Oct 20 2013

Teacher Negotiations Start with Public Input

Have a suggestion for the teacher or school support staff contracts? –

The Piedmont Unified School District will soon begin the negotiation process with represented employee groups:  Association of Piedmont Teachers (APT) representing certificated employees (teachers) and California School Employees Association (CSEA) representing classified employees in the District. Current collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for both groups are in place through June 30, 2104.

Residents, parents, students, and interested individuals may submit ideas to the School Superintendent chubbard@piedmont.k12.ca.us  The current agreements can be viewed at:

 Teacher/Certified Employees Contract:  http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/forms/jobs/certificated_contract.pdf

Support staff/Classified Employees Contract: http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/forms/jobs/classified_contract.pdf

Suggestions mentioned by parents:

– Teachers should be required to regularly post homework assignments using a uniform format on the District website.

– Teachers should be required to make themselves available to students or parents either 30 minutes before or after school approximately three days per week.

Below is the Board of Education Staff report~~~~~~~~~~

TO: Board of Education
FROM: Constance Hubbard, Superintendent
Michael Brady, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services
Randall Booker, Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services
SUBJECT: NEGOTIATIONS PROCESS AND TIMELINE INVITATION TO PUBLIC TO PROVIDE INPUT PRIOR TO OFFICIAL START OF NEGOTIATIONS
______________________________________________________
I. SUPPORT INFORMATION
The District has Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) with two employee
groups. The Association of Piedmont Teachers (APT) represents certificated
employees and the California School Employees Association (CSEA) represents classified employees in the District. Current CBAs for both groups are in place through June 30, 2104 with no open articles.

The collective bargaining process includes the opportunity for the public to
comment on any issues that are covered by the CBA. The CBAs are posted on the District website at: www.piedmont.k12.ca.us . The community may send input to the Superintendent at chubbard@piedmont.k12.ca.us on any portion of either agreement.

As part of the process, the articles to be opened for discussion must be “sunshined” at a public hearing at a Regular Board meeting to provide an opportunity for public comment for the Board to consider in providing direction to the negotiating team for the District. Since all articles are open, the Board is seeking input as to which articles to include as part of the bargaining process this year. Although all articles are open for negotiation, it is customary to identify only those articles that either or both groups want to concentrate on and to identify the remaining articles as “closed.” The issues of compensation (salary and benefits) are considered automatic to be addressed in the bargaining process.

We have a tradition of using Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) for negotiations in the District. The IBB process allows all parties to keep the focus on interests and not on positions or individuals. It has allowed us to work together through these difficult economic times by keeping the interests of students in the forefront. The employees have not had an increase in the salary schedule and have agreed to limits on the District contributions toward health care, which has allowed us to maintain programs for students during the economic crisis that began in 2008-09.

The Board and employees groups are in the process of identifying the articles to be addressed for negotiations. Once identified, the articles will be sunshined and the public will have the opportunity to comment.

The community is invited to provide feedback to the Board as to issues and articles to be addressed in this year’s negotiations prior to the sunshining process.

Feedback needs to be received by November 6, 2013 for consideration by the Board in the determination of the articles to be addressed as part of the Association of Piedmont Teachers negotiations and by November 30, 2013 to be considered as part of the CSEA negotiations.

The sunshine process for APT is scheduled to begin on November 13, 2013, so that negotiations can begin in December. The public has the opportunity to comment on articles opened as part of the sunshine process.

II. RECOMMENDATION: REVIEW AND DISCUSSION (Consideration by Board of Education at October 23 meeting)

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