PESPA Pride: October 30, 2007

CONTRACT RATIFIED BY WIDE MARGIN

In voting Wednesday, October 24, Pinellas support professionals ratified the 2007-2008 economic package by a vote of 1464 in favor to 78 against. The 95% margin of victory reflects the overwhelming support for the agreement since the infusion of "referendum" money into the district's budget three years ago. "I'm pleased this is finally done," said PESPA President Randy Dodds. "Our members haven't had to wait this long for a raise in modern history." The lengthy delay was caused by the failure of the legislature to reach agreement on filling a one billion dollar hole in the state's budget. "I want to thank the district and association leaders and staff who patiently worked to put this together," Dodds said. "And I really want to thank the members for their patience."

In addition to the economic package, PESPA unit employees also voted to extend their working conditions contract until details of revisions could be worked out. When that happens, it will be submitted for ratification as well. One feature of this and the last two contracts has been the increased valuing of experience for support professionals "When we lost steps and went to ranges years ago, our members complained that a new employee might be making the same as one with years of experience," said President Dodds. "By scaling the raises (from 3.15% at entry to 4.45% for someone with 13 or more years) we show that the district values its veteran employees."

BARGAINING NOW READY TO RESUME FOR NEXT YEAR

Another consequence of the three month delay in bargaining is that it has held up the teams that will be working on a number of very important issues for next year, including the entire working conditions contract mentioned above. Pinellas' bargaining model is built around the principles of continual improvement. This organizes issues into three categories, addressed by three standing committees - Employee Well-Being and Satisfaction; Employee Work Systems and Employee Education and Training. These three committees work under the general coordination of a Bargaining Leadership Team, comprised of top district and organization officials and the Chairs of the Committees.

Earlier this year, the Leadership Team made a slight restructuring in the make-up of the committees, allocating four members to PCTA, two to PESPA, two to PAA (the administrators group), two to PBA and SEIU (if they choose to participate). District staff necessary for the Committee's work will then be assigned to the Committees. "Our old system of unlimited access had allowed the Committees to have much of their work focused on very narrow issues," said PESPA Executive Director Jade Moore. The intent of the original design was to have these Committees do both short term and long term problem solving and, given the huge issues we face with the end of choice, the class size amendment, declining enrollment, inadequate funding and other challenges, we had to have a more dynamic model.

Association and union officials are in the process of appointing their members. Once that is done and they select their chairs, the newly constituted Leadership Team will begin identifying issues that are high priorities. These will doubtless include the question of increases in insurance premiums; the schedule for middle and high school; the role of training and on and on. More on these as the process continues.

SCHOOL CALENDAR COMMITTEE STUDIES A NUMBER OF CHANGES FOR 2008-2009

The School Calendar Committee is made up of representatives from employee and parent groups and district and site administrators. Each year, they address the task of recommending a calendar within the restraints of state law that will be pleasing to employees, parents, students and the community. The School Board then makes the final decision in December. Some of the ‘rules' are:

• There must be 180 student days, 198 teacher days and 196 support days. (Six teacher and support days may be paid holidays. They are - resulting in 12 non-student days for teachers and 10 for support.)
• There must be four days identified as training days for instructional staff.
• School for kids cannot start more than 10 days before Labor Day.

"Self-imposed" rules include:

• Sensitivity to different faiths in scheduling activities, like graduation, and holidays.
• Appreciation of the fact that there are a significant number of year-round employees and students.
• Avoiding breaks that might interfere with FCAT testing and high school exams
• Trying to provide holidays for students when parents might also be off.

With that background, here are some of the changes being contemplated by the Committee:

• Elimination of all early release days except for the last day of school.
• With a six day pre-school, have one day designated for district training, one for school-based.
• Reduce the number of training days the week before Thanksgiving from two to one. This might impact the schedule for our 12 month members.
• October 17 State Professional Day would be a district training day and would remain as the Support Employees Catalogue of Choice Day.
• Veteran's Day, November 11, would be a regular school day.

"As you can see, there are some real changes," said PESPA Executive Director, Jade Moore. "We will be asking our Association Representatives on November 6 for guidance from our members to help the PESPA Representatives on the Committee fashion the calendar. Along with the appropriate recognition of Veteran's Day, the Early Release Days will be controversial.

"Early Release Days have been a part of our calendar since the 1990's. They were placed in the calendar to assist schools in working through the school improvement planning process - they then morphed into training days and then into a variety of activities from planning (good) to three hour faculty meetings (bad). By last year, the Association's representatives voted to eliminate them as unworthy of the trouble it created in scheduling, etc. A reprieve was granted, over the Association's objection, because of the large number of state and district mandated trainings.

"One real advantage for support professionals was that it allowed them to take earned compensatory time if they weren't involved in the training or planning. The negative was the impact on our bus riders who had to navigate from their "pick-up" site, back to the school or face loss of hours. Although we pretty much worked that out, it was not a pretty piece of scheduling."

There you have it. We want our members to talk with their Association Reps and we want our Association Reps to collect data. In the end, you and your students, not the district staff or the School Board have to live with the calendar. Let us hear from you."

LEADERSHIP LIFEBOAT CONTINUES ITS JOURNEY

The highly creative leadership development program - Leadership Lifeboat - continued its journey last week as the fourteen participants navigated the treacherous shoals of preparing for a School Board meeting. "I was fine the first time I did it," said program facilitator and past-president Gloria Smith. "Then I saw myself on the monitor!" While the training is designed to prepare participants for leadership in the Association, past experience has shown that graduates use their skills in a number of different venues. Watch for a summary of the program in an upcoming Educator. Perhaps you'd like to join the crew next year.