Princeton Association of Classroom Educators

September 5, 2012

PAC 4:15 pm

1. The meeting was called to order at 4:16 by Alan Bates.

2. The agenda was approved. 1st – Julie Schmidt 2nd – Pat Walden

3. Approval of Minutes 1st – Jamie Stephens 2nd – Mary Lutkewitte

4. Committee Reports A. Budget – The first budget of the year will come out next month. PACE dues will begin to be deducted from paychecks next month, on the second pay. Deductions run from the October 20th pay check through both pay checks in pay. Dues for a full time member are $767, which equals $51.14 per pay check. Dues for a part time member are $464, which equals $30.93 per pay check. PLEASE CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOUR DUES ARE BEING DEDUCTED! If there is a mistake and they are not, once the mistake is caught the amount is pro-rated so much more will come out of your pay check.

B. Benefits- If anyone is having issues with insurance please have them email Jamie as soon as possible at [email protected] There has been a large turn over in central office, we are working on helping new staff get trained to be able to help, but it has not been going as smoothly as it did in the past due to the turn over.

C. Grievance – 1) See grievance report 2) There have been several issues resolved informally already this year thanks to diligent work by grievance chairs and building reps. Some examples of these are attendance reports being sent out to a building with personal information, this was fixed after discussing it with building principal and the secretary. PCMS teachers were not given copies of the evaluation instruments during their evaluation orientation. This was resolved when a follow up meeting was held and the instruments were made available. Also, a teacher was denied leave under the “2 hour rule” process to put her kindergartener on the bus. This will be addressed at the next district A/A meeting; however this case was resolved when a grievance chair placed a phone call to the HR director who in turn clarified the process to the building principal. 3) There are a couple ongoing grievances from the 08-09 school year and the 09-10 school year that grievance chairs are still working hard to resolve. 4) 121301-Planning time is not given adequately or equitably at PCMS. Encore (elective/specials) teachers are given 81 minutes spread throughout the day with no planning BELL. Core content teachers are not given adequate time according to the contract. Grievance chairs are working on the direction to proceed with regard to this grievance (grievance/ask for an MOU/amend the schedule). REMINDERS: *****2 HOUR RULE and Personal Leave submitted in advance are NOT required to have a reason. DON’T PUT A REASON—If a secretary or principal asks you, you have every right to claim it would be a HIPPA violation to disclose personal information . You may also inform him/her that you are not required to tell the reason.

*****All BUMs under a supplemental should have SIGNED a supplemental contract. Without a signed contract, there is NO guarantee of payment for work completed or in progress.

*****Do NOT volunteer for any program without making your principal aware of your limitations/parameters.

DEADLINES  First semester evaluations should be completed on or before December 19th.  The Deadline for notifying members of nonrenewal is May 15th.  September 15th is the deadline for submitting transcripts for credit ACROSS the salary lanes.  Sept. 15th is the deadline to submit documentation for tenure if you applied by the Aug. 20th deadline.

Please contact your Grievance Chairs if you have issues or concerns of a contractual nature.

D. Membership –PACE member applications were given out to reps for newly hired teachers as well as teachers who renew on a yearly basis.

E. Elections –Katie Isaacs sent an email earlier in the week about holding OEA Rep elections in each building. If someone would like to be put on the ballot they should email Katie directly at [email protected] by Friday. Elections will be held on September 28th.

F. OEA, SWOEA, Uniserv – The first meeting of the year will be held next Wednesday, September 12th. Information from that meeting will be shared at our October meeting.

G. LPDC – The forms for the new process will be out and expected to be used in January. There will be video instructions available to explain the new process. If you are up for renewal this year you may still use the old forms until January. IF you are in the middle of your cycle you will be grandfathered in under the old process, but your renewal will be the new process. The list has been sent out by Brenda Castle if you are on your last year. There is a meeting this Friday at 4:00 so if you are turning in a new IPDP it needs to be received by then.

H. Master Teacher – There were several teachers who received master teacher status last year and will be operating under that title this year, receiving their $1000 compensation at the end of the year. Cheryl Bowling will still be mentoring any teachers who are interested in completing the process this year. The first meeting will be held on September 12th at 4:00 in the HR conference room at PAC. H. Race to the Top – The Race to the Top Committee still needs members to be a part of the sub committees. Most areas are represented, but there is still a need for a Math, Science, Physical Education and Social Studies rep. The committee really wants every area to be represented. Please email Alan Bates if you are interested in being a part of these sub committees at [email protected] It is the intent of the committee to share all information with all members. Dr. Crouse has put information out on the website, PACE is going to look into getting it posted on our website as well.

5. Old Business A. Supplementals- PACE did a lot over work over the summer to maintain our contract language as far as supplemental are concerned. We would like to thank everyone involved in coming to meetings and coming to vote. The result of the summer vote was overwhelming (60% or more) to maintain current contract language, and as a result the board made changes and applied monies saved from the 6th bell pay at the middle school towards the cuts instead of cutting more from supplementals. While we know some positions were left unfilled and we are saddened by that, and are feeling the strain of it, we do appreciate all the support from our members to advocate for our contract. We also want to make sure that all members know that PACE is not the reason these supplemental are not filled, we advocated to fill as our contract states, we did not vote to make cuts.

B. Evaluations and Tenure- PACE has requested that tenure be evaluated by one consistent person. Therefore at the elementary level Jemel Weathers will be conduction all tenure evaluations at all 8 buildings, and William Sprankles will be doing so for all 6-12 tenure candidates. The reason for this request is to help PACE members be fairly and consistently evaluated. There needs to be a common standard and the process should be based on evidence, from the Danielson model with binders and artifacts in all domains. The tenure candidate should drive the process and all objectivity should be removed using your artifacts collected throughout the process. Member concerns will be shared with evaluators and discussed at the introductory meetings to be held by each evaluator. If a tenure candidate is not comfortable with the process they can withdraw from the process. However, it is suggested to do so before the process begins and not once you are into it, and if you are still on an observation year you will have to complete those requirements.

6. New Business A. SFA- and Planning Time- It is the understanding of HR that the online training classes are to be done during PD days, and PACE was made aware that SFA schools were not given time to complete them. PLEASE DO NOT COMPLETE THEM UNTIL YOU ARE GIVEN TIME ON A PD DAY TO DO SO. IGNORE THE LATE WARNINGS AND DELETE.

B. Two Hour Leave- This will be discussed at our A/A meeting on September 26th.

C. Committees- Alan is going to send a blurb about each committee to PACE Executive Members for them to read and sign up to be a part of. The committees are derived from our constitution and by-laws and all executive members should be a part of a committee. The committees are benefits, elections, negotiations, and grievance. We are looking for 3 to 4 for each committee. D.PD Certificates- We will get clarification on what the district policy for pd day certificates are. We are wondering if we get them automatically or we have to request them. IF you have not received a certificate from one of the pd days from the beginning of the year please email your principal and cc Vicki Brian to request one. It is our belief that the presenter of the pd is supposed to have them for you upon completion of training. PACE will also look into if the certificates for the online training classes can count toward LPDC credits.

7. Building Reps A. Sharonville – Right now there are some grade levels that have 4 classes and the 4th class is being split between the other three for specials making specials classes with large numbers. There was concern about everyone going to the evaluation meeting. It was clarified that every member of the school needs to attend these meetings because anyone can be placed on evaluation at any time and to do so they must have attended this orientation meeting.

B. Stewart –.nothing reported at this time

C. Springdale – Springdale teachers are concerned about the class sizes and the equality of it throughout the district. The building is having major sewage problems where there is no water several times a day, cant wash hands or flush toilets.

D. Glendale- teachers had to watch and adult grief video and they didn’t understand why.

E. Heritage Hill – Need a third grade teacher. Kindergarten teacher was hired under the assumption she would be half day contract sub and half day kinder and then went to sign paperwork and was told something else. Late busses

F. Lincoln Heights – nothing reported at this time

G. Evendale – nothing reported at this time

H. Woodlawn – nothing reported at this time

I. PCMS – nothing reported at this time

I. PHS – Kids are being dropped off way too early due to construction. Kids are entering the building as early as 6:40 an there is nobody on duty until 7:00

8. Announcements

Future meetings- All meetings will be held at the PAC

10/3 11/7 12/5 1/9 2/6 3/6 4/3 5/1

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 by Doug Studor 2nd by Jamie Stephens