Veteran Teachers Correct Raises Are Restored In the Revised 2009 - 2010 Salary Schedule

July 29, 2009

Late today HISD placed the following statement on their Web Site:

"Teacher Salary Schedules for 2009–2010 Revised
Teacher Projected Pay tool deactivated since it is no longer accurate

July 29, 2009

In order to meet the requirements of the State of Texas’ American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Stabilization Plan, and as set forth in House Bill (HB) 3646, HISD is required to use its 2008–2009 teacher salary schedules for the 2009–2010 school year and increase each step by $960. Accordingly, the 2009–2010 HISD teacher salary schedules have been revised to reflect these changes.
All teachers, nurses, counselors, librarians, speech pathologists and evaluation specialists will be paid based on the revised schedules.
Because HB 3646 requires a complete revision of the previously published 2009–2010 teacher salary schedules, the information provided on the Teacher Projected Pay tool on the private portal is now inaccurate. For this reason, the tool has been deactivated.
To access and view the revised teacher salary schedules, visit the Human Resources Web site"

The district has decided to comply with the law. The revised and correct salary schedules are available on the employee portal.

HISD Ignores The Law In Passing 2009-2010 Salary Scedule

At the June 25, 2009 meeting of the HISD School Board the Trustees adopted a salary schedule that essentially screwed those teachers with 6, 15, or 30 years experience. Teachers in those experience ranges were expecting a step increase for this year but instead the Board chose to insert additional steps, making the teachers work an extra year to earn the salary they expected this year. Yes this is complicated, but the result is that a year has been added to the amount of time it takes a teacher to reach the top step and his or her maximum earning potential. On the Bachelors scale it moves from 30 to 31 years, Masters 29 to 30, Doctorate 27 to 28. Remember, depending on when a teacher was hired, TRS will average either the last three or the last five years of service to determine a retiree’s pension. Lengthening the time it takes to reach maximum could affect an individual’s income for the rest of their life.

Should we surprised the HISD School Board has no regard for teachers, especially veteran teachers? Of course not, but this gets worse. During the last legislative session, the legislature passed and the Governor signed a bill giving teachers a pay raise that amounted to $960 for HISD teachers. There was a clear mandate in that bill that this raise had to be given in addition to any raise or step that a teacher would receive under the 2008-09-salary schedule. The raise and the requirement to include expected step increases was contingent on the state plan for the stimulus money being approved by the Department of Education.

“Somehow HISD looked into their crystal ball and determined that the Department of Education did not intend to pass the plan and because of that they were not bound to meet the mandates of the law,” stated HFT President Gayle Fallon. “They reduced three steps and cheated teachers out of $760 - $3,550 of their state mandated raise.”

On July 20, 2009 the Federation filed a class action grievance against HISD for cheating over 1300 teachers out of their full raise. On July 24, 2009, TEA released the announcement that the state stimulus plan had been approved.

“HISD is out of excuses now that the plan has passed,” said Fallon. “The district expects its employees to follow the law and the employees expect the district to do the same. The fact that individual board members disagree with the law is irrelevant. Once the state plan was approved, the law became clear.

The Federation is demanding that HISD bring its salary schedule into legal compliance and include the full step increase for all employees paid on the teacher schedule.

Once HISD makes the adjustment to the schedule the union will withdraw the grievance and cancel impending legal action.

“Hopefully egos will not get in the way of following the law,” concluded Fallon. “At this point it would be a waste of both legal effort and taxpayer money to fail to adopt an adjusted schedule.

Just before casting his vote Trustee Harvin Moore stated “We have been told today that we are breaking the law with this salary schedule, I’m still going to cast my vote for what I believe is right”. This arrogance is appalling. Moore is up for election in November. It is time to build a better school board.

Consultation Minutes July 7, 2009

Submitted by Darilyn Krieger

Meeting called to order at 4:37 P.M with discussion of board item D-17 reducing the size of the ACP program due to reduced participation. Program is self-sustaining and as the numbers of applications have dropped then the program needs to be reduced to align with the number of candidates that are on line. All staff will be reduced; persons dropped from the program will be found a place in the district. There are 29 other ACP programs in the area. Four are major competitors; the other 25 programs are less competitive.

Board item D-20; grading policy highlights of the changes are:

1. intervention is still in
2. guidelines for grading have been changed
3. responsibilities are basically curriculum based
4. faculty approval required 2/3 majority
5. recording failing grade cannot be mandated by any one
6. 15% for final
7. resolution of incomplete
8. extenuating circumstances for long term absence
9. must be published to parents within first three weeks of school

Every school must have a grading policy. What if 2/3 majority cannot be attained? What is the default then?

Principals must develop this policy with SDMC and faculty approval. There is really no need for this policy. State law requires intervention, but the rest of this policy is is not necessary. This policy will cause serious issues and grievances due to principals who do not follow the rules.

How are we going to calculate semester grades with the change to 15% final? Can we find out what the state EOC will cover? Is it possible to drop the A/B designation and go whole year course?

The issue of the incomplete, could this have a committee similar to the attendance committee to rule on extending time? Contract year would interfere with incompletes that end after school is out in the spring. Principal and teacher should confer on this and reach a consensus on removing an incomplete.

Board item G-10 establishes a policy for paying emergency personnel who work during emergencies.

Board item H-1 Changes to the code of student conduct

Addition of language to reflect state law on gang –free school zone. Clarification of factors, which must be considered in disciplinary action involving suspension, explosion, or removal to AEP are, made.Statement made that mandatory may not be mandatory. Define cyber-bullying and “sexting” as forbidden and punishable activities.Zero tolerance reports to law enforcements listing offenses are removed.
Special Ed students whose parents refuse Special Ed services then HISD is deemed to have no knowledge of special ed status. Special Ed students who are disruptive, seriously disruptive in the classroom and the building need to be thoroughly documented so that removal can take place. There needs to be a place for these children. We need good options for these children. We need a real program not a patch. The reality is that there are many of these children in the district

Consultation SPM will be brought back next meeting

Question from CHT Literacy coaches funded for two school year 9-10 and 10-11 school years. Funding will cover one coach for each school with more than 400 students
It is a teacher position with no stipend or extra pay.

They are not eligible for teacher ASPIRE as they are considered instructional support. It is a teacher contract position.

HFT question Wellness program district is still looking at program for transportation only. It becomes an issue of cost. We are looking a negative funding for benefits next year. Probably will be funded for transportation only.

Meeting adjourned at 5:42 P.M.

June 18, 2009 Consultation Minutes

Consultation Notes
June 18, 2009


The consultation meeting was called to order at 4:32Pm.
First order of business was the proposed EIA on grading and progress reports to parents. Changes form original proposal were as follows
1. Require intervention for students having difficulty in mastering district objectives. Discussion on this noted that the IEP fir special education will override this if there is a conflict.
2. The campus shall make all decisions relating to grading with the full input of the SDMC and faculty and staff. Parents shall be notified during the first three weeks of the school and the plan shall be reviewed and revised as needed yearly.
3. Campus/departmental grading plans shall include categories of which are not inclusive others may be added as needed
a. Classwork
b. Homework
c. Quizzes
d. Tests/Performance Assessments
4. Choice of categories and weighting for each category will be made by the campus or department in consultation with the principal. All courses will have weighted categories.
5. The principal on each campus will work with the SDMC, Faculty and staff to set an average number of grades per subject/course for the school or for the departments. Regardless of the number of grades it shall be applied uniformly across the entire department or campus.
6. Opportunities for reassessment, submission of late work, the number of grades dropped per cycle shall be determined by the principal in consultation with the SDMC, faculty and staff of each school.
7. A minimum grade for any assignment may not be established by the district or any school.
8. High school final exams shall have a weight of 15% for all credit courses.
9. Students failing to complete assigned work shall be given an “incomplete” for the cycle which must be resolved by the end of the next cycle.
10. Students found to have engaged in academic dishonesty shall be subject to penalties as defined in the student code of conduct. The principal shall work with the SDMC, faculty and staff to determine penalties that will be given to students engaging in academic dishonesty.
Intense discussion ensued high points are
1. SDMC has no power it is opinion only and the vast majority of decisions are already made when they are presented to the SDMC. If this is to truly be a faculty /staff decision then there must be some process fro a faculty/department vote.
2. Be sure that for high schools that this is a departmental decision and for elementary schools possibly grade level.
3. make sure that the final campus policy requires a faculty vote. And sign off
4. Look at department and add PLC
5. Possibly pull off the academic dishonesty issue.

Second order of business was the budget
Issues were
1. new buses
2. no tax increase
3. delinquent taxes are down
4. State 73% local 27%
5. adding new charter school
6. reduction in staff 14 and below 15.2positions 15 and above 25.13positionsfrom central office
7. Teacher salary schedule state mandates $60 dollars per WADA which for HISD is $960 per teachers. Districts want to override the legislature and develop a contingency salary schedule. State requires that this be on top of the step. District wants to renege on this. Wants to adjust the schedule and revamp. Board wants an option. Possible changes in schedule to compress the schedule.
8. Basic increase is $960 we need to consistently fund the steps.
9. Insurance changes if federal program comes through District has not started planning as no plan is currently clear.
10. No increases in health insurance rates but the incidentals are increasing in price.
Meeting adjourned 6:30

D. Krieger

NOTE:

The grading proposal was pulled from the June 25,2009 HISD School Board meeting. Another revision is now in the works. The board passed a $960 pay increase for all teachers but did not give the state mandated step increase to all teachers. They increased the number of steps from 17 to 21 forcing teachers at the top of the schedule to take two years instead of one to get the promised last step increase. They also inserted steps in the middle of the schedule.