August 27, 2009 Specially called Consultation Meeting.

This meeting was held to discuss proposed changes to Board Policy DEC (LEGAL) and DEC (LOCAL), Compensation and Benefits - Leaves and Absences. The policy needs to change in order to accommodate SB 522 which reads:

. . . The board of trustees of a school district may adopt a policy governing an employee's use of personal leave granted under this subsection, except that the policy may not restrict: (1) the purposes for which the leave may be used; or (2) the order in which an employee may use the state minimum personal leave and any additional personal leave provided by the school district. (f) A public school employee who retains any sick leave accumulated under former Section 13.904(a), as that section existed on January 1, 1995, is entitled to use the sick leave provided under that section or the personal leave provided under Subsection (a) in any order to the extent that the leave the employee uses is appropriate to the purpose of the leave.

In short this means that employees may now determine if leave time is deducted from state leave or local leave. It will now be possible for an employee to use local leave hours first and accumulate state leave. This is important because state leave is transferable and will follow an employee from district to district. The employee may decide after each absence the number of hours deducted from each of the leave banks. This is a great benefit.

Unfortunately however it appears that HISD can’t stand to see a happy employee. While there is no proposed policy change yet, the district strongly hinted that there will be a change in the district’s Attendance Incentive Plan. Since 1998 employees have been able to sell back to the district any accrued but unused state leave using any one of three listed options. Under the new rules, an employee can use local leave and sell back state leave. The district claims this will be a huge financial liability to HISD and a change in the “buy-back” policy is likely. HFT will oppose any policy change that will prevent an employee from taking full advantage of the new law.

HISD Reneges On Agreement With Unions - Children Lose

HISD BOARD WORKSHOP TURNS INTO FIRING SQUAD AIMED AT UNIONS

Houston ISD Board President Lawrence Marshall invited the Harris County AFL-CIO Council to present information at a Board of Education workshop on Prevailing Wages and the 2007 Bond Agreement Partnership reached in October. The Agreement, that was signed off on by the Administration, called for the use of current U.S. Department of Labor Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wages, Apprenticeship training for HISD graduates to build the new schools, wage enforcement and funding for the Career and Technical Education Programs of the District. The workshop (August 20) was called to explain the agreement to the Board for placement on the agenda. AFL-CIO representative Richard Shaw made the presentation.

Agreement good for the District and the Students

When the Unions arrived, they found that they were facing a firing squad of industry representatives set to attack the agreement and the Unions. Shaw began by laying out the Agreement and why HISD endorsed it at a news conference. Emphasis was made on the Apprenticeship wages in the agreement and enforcement of the wages so that workers would not be cheated. He pointed out that this was not a union-non union issue at all but about good wages, keeping students in school and job training. Shaw recounted the documented shoddy and dangerous electrical installation work performed in 4 recently opened schools where children and staff were put in danger with serious wiring and grounding issues. He recounted a report from Lantrip Elementary where the water fountain was shocking students shortly after it opened. Shaw also pointed out how the undocumented workers who were installing the electrical work were unlicensed and were being cheated out of the Districts low $15.17 per hour wage only receiving $9-11 per hour. Finally, he urged the District to adopt current Prevailing Wages (like the County, the City, METRO and others have done) since their wage are 11 years out of date. He pointed out how such wages attract quality workers and quality construction and also train Apprentices that could be recruited from the neighborhoods. He recounted how the Unions helped win passage of the agreement and how the District benefited from the reputation of the AFL-CIO as an honest broker when it comes to job training and good wages for construction workers. All was going pretty good as the 9 Board members listened intently until industry representatives began.

Industry lines up to protect itself

Leading off the industry speakers was Ber Pieper, representing the HISD Bond Oversight Committee and the Associated General Contractors. His testimony recounted how great Brown and Root is and how the District did not need Prevailing Wages and that the wages were just fine for the workers represented. He also touted the quality of the construction and that there were many undocumented immigrant workers living in HISD who benefited from these low wages. Jerry Nevlud, of the Associated General Contractors was up next. He said that his contractors (most of them non-union) did not prefer to pay prevailing wages and that, in summary, the District was doing just fine with its low wages since school construction was different from other construction. The third representative, Ousley Lacy from the National Association of Minority Contractors admitted that they did not believe in Prevailing Wages and that they would not pay them. None of these industry representatives addressed Apprenticeship training and/or why it was preferable to employ undocumented immigrants (and cheat them too) over HISD graduates who would like high skill and high paying construction jobs. Other speakers included the District’s Business Development person and Finance Department who presented a skewed analysis of the cost of paying workers Prevailing Wage when they could use their outdated and their underpaid wages.

District effectively cancels Agreement

Finally, Richard Lindsay spoke. He said that he had made a mistake in signing the agreement (he had done so at the direction of Dr. Saavedra, who is the outgoing Superintendent) and that he was sorry. He then apologized to the Board for doing so. He said that he would not recommend the Agreement to the Board today. Several Board members responded that he was forgiven and that everyone makes a mistake sometime. It then turned into a virtual love fest for Richard Lindsay and the Bond program. Dr. Abe Saavedra, who negotiated the Agreement, sat silent and lame like a duck.
General tone was degrading toward Unions and members

Overall, the general tone of industry and some of the Board members was degrading and insulting towards Unions and their members. In effect, they spit in their faces after they and the District used Labor to lend credibility to their Bond referendum when very few other community organizations would.
This prompted one Board member, Carol Galloway, from the otherwise silent Board members, to note that Union members were people too and she then apologized to the Unions for the District’s behavior in reneging on the agreement and for the tone of the meeting. Ms. Galloway was not on the Board when the Agreement was reached but had warned the Unions that the District would not honor the agreement. Unfortunately, Ms. Galloway was right.

Board Workshop Results and Conclusions of the Harris County AFL-CIO Council

· The Agreement is dead and the losers are the students and the community.

· HISD will continue to train no one in spending $1 billion dollars to build its schools. Without the HISD construction work, there will not be enough Apprenticeship program slots for HISD graduates.

· HISD will continue to get shoddy and dangerous construction work since they have no controls in place to monitor construction and the construction industry will not monitor itself.

· Construction industry leaders continue to ‘wring their hands’ about the shortage of construction workers but still do not want to train anyone and do not want to pay good wages.

· It is apparent that the Associated General Contractors will not be part of the solution to train workers in much-needed highly skilled and high paid construction occupations. They will continue to enable shoddy and dangerous construction work in the HISD and promote low wages.

· The National Association of Minority Contractors is now on record that they will not pay Prevailing Wages. This too is very disturbing since they are bidding for work on the METRO rail that requires the payment of such.

· The Unions of the AFL-CIO will monitor all construction and report problems directly to the Board and the Community. They will make sure that the immigrant workers are making the correct HISD wage and they will hold contractors, general contractors, architects and the HISD administration responsible for electrical and plumbing licensing, quality work and safe school construction.

· They will hold the Board directly responsible for any and all problems found. They will ask the community to do the same just as they did in selling the 2007 Bond referendum to very skeptical voters.

August 22, 2009
Richard C. Shaw
Harris County AFL-CIO Council

August 6, 2009 Consultation Meeting

August 6, 2009 Consultation Meeting

District items

SPM 4302.1 Consultation Meetings; Guidelines and Procedures Regarding Employee

This is the change in the consultation process HFT has been seeking. It outlines the purpose and structure of consultation meetings but more importantly; the SPM requires HISD to respond in writing to employee items and provides an appeal process if the if the employee group is not satisfied or disagrees with the administrative answer.

SPM 3462.7B Emergency Closing of Schools, Facilities, and the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center; Guidelines for Employees Regarding Storm Related

This SPM clears up some of the confusion regarding who is required to work during emergency closures and at what rate they will be paid.

EIA (Local) Academic Achievement Grading /Progress Reports to Parents

This is the much-anticipated district grading policy. The changes in current policy are minimal. The changes in their entirety are as follows:

The district grading policy includes the following provisions:

(1) A classroom teacher shall be required to assign a grade that reflects the student’s relative mastery of an assignment.
(2) A classroom teacher shall not be required to assign a minimum grade for an assignment without regard to the student’s quality of work; and
(3) A student shall be allowed a reasonable opportunity to make up or redo a class assignment or examination for which the student received a failing grade.

That’s it. That’s the entire policy. Anything you have heard about mandatory assignment weights or minimum grades are simply not true.

BOARD ITEM E-1 Approval of the Amended Aspire Award Model for Teachers and Campus Based Staff for 2008-2009 School Year.

The cost of this bonus program is projected to be $38.2 million. The changes are as follows:

· Moving High School Registrars from Category I (Operational Support) to Category G (Instructional Support)
· Clarifying the eligibility requirement on attendance to specify a latest-possible hiring date for first-year employees and that time missed as a result of school closures due to Hurricane Ike and swine flu will not count as absences
· Using TAKS reading for the value-added analysis for both Reading and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers in grades 7 and 8, same as is done in high school, instead of using the Stanford for the ELA teachers; this will result in four subjects rather than five on which Strand II of the award is based for these teachers
· Reducing the minimum number of students per subject per grade on which value-added reports for teachers are generated from 10 to 7
· Providing an additional bonus from the state D.A.T.E. grant supplemental funds equally distributed to all award winners that are classroom teachers

BOARD ITEM E-2 Approval of Revised Compensation Manual for School Year 2009-2010

The Compensation Manual is available on the Employee Portal but I will mention a couple of changes.

Compensation Philosophy

· Compensation position: For non-teacher central/regional administration and business support positions, HISD targets compensation and benefits at market competitive levels for which HISD competes for talent. Compensation for teachers is targeted at the top quartile for large urban Region IV school districts.
· Labor markets: Primary labor market is the greater Houston metropolitan area with an emphasis on education. HISD will consider general industry pay practices for administrative and business operations.
· Employees identified as high performers using value-added data should be rewarded. The District must establish levels of compensation and differentiated salaries driven by performance, value added data, and accountability for all employees.

The district will organize all jobs into nineteen job families. The district will establish and define the role and responsibilities of a Compensation Committee.

Salary Changes to the following employee classifications:

· Employees paid on the Master Salary Schedule (1.5%)
· Bus Drivers (1.5%)
· Food Service Employees (1.5%)
· All hourly employees (1.5%)

BOARD ITEM G-6 - Approval of the Revised 2009-2010 Teacher Salary Schedules and Amendment of the 2009-2010 Adopted Budget.

The district will comply with the state law regarding the salary schedule.

BOARD ITEM G-7 - Authority To Negotiate and Execute Contracts and Contract Amendments with Service Providers regarding Pharmacy and Wellness Program

There are several changes to the pharmacy program through CVS-Caremark:

· The program will cover only generic medications when there is a generic alternative for a specific medication. An employee can elect the brand drug, but will be required to pay the difference in cost.
· Prior authorization will be required for ADHS/Narcolepsy medication and oral antifungal medications.
· There will be a managed drug limitation for antiemetic, migraine products, proton pump inhibitors, and sedative/hypnotic medications and will require prior authorization for therapy that exceeds the recommended coverage limit.
· Custom care retail and custom care mail programs will be replaced by CVS/Caremark’s newer programs called enhanced retrospective safety review and drug savings review.
· HISD will expand the $0 co-pay program to include generic Antihyperlipidemic medication.
· The program changes in total are expected to save the four medical programs $784,000, and will be made effective January 1, 2010.

It was also recommended that HISD modify the wellness incentive program from the current model of $120 per year incentive that provides a rate reduction of $10 per month for the first six months for completing a health risk assessment and $10 per month for the last six months for participation in either a disease management program or a on-line health improvement program, to a new points reward program managed by WebMD. The new program will award points based on various activities by employees enrolled in one of the four Aetna medical plans. Upon completion of certain point levels, employees will receive a direct incentive payment as a part of their payroll check, up to $129 per year. The new program is designed to encourage members to utilize the new wellness vendor services to improve their health and control future medical costs.

August 6, 2009 Consultation Agenda

HOUSTON FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Please include the following to the August 6, 2009 Instructional Consultation agenda:

1. Educator Training

What training opportunities are available to teachers AND para educators for working with autistic students?

2. Deloitte Study

What is the update on the Deloitte study for unsurveyed employee groups?