Teachers, board come to agreement

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The USD 234 Board of Education approved a recommendation to grant teachers three planning days in response to a grievance filed by the Kansas National Education Association.

The decision came during a special meeting held Tuesday to resolve the dispute between elementary teachers and USD 234 administrators.

The board's ruling came after both sides presented their case in a disputed breach of contract stemming from elementary school teachers in the district having not been allowed their full allotment of planning days. The allotted days is specified in the 2012-13 negotiated agreement ratified in August with USD 234, a representative from the Kansas National Education Association said.

"What it boils down to in my opinion, and this is what I shared with the teachers, I feel like it's a different interpretation of how we define planning time," USD 234 Superintendent Dr. Diane Gross told the Tribune during the closed session potion of the meeting. "I don't know that there is a good solution that's going to satisfy everybody. And visiting with the teachers and talking with our board, I feel like (we need to) come up with a compromise that would at least get us through this year, knowing that it's going to come up in negotiations when we reconvene in February, March."

KNEA representative Sheila Harte-Dmitriev, presented the teachers' case during the first part of the meeting. As part of her presentation, Harte-Dmitriev said the agreement contains language specifying that teachers are allowed 58 minutes of prep time each school day, and four full days without students (elementary teachers only) when they can plan, also referred to as an elementary planning day.

"That language has not changed from last year's agreement to this year's agreement," Harte-Dmitriev told the Tribune after her presentation. "So it's pretty clear that there's four full days coming to those elementary teachers to do their work and to work with each other. They have an endless list of things that they do during those days. And at some point the Superintendent made a unilateral decision to repurpose some or all parts of those days to in-service."

Harte-Dmitriev said an in-service school day differs from a scheduled planning day because it is driven by the administration. For example, the administration may bring in outside people for training purposes as it relates to an in-service day. Harte-Dmitriev alleged that on Oct. 11, Gross repurposed a planning day, utilizing it instead as an in-service day. Harte-Dmitriev said some of the elementary school teachers lost six and a half overall planning day hours, while other elementary teachers lost three hours, depending on what was being asked of them, in-service wise.

"She's (Gross) violated the agreement," Harte-Dmitriev told the Tribune while the board diliberated in closed session. "Because those (planning) days are clearly in the agreement -- four full days, not a half day. And their purpose is for planning. And then we have new definitions this year in the agreement brought by the superintendent."

According to Gross, the district removed the first early release day in order to meet what was in the negotiated agreement in terms of inclement weather and number of days the respective elementary schools had to reach before making up time.

"There were two days listed in that negotiated agreement, so we had to find another half day to meet the number of minutes," Gross said.

Gross told the Tribune that she feels the real issue is about having a common understanding about what planning time is and how it should be utilized, as well as how information gets communicated in order to find a common ground. Gross said more work needs to be done in that regard.

"Even though they've been defined as planning days in the past, by definition, they've (teachers) really utilized them as a workday," Gross said. "And I felt like that was something we had discussed during negotiations and come to an agreement on."

In a written request, Harte-Dmitriev asked that the hours lost on Oct. 11 be retroactively made up with an alternative time frame, or that the teachers are paid for those hours.

"I really hope that they adhere to the spirit and the word of the agreement," Harte-Dmitriev said during deliberations.

After separate presentations were made by Harte-Dmitriev and Gross, the board went into a closed session to deliberate. After about 30 minutes, the board reopened the meeting to announce its decision.

Board President Janet Braun told the capacity audience, which filled the board room to capacity, the decision made by the board was to grant the relief requested by the teachers. The decision is to provide three full elementary planning days for the remainder of the 2012-13 school year for all elementary staff, including pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. In addition, the planning days will be chosen by Gross, as per the negotiated agreement.

According to Harte-Dmitriev, the disputed half-day lost on Oct. 11, was never addressed in the decision. However, Harte-Dmitriev said she was pleased with the board's decision.

"The thing I'm hanging on is that they are granting three full planning days, which, that's good, but I'm a little confused about when those days will be," Harte-Dmitriev said.

Braun also noted that a written response would be provided within five days, which will specify those days.

"The decision will still allow us to have the Literacy First training for everyone," Braun said. "The board is appreciative to Dr. Gross for working out a schedule that will provide the three full planning days as well as the Literacy First training."

The board's recommendation was approved by a unanimous vote. After the meeting was adjourned, Gross discussed the decision with the Tribune.

"Well, essentially, this stems back from when I had conversations with the board and with John Rasmussen the KSB attorney (Kansas Association of School Boards), and it was about looking at days that we already had scheduled on the calendar, and could we free up those days, to allow for the planning time that was recommended or suggested by the teachers," Gross said. "I feel like it was a compromise and it's something that will allow us to move forward, and like I said during the meeting, put our focus back on student learning and success.