A&R Negotiations Update

A&R held its 3rd Contract Negotiations meeting with the State on January 27th.  This meeting was very similar to the other meetings where proposals from both sides were introduced by the respective parties.  This session completed the process for new proposals and the negotiations will commence utilizing the proposals submitted at this point.  The discussions that followed were brief and limited to clarification rather than searching for common ground.  As examples:  A&R questioned why the State proposes a switch to utilizing the State Mediation/Arbitration Board rather than OLR, wh

January Advocate

The Advocate

January 2016

 

NDU President Visits

 

Nick Archuleta, president of North Dakota United, visited our rep assembly last week.  He spent about 20 minutes discussing concerns and initiatives from the state perspective.  Highlights included:

 

·        NDU has gained 125 K-12 members in the state and continues to work on membership growth and increasing the number of active members.

January Newsletter

PWFT Advocate

 Prince William Federation of Teachers

Reclaiming the Promise of Fairness by Bill Hosp, PWFT President

            The PWCS PPP Core Committee met January 15th at the Kelly Center. We heard an administration report on what progress administration had made training assistant principals and administrative interns to faithfully implement the PPP in their supervision of teachers and staff as well as training opportunities that had been offered during back to school events prior to the school year. One important point that we learned was that if administrators alter the prescribed format of the PPP they invalidate it, no matter how well intentioned the change may be.

            It is important that our members understand that while we have no problem with the ideals of the PPP, teaching you to do your job better, we do have a problem with the lack of uniformity in implementation. Some of this is due to the relay method of training teachers and staff where central office personnel train administrators, administrators train staff members and some things get lost in the retelling. The other aspect of this issue is more serious.

            After nearly a decade of phasing in and implementing this method of evaluation we still have administrators who do not practice what this system preaches. Instead of using this as a tool for professional growth they are using it to promote their friends and document their perceived enemies for dismissal. I had the unpleasant duty to confront the committee with these realities, such as a teacher who reached out for help with a challenging class only to end up on an improvement plan or the teacher who was put on improvement plans in May (yes, May!) when he met any goals of his previous plan. If you face something similar we need to know about it!

            Until these abuses of authority are meaningfully addressed we will have to decline any administration entreaties to hold PPP workshops for our members. Let’s keep them honest.

Member Engagement

            The new School Board is having a serious discussion about rolling back the length of the teacher workday adopted four years ago and amended in 2014. Teachers, PWFT needs you to make your voice heard on this important step toward restoring teacher morale. Do you prefer getting back the time that was added or finally getting paid for it? Please send your response as a reply to the e-mail containing this newsletter. Tell us “time” or “pay.” Thank you in advance.

School Calendar for 2016-2017

            The School Board voted on December 16th to begin the next academic year the Monday before Labor Day, 2016. They had considered two options, opening school prior to Labor Day or after Labor Day. The end of the school year was counted from opening day in each plan.

            PWFT had polled members in conjunction with the December newsletter and two thirds of the members who responded voted for the pre-Labor Day option.

Member of the Month

            Congratulations to Wendy Marr for being our January Member of the Month! Since joining us last fall Wendy has become a member of our team of advocates before the Prince William County School Board. Most recently she attended the January 13th CIP work session to represent PWFT. Wendy teaches Math at Potomac Middle School.

Rowland Settlement Awards In 1/22/16 Paystubs

All Emotional Distress/Punitive Damage awards of PL and Vacation time should have been applied in the 1/8/16 paystub or the 1/22/16 pay stub.

If you were employed on 11/17/2002 and suffered no ecomonic loss you should have recieved 10hrs PL.

If you bumped down you should have received 32hrs Vacation and 24hrs PL.

If you were laid-off you should have received 80hrs Vacation and 40hrs PL.

Federation Forum

Jan, 2016 Issue:

This Thing of Ours - President's Report and Remarks from Board of Education Meeting

Our Union Our Voices

The District Rep’s Report FRUSTRATION

Political Education: One Way We Fight for Our Pensions!

In Praise of the Danielson Framework, By Donna Marinelli

Know Your Contract: Bereavement Leave

Updates

Friedrichs v California Teachers Association -  Oral arguements were made last week in the US Supreme Court on this very impactful case.  The case centers around whether unions can collect a fee from public sector workers who opt out of joining the union.  All employees (even non-members) are covered by the union contract and the union is required by law to represent all employees covered by the contract, not just those who join as union members. This has been an accepted practice for 40 years.   There are some wealthy interest groups who wish to dismantle unionization and have propped up this case aimed at silencing workers' collective voice and the political power of these workers.  While the arguement isn't especially strong, court-watchers feel that the tendencies of the Supreme Court justices are such that the Court's decision is quite possibly going to overturn the fee collection process currently in existence.  Click to read the transcript of the oral arguments.

Rowland Settlement Update:  Emotional Distress and Punitive Damage awards are being applied this month.  Please review the your upcoming paystubs to verify that your award has been processed.  More info...

Step Increases & Top Step Payments:  Employees who recieved a Step Increase or a Top Step Payment on 12/25/15 should see this reflected in their paycheck on 1/21/16.  Top Step Payment chart and current pay scales

2016 A&R Convention and Elections:  The A&R Annual Convention will be held on Thursday April 28th at the A&R Office in Rocky Hill.  Any member interested in running for a seat on the Representative Assembly or running as a delegate to the AFT and/or AFTCT and/or CT AFL-CIO conventions needs to complete a candidacy form.  Candidacy forms and instructions can be found and downloaded under the Resources tab on our website.

The Comptroller's Office has released 2 recent items of interest:
      1) Comptroller Lembo has released his proposal to resolve the State Employee Pension funding policies.  Comptroller Lembo's proposal is in response to the Boston College study of our pension fund and the Governor's subsequent suggestion of splitting Tier 1 from the other Tiers and making Tier 1 "pay as you go". ..just an FYI: the Unions have not been asked to engage in any discussions related to any of the proposals.
     2) The Comptroller's Office released the most recent State budget projection which now appears to be a $200K surplus. 

 

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