March 5, 2009 Consultation

HOUSTON FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Please include the following to the March 5, 2009 Instructional Consultation agenda:

1. Summer School Pay/hours

During summer school, the special education department is only paying their employees for six hours of work (8:00 – 2:00) and expecting seven hours of work (7:30 – 2:30). Employees are required to be on duty when the buses arrive before 8:00 with the students and the buses do not arrive until well after 2:00 to take the students home. At the summer school orientation meeting last summer in the North Region, the person conducting the meeting stated that employees would just have to take turns staying with the children for the extra time. It was also stated that if anyone had a problem with it or “caused trouble”, they would be released to go home. We have to assume that this is the case with all regions, not just the North Region. It has also been suggested that the special education department should pay their employees their hourly wages as their duties have not changed from what is expected of them during the school year.

2. Health Screenings/School Nurses

The Federation applauds the Benefits Department’s efforts to improve employee health with the health screenings currently being conducted. We wonder however, why school nurses are expected to be part of the process? The nurses have absolutely nothing to do with the screenings as they are being conducted by an outside agency, yet nurses are expected to be the campus contact person to coordinate the screenings. We brought this very issue into consultation last year and had a commitment from the district that nurses would not be required to perform this function. On January 5, 2009 the benefits department sent a memo to principals where it was “recommended that school nurses be considered as campus administrators for this project.” When we protested, a new memo was issued stating that it was not required that nurses be the contact person but if they are “they can recruit others to help with the registration desk and other activities”. This actually gives the nurse the additional duty to line up other people.

Why is the Benefits Department recommending the assigning of extra duty to nurses? They already have full time jobs. Some principals are requiring nurses to be on duty early to assist in the setup of the screenings and then taking nurses from their regular duties to oversee registration. The regular duties don’t go away, they just get postponed until the nurse can get to them, usually on her own personal time. We request that nurses not be treated as a spare employee that can be thrown into any duty that may arise.

3. Nurses teaching ancillary classes.

Last month we were promised a letter would be sent to principals clarifying the number of ancillary classes that can be taught by a school nurse. Has the letter been sent

4. Terminations/Non-renewals

The Federation staff reports an unusual number of terminations and non-renewals this year? Is there some new Human Resource policy requiring principals to get rid of a certain percentage of teachers. What role do EVAS scores play in theses terminations/non-renewals? Are reconstituted teachers being targeted?

5. Ancillary Positions

What is the future of Art, Music, and P.E. in the elementary schools? We are getting reports that these positions are being closed in order to hire more TAKS tutors. Does the district still value these subjects?

6. Librarians

Recently one of or Librarian members had her position closed for the fifth time in six years. She was told the school needs to spend money on TAKS resources. What is the future of librarians in the schools? Do these employees need to find another line of work?

7. End of year packing

We have brought this into consultation before. Why are teachers required to pack up their classrooms at the end of the year only to unpack at the beginning of the next year? This is time consuming and physically demanding.