot at Shortridge. Wow.
ReplyDeleteMs. Elliot at Shortridge is a friend of Prudence Bridgewaters....there is her connection
ReplyDeleteWell, so we probably have a contract for this year.
ReplyDeleteI VOTED NO by the way! Will we waite another three years for another contract and then be told we are doing this for money your working conditions, that are even worse from Dr. White ramming more down our throat, are the same.
When will the bargaining committee go after the number of preps high school teachers have and the number of students seen. These things directly effect the quality of instruction and test scores. A teacher at the HS or middle school level seeing over 150 students and having four or five preps is not as prepared as a teacher who has 1-3 and less than 120 or 110 students. Grading, phone calls,etc have to be factored in. In addition to lesson plans, reports, and documenting when you sneaze for this evaluation tool being used now.
Preps, number of classes (at the HS level, etc. Working conditions need to be addressed. It was said at the meeting that they want to keep people from going to the townships and suburbia that is one reasons they took the money.
Well I hate to break it to you! People are leaving because of lack of respect from our adminstrators and working condition as well. WORKING CONDITIONS need to be addressed and made PRIORITY, IN ADDITION TO MORE MONEY!
Sorry for any typo's and gram errors. Doing this quickly while on break from my second job
(Another reason to pay more, so that educators are not tired from working other jobs to pay outragious student loans. What kind of quality does a teachers who has to work second jobs bring to the classroom? THE BEST THEY CAN, but still not what could be had! Even I know it, but dont' want to be living in squalor either.)
There is no guarantee that you will get supplies, and if you teach a supply dependent subject, art, music, PE, FACS, or sciences, it is really hard to teach with out supplies and that little $$ classroom reimbursement doesn't even come close to the real cost of supplies in those subject areas.
ReplyDeleteWe shouldn't have to resort to BEGGING for the supplies we need to teach. It used to be in the contract.
Who had only three classes during the day? I had six classes, then PLC, which was unless and a horrible waste of time? Then I had to stay late to redo the Case Conferences, which Robb lied about to the special education teachers. Oh, only two classes were the same so more lesson plans and materials.
ReplyDeleteOne school is asking each parent to donate tissue, a ream of paper and other assorted supplies that should be supplied by the school. Yes, hundreds of hours of sped teacher time was spent this year re doing conferences because Robb Warriner lied to us.
ReplyDelete8:27 IPS isn't broke, if it was they wouldn't have four administrators at a school with less then 600 students, (one of whom is apparently unlicensed) nor would they have given the buildings and grounds supervisor a 21% raise. Dr. White would truly be putting students first and taking a pay cut, not an unearned bonus. Maybe he'd see the need and actually give up all his little perks.
ReplyDeleteIt is a matter of priorities, and teachers and their financial well being and work condition aren't a priority. How sad is this, a system where the priorities are the aggrandizement of the superintendent takes precedent over the well being of students.
Where did the money come from to hire so many new people from outside of IPS? I heard in our building we have a new lead counselor who came from the townships. I know one of our counselors already in the building applied for the position so why go outside instead of hire from within.
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:27 IPS is broke. The examples you cited are just evidence of the inept leadership of Eugene White. We need to find out why Lori Elliot is holding an administrative leadership position at Shortride without the proper license? It has to be more that she is a friend of Prudence Bridgewaters.
ReplyDeleteNot only is Lori Elliot a new VP at Shortridge, look at the board report for her salary info. She is making about $5K more than her predecessor, who had years of experience as a VP. Ms. Elliot's salary jump this year is HUGE!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is an example of why teachers get a bad name. You guys are splitting hairs over petty stuff. Half of the things you guys want are not bargainable. If you REALLY want to change the shape of the district (and not just b***h about it), then use your American right to VOTE. Vote the current school board out. Research who you are voting for and KNOW about what they believe. Honestly, I wish we had guarenteed prep time, class size limits, and a plethora of supplies. The sad fact is the district is BROKE from years and years of wasteful spending. This is not a quick fix problem. Those of us who are committed to changing the business of education are in it for the long haul, the rest of you whiners, get out...you are giving us a bad name!
ReplyDeleteI understand that IPS is broke; however, there is always plenty of money at the top. The folks downtown absorb and over-spend whatever is there, and the few $$ that are left just trickle down. Teachers are left with pennies, but the real problem is that the people who suffer the most are the kids! I'm sorry, but doesn't anyone else have a problem with our big boss driving around in a Hummer? Or no! I mean a brand new Mercedes? Our district dollars are paying for that ridiculous car to the tune of $900 a month. And then he goes to IPS pumps to fill it up! Shameful. Most of our students (And most of us!) will never get a sniff of a Mercedes, and not because they are not deserving, but because their education is being shortchanged by this administration's power-hungry, over-spending, "Look at me! I'm important!" attitude.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the kids? Huh?? What about them?!
excuse me 9:07 what is not bargainable? And many of us have no vote in regard to the school board since we live outside IPS.
ReplyDeleteMost of us remember when Goldsmith had the legislature strip IPS teachers of the right to bargain a contract. When we got our rights back, it was only a very narrow list of what we could bargain. Primarliy salary and some fringe benefits......teaching conditions, calendar etc...are not permitted to be bargained unless both sides agree and Eugene White will not agree.
ReplyDeleteI think you are wrong, check the code
ReplyDeleteSECTION 1. IC 20-7.5-1-2,
As far as the opening meeting of IPS, this was the worst and most demoralizing one I have attended in the last twenty years. Did anyone notice the irony of being told how poor such practices of lecture and use of overhead projectors are in education only to see and hear Dr. White and building administrators rely primarily on those very things? The biggest irony of all, though, is the fact that none of the veteran and recycled administrators would ever have been able to teach our students under the rules and crap they invent and scheme against the "working" faculty. Think about it, please. These people fight like tigers to hold on their high pay and secret agendas of being important and "out of the classroom", don't they?
ReplyDeletecopied directly from the code:
ReplyDeleteo) "Discuss" means the performance of the mutual obligation of the school corporation through its superintendent and the exclusive representative to meet at reasonable times to discuss, to provide meaningful input, to exchange points of view, with respect to items enumerated in section 5 of this chapter. This obligation shall not, however, require either party to enter into a contract, to agree to a proposal, or to require the making of a concession. A failure to reach an agreement on any matter of discussion shall not require the use of any part of the impasse procedure, as provided in section 13 of this chapter. Neither the obligation to bargain collectively nor to discuss any matter shall prevent any school employee from petitioning the school employer, the governing body, or the superintendent for a redress of the employee's grievances either individually or through the exclusive representative, nor shall either such obligation prevent the school employer or the superintendent from conferring with any citizen, taxpayer, student, school employee, or other person considering the operation of the schools and the school corporation.
Extra prep time is a DISCUSSABLE part of the contract, not a BARGAINABLE part of the contract. We CAN NOT hold up the ratification processes when one party does not want to DISCUSS something...
I think it's pretty clear.
how does a secretary earn $68,000? There must also be a salary schedule for classified personnel...maybe she also has an advanced degree.
ReplyDelete