Health Insurance

Dear HFT Members,

What would you think of a man who could not pay his child support, but bought $800.00 rims for his car, "Because it makes me look good!" ?

Well, that is what HISD is doing. The Administration proposed and Board voted to cut your health care benefits and raise your health care cost because they said they could not afford the 20 million it would have cost to keep you safe (In a year in which you got no raise, this amounts to a salary package cut), but they voted to put 46 million into the ASPIRE Award program!!! Because it makes them look good! "We are awarding good teaching" they crow to every media outlet and Rotary Club. (BTW, only 10 million for Aspire comes from outside sources this year)

Employee incentives should come from surplus money, not from the base salaries and health care coverage of the entire district, including those not eligible for the ASPIRE award, such as the lowest paid employees.

For employees in Open Access, the rate increase is 300%!, No, that's not a typo. If you are in Consumer plus or basic, the only way to avoid an increase is to go into the "Single Hospital Plan" in which there is NO out of network coverage and you can only go to Memorial System Hospitals. MD Anderson has been priced out of reach of most employees, with a 35-45% coinsurance required. (One Board Member held forth that there is nothing exceptional about MD Anderson) On top of that, all prescriptions will cost more. Your deductible is increasing, and so is the maximum out of pocket.

The only good news is, there is a special election for a Board Seat coming up. Our members need to be active in this process. More information on that to come.
--
Joanna Pasternak
Houston Federation of Teachers

August 5, 2010 HFT Consultation Agenda

HOUSTON FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Please include the following to the August 5, 2010 Instructional Consultation agenda:

1. Special Education

In additional to the questions we have already submitted as an open records request, we have a few more:

• Will the displaced teachers be required to complete an Insight Assessment before they can be placed in new positions?
• Will they be required to accept positions in the Apollo 20 schools even if they are unable to work the extra time required in those schools?
• Is the district monitoring principals to be sure the reductions are being made according to policy DFF (Local) or is HFT going to have to file numerous grievances to see that this policy is enforced?
• The district claims a loss of just over 4000 students since the 2005-2006 school year. We are requesting the special education enrollment for the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 school years.
• IF the special education teacher has other certifications, will they be placed in a pool for that hiring also, and have principals been told they must hire from the displaced teacher pools?
• How many new special education teachers were hired by HISD for 2010-2011?
• Why? What is the rationale in doing this? The teachers are already under contract and must be paid for the coming year. Why take them from their students? If indeed we are overstaffed, why don’t we use the extra staff to benefit students instead of having the teachers sit in some cubby hole counting paper clips?

2. Apollo Schools

Why is the district refusing to honor its written commitment to allow teachers selected for the programs at their schools to transfer from those schools without penalty up to August 9, 2010?

3. State Leave buy-back (DEC Local)

We have received reports from retiring employees that they are being denied the right to buy back unused state leave due to the new policy. As we understand the policy, any state leave accrued prior to August 31, 2009 was not affected by the policy change and the employee is eligible for full “buy back” of that time and that beginning in the 2009-2010 year employees could designate up to five state days a year to be placed in an incentive time bank. Upon retirement, days accumulated but unused in the incentive time bank would be bought back at 100% of the employee’s current rate on the last day of the contract year in which the days were accrued. Based on our member’s comments we have several questions.

• Is our understanding of the policy correct? If not, please explain.
• If our understanding is correct, why would recent retirees be told by people in payroll that the new policy prevented them from getting paid for their accrued state leave time? One member stated to us that she was told that the new policy converted state time to local time and that local time could not be bought back.
• What procedures were in place for an employee to designate days to be placed into the incentive time bank in the 2009-2010 year? The policy wasn’t even approved until May 13, 2010 leaving little time before the end of the year.
• Will employees receive a communication giving them the value of their accumulated days on a yearly basis?
• Which department is responsible for keeping these records and who should be contacted to answer questions and settle disputes?

4. Teacher Assistants used as teachers

With all the budget cuts this year on campuses, principals will tempted to use TAs in ancillary positions and as subs. What will the district do to prevent this and monitor this situation?

5. Teach For America Teachers

We have brought this item into consultation several times before but it keeps popping up. At the new teacher inservice at Chavez HS this past Tuesday, five Teach For America teachers told us that they were required to sign as part of their two year agreement with TFA, that they would not join a union. This happens year after year. Where there is smoke there must be fire.

June 17, 2010 Consultation Meeting

Salary Schedules for the 2010-2011 School Year.

There will be no change in the salary schedules for the coming year. The only employees who will be receiving a raise are those who are eligible for step increase. HISD stated there is no money available to improve the salary schedules, even for the lowest paid employees. This statement is simply untrue. The administration is proposing a budget of $1,563,380,761. A budget of better than $1.56 billion is very large. It is not a matter of not having money, it is a matter of choosing not to spend some of that money on employee pay increases. Had it not been for legislation passed in 2009 mandating that districts honor the step increases in their salary schedules it is unlikely that HISD would even grant the step increases. It is important that we work hard in the next legislative session to make sure that districts are required to honor all step increases in their salary schedules. As it stands the step increases will cost HISD $7,384,743. The district will advertise this as an average raise of 1.09%. Remember, unless you are eligible for an experience step increase, you will receive no raise this coming year.

The district has chosen not to grant raises claiming a lack of money. One place within the proposed budget where HISD could find money is ASPIRE. HISD is budgeting $29.5 million in local funds for ASPIRE. The board does consider this to be part of the overall employee compensation package even though only about half of the employees will receive money. HFT has long advocated that this money be added to the salary structure. We estimate that $29.5 million will fund a 3% pay raise for all non-administrative employees.

Highlights of the salary schedule from agenda item A-2 of the June 24, 2010 meeting of the school board:

All staff are paid on one of the following salary schedules:

• Teacher Salary Schedule (includes teachers nurses, counselors, librarians, evaluation specialists, and speech therapists)
• Principal and Assistant Principal Salary Schedule
• Master Salary Schedule (includes employees on the master schedule plus bus drivers, food service employees, associate teachers, and hourly personnel)
  
  The proposed changes include:
• Teacher Salary Schedule – one-year experience increase based on 2010-2011 step schedule; this move results in an average increase of 1.09 percent or an expenditure of $7,384,743 (HISD is claiming an average wage increase implying everyone receives something. Remember it is not true.)
• Principal and Assistant Principal Salary Schedule
• Principal – Adjust years of experience up one year; no salary increase is planned for employees on the Principal Salary Schedule.
• Assistant Principal/Dean - Adjust years of experience up one year; no salary increase is planned for employees on the Assistant Principal/Dean Salary Schedule.
  
  Recommended District Budget for 2010-2011
  
  The district is recommending a budget of $1,563,380,761. Along with the $7,384,743 appropriate to fund the step increases the district is also budgeting $10,000,000 to cover projected increases in health insurance. There will be a significant change in the health insurance plans offered next year but the final decisions have not yet been made. District representatives stated the $10 million should be sufficient to cover any increase so there will be no added cost for employees.
  
  Federal stimulus dollars are not included in the regular budget. The district has not yet requested all of the money that is available.
  
  Code of Student Conduct
  
  The code is mostly unchanged except for language changes to accommodate the administrative structure changed caused by the elimination of the Regional Offices. The main substantive changes are the sending of truant students to a DAEP and the procedures for releasing a student from a DAEP.
  

June 16, 2010 Consutation Meeting

On Wednesday (6/16/10) at a specially called Instructional Consultation meeting the district, represented by Anne Best, revealed a new partnership agreement with Teach For America that will increase the number of TFA teachers from 150 to 250. According to the board agenda item:

“During the 2010-2011 school year as many as 250 Teach For America teachers will teach in some of our most challenging assignments in an effort to help students make greater than expected progress in one year.”

The total cost of this agreement is $1.7 million. $700,000 will come from Title 1 Part A funds and will be used to fund 200 corps members. $1,000,000 will come from 2010-2011 HISD general funds and will “fund 50 additional corps members for Apollo 20 schools”. Apollo 20 schools are the nine secondary schools that have recently been targeted by HISD for transformation due to low performance. This past Friday HISD informed 162 teachers from these schools that they will not be invited back to those schools in the fall nor would they be eligible to teach at any of the other Apollo 20 schools. Of 100 extra TFA teachers provided for in this agreement, half of them are designated for Apollo 20 schools. It is worth repeating that these 50 teachers, are going to cost HISD taxpayers $1,000,000 above and beyond their salaries and benefits.

These 50 Apollo 20 TFA members will be on a separate list and are designated for the Apollo 20 schools. The district emphasized the principals of theses schools (it is worth noting that as of this writing most of these schools do not yet have a named principal for next year) will not be forced to take these teachers. HFT expects every one of them to be placed. While the district was unable to give us a specific breakdown by school of how many teachers were asked not to return, they did say that only two of them were from Ryan Middle School. This means that the 50 TFA members will be spread around the other nine schools but it is likely some schools will have a larger number than others.

The district did make some commitments to the 162 displaced teachers. First of all they all are under contract and have jobs for next year. These teachers will not be bound by the normal transfer rule meaning they may receive a transfer at any time. The district will hold job fairs for these teachers. The first will be held at Lamar HS on Friday June 18, 2010. The teachers are free to place themselves at any school that is willing to accept them up until August 9^th, the first day of the new contract year. The district does not yet know where unplaced teachers are to report on that date. The district also emphasized that the displaced teachers were chosen because they did not fit the Apollo 20 model, not because they were bad teachers. It was stated that principals have been told that there should be no stigma attached to these teachers and they are perfectly acceptable to be hired. No principal however, will be forced to hire these teachers; the district will not place them at any school. When we asked for the rubric that was used to determine which teachers did not fit the Apollo 20 model, we were told that none was used.

HFT obviously has several problems with this plan:

• There was no standard used to displace 162 teachers. These teachers were all good enough to be offered a contract, but not acceptable to teach at these schools. They were never told what they had done wrong or what they needed to change. Despite the district claim that they are not stigmatized, we don’t believe it. We think these teachers will for the most part; find it very difficult to find a new school.
• What is the plan for these teachers who do not find schools before the start of school?
• Each of these teachers were experienced professionals but at least 50 of them will be replaced with Teach For America members who have little training and no classroom experience. How can this be a model for improvement?
• We are very concerned that some schools will have a disproportionately large number of inexperienced teachers. Who will be available to train and mentor these teachers on a daily basis?
• Teach For America is very expensive. Could that $1,000,000 been used to support the current teachers? We think so.

HFT honors individual who choose to teach. We believe however; that teaching is a professional commitment and not a temporary vocation. It takes years to figure out what does and does not work in the classroom. There is no magic formula, no teach by the numbers guide. Each child is an individual; the different individuals interacting inside a classroom make each class different. TFA teachers are for the most part bright, enthusiastic, young, not burdened with family responsibilities of their own, and clueless about how to teach the entire child instead of training them to take a test. After the end of their two-year commitment most leave and the cycle of teacher learning begins for some other teacher. Those that stay, who make the long-term professional commitment, usually go on to become excellent teachers. Experience means everything. The HISD plan makes experience a liability and emphasizes change for the sake of change. It is in on way a long-term solution, but instead it is a short-term change done to appease those who are shouting that some change needs to take place.

HISD LAYS OFF HOUSTON TEACHERS WHILE THEY RECRUIT NEW TEACHERS IN CALIFORNIA

OPPOSE THE LAYOFFS
ATTEND THE APRIL 8 BOARD MEETING at 5:00

At the Board meeting on April 8, Terry Grier will ask the Board to lay off teachers from schools that are closing or losing positions. This includes special ed teachers, diagnosticians, elementary and secondary core subject teachers, counselors, and nurses.

Before Grier, HISD kept these employees and they were placed in other teaching positions.

At the same time, HISD is recruiting new teachers to fill the anticipated 1200 vacancies for 2010-11.

HISD needs to treat its employees decently and place these employees in open positions!

HFT needs you to attend the Board meeting to let the Board know that laying off Houston teachers so they can hire from California is not acceptable.

It may not be you this time but he is not through changing and closing programs and laying off HISD teachers.

Sign up to speak to Items E4-E7 regarding teacher layoffs. Forms to address the Board are on the HISD website.

Grier says we are dragging students backward.

From the HISD public website:

"If scores show that a teacher is actually dragging students backwards academically year after year, I expect principals to take this information very seriously. We simply can't allow teachers who consistently struggle—despite our best efforts to support them—to continue teaching. And we can't afford to wait to use all the information that is available to us. The stakes are too high for our students." - Terry B. Grier, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools (highlight by me)

We will acknowledge that some students grow at a slower rate than others. The superintendent claims that teachers are "dragging students backward" that they know less coming out than going in. He then states that these teachers will be fired even if the administration does not know all the facts. We need to keep the pressure up. We can't allow these types of statements to be left unchallenged. Contact your board members. Make them either live with their decisions or do something to correct them.

Andy Dewey
Executive Vice-President, HFT

February 9, 2010 Consultation agenda.

The administration postponed the regular meeting scheduled for February 4th until February 9th. This gives us less than two days to react to administrative items. The HFT agenda follows:

HOUSTON FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Please include the following to the February 4, 2010 Instructional Consultation agenda:


1. EVAAS Problems/Lies told to teachers by the Superintendent

We have numerous concerns and questions regarding both the plan to use EVAAS data in assessments and terminations and the communication about the use of EVAAS data coming from the Superintendent.

2. Tactics of investigators

We have numerous concerns and questions regarding the tactics used by investigators at Key/Kashmere.

3. Fingerprinting

We have received several reports from employees who have to be re-printed because the original technician was unable to get good prints. They should not have this many errors. This causes a further interruption of the instructional day. The shoddy workmanship of the firm hired to do the prints should not take away from teaching time.

4. Support of the classroom teacher.

The following is complaint from one of our members:

“I am not being given the support I need to accomplish the goals that have been set forth by the district and my campus administration. The materials and resources I need are being, I feel, unfairly withheld affecting my ability to do my job effectively and get the desired results.”

This type of complaint is very common. When we ask for the name of the school, we find that teachers are petrified of administrative retaliation. The fix must come from the top. We have clearly heard the teacher-bashing coming from the administration and certain members of the school board. The message is that it is all the fault of the classroom teacher. The above complaint is typical. Teachers are begging for administrative support. Not just materials, but also support for what they are doing. When is the administration going to do its part in the education of our children?

January 7, 2010 Consultation Minutes

Michele Pola, Anne Best, Mark Smith, and Chuck Morris represented HISD.

Andy Dewey, Gayle Fallon, and Linda Murray represented HFT. Darilyn Krieger took notes.

CHT was also in attendance.

Meeting called to order at 4:31 P.M with discussion of board item H-6 proposed new board policy and changes in board policy addressing performance appraisals and evaluation of other professional employees, performance-pay and stipends, educator term contracts, required staff development, evaluation of teachers, term contract nonrenewal.

The administration presented the new policy and changes to the meeting. The question was asked by HFT as to who had written the new document the administration of the board itself. Michele stated that “it was written by the board”. HFT asked if they had read state law because this document is in clear violation of the law. Michele stated that it was aligned with the focus of HISD. HFT also pointed out that principal’s evaluations and termination reasons were clearly stated and are held liable for many issues but a teacher can be terminated with only one. The district added using student performance and value-added data to evaluation of educator term contracts. HISD asked who would make this decision. HFT further added that if this data is to be used then every teacher is entitled by state law to know exactly haw the data is obtained including all formulas used to calculate the numbers including the proprietary data, this is the transparency clause of state law. It was pointed out pointed out that the numbers for some grades and subjects are obtained from Stanford10 and not all teachers have those scores. Also the Stanford10 is administered in January so an evaluation would be based on data obtained the previous year. HFT seconded this position. HFT pointed out that this means the creation of two classes of teachers. One subjected to EVAAS data and one not. The administration stated that there are other ways of evaluating teacher performance, but when HFT asked for specific criteria the administration was unable to detail any.

Staff development must be based on student performance. HFT asked if this meant that the SDMC would no longer set staff development. The administration that that this would be a guideline. HFT pointed out that this is a clear violation of state law. HFT pointed out that if the Superintendent’s stated intent of using the five days of staff development for instruction the issue of professional development is a moot point. This is a violation of state law also. Does this not also mean that if your student performance does not meet standard that you would be on a growth plan? Did we not get a promise that no one would be placed on a growth plan solely because of EVAAS data?

HFT asked if the district really planned to develop a district evaluation plan. This means that the administration and a committee of persons must write the plan from every school in the district. Given that HISD has decided to use the state appraisal rather than write our own. The way the state appraisal is written it confines student performance to a limited section that will not statistically effect a teacher’s evaluation. This looks like you are attempting to override the PDAS and modify the results using the EVAAS data with a heavier weight. The administration stated that the district does not intend to violate the law. HFT asked if the lawyers had checked this. If you write an instrument and try to present it as the proposed instrument top down it will not fly.

Term contract renewal added a 34th non-renewal point. HFT pointed out that this issue had already been decided. The ruling is that you cannot non-renew a teacher based solely on student performance. HFT is concerned that this is not only a legal issue but also an ethical and an integrity issue. In October, every teacher in a district got a letter that the EVAAS data would not be used to put anyone on a growth plan. In November, in consultation, the statement was made “to my knowledge I can assure you that Dr. Grier has never made a statement that EVAAS data would be used in that manner” This document lacks integrity. We have been lied to twice. HFT is concerned with the violations of state law and the lack of integrity of the upper administration. HFT asked how the administration goes about fixing the resulting lack of trust. You must follow the PDAS as written or HFT will be forced to take you to court.
CHT asked if there is any further appeal possible for the ASPIRE award after the first challenge has been answered. The administration answered that once a challenge has been responded to there is no further recourse through the district.

There was a discussion about the breakfast in the classroom program. Two questions, on procedure Superintendent Grier wants our kids to start the day with a good breakfast. Long discussion about the procedure which will require an increase in the number of food service personnel, food will be delivered to the classroom by food service personnel, residue will be collected as students finish, the trash will be placed outside the door and the trash will be picked up by the same persons delivering the food. Total time required for breakfast is on average 15-20 minutes. This means about 6-7 days of lost instruction time. This program will start rolling out in the elementary schools on February 2nd. Middle schools will start implementing in September.

HFT asked about paying for fingerprinting of low pay employees, District said no.

Spending of Federal Stimulus Money; HFT asked why it has not been drawn? District has six initiatives being implemented over a two-year program 30, 398,298. 20% for transportation, parental involvement funds, and non-profit campus based homeless children and neglected children, literacy intervention coordinators, literacy intervention specialist, literacy training for teachers through Neihaus and Esperanza, early childhood centers, Renzulli, and Sure score for middle schools, UIL and HUDL, and credit recovery for a total of $89,097,000. How come the district has not drawn down a substantial amount? It started late and funds must be spent before we can draw the funds. Person’s salaries being paid from these programs will last for only two years. Funds for school improvement are in process now. Title II part B is credit recover and graduation coaches total 42,000,000. IDEA funds ARD software, contract services, and preschool 1,960,000. HFT’s concern is that in the past HISD is notorious for leaving money on the table. Chuck Morris stated that he has never known any district headed by Grier to ever leave money on the table. It will not happen again (in HISD).

Calendar for 10-11, instructional days waived for professional development. These days are traded off to have Thanksgiving and Christmas by coming back early. Calendar committee will meet on this. We are required to have 45 hours of professional development and these days were put in to get this for teachers.

Chapter 37 (school safety; principals are being told that removal for persistent conduct is not possible. Chuck Morris stated that he has never heard Dr. Grier state that students cannot be removed for bad behavior. The issue may be CEP and the major issue there is money. Maybe we should be changing our attitude about DAEP. We have special placement for special ed etc. DAEP is not a punishment it should be an educational placement for a student with behavioral issues. We need to be serious about discipline issues and how we address those problems proactively not reactively.

The manner of questioning of employees by investigators is not acceptable. Language has been rude, profane, threatening, and insulting. Chuck Morris said that this is not acceptable behavior. He will check on this tomorrow. HFT stated that the behavior is not professional.

The other problem is with professional standards. There has always been a degree of professional courtesy on scheduling. HFT will provide details of incidents, Chuck Morris will check into this. HFT expressed appreciation for courtesy in checking into the problem.

Meeting adjourned at 6:20

What is that word when someone tells you one thing and does the opposite?

Remember the "vicious rumor" email and robo calls you received from Superintendent Terry Grier stating that there was no intention to evaluate or fire teachers based on the ASPIRE/EVASS scores?

WELL...........

The HISD Board will vote at the next meeting on changes to HISD Board Policies DCB (Local) Employment Practices: Educator Term Contracts, DNA (Local) Performance Appraisal: Evaluation of Teachers, and DFBB (Local), Term Contracts: Nonrenewal, written and put forward by the HISD administration, Terry Grier and the school board.

AS part of HISD consultation, we were given copies of the proposed changes. All of the changes are to allow EVASS scores to be used in your evaluation and as a reason to non-renew contracts. The changes to be added are highlighted below.

Under DCB (Local) Term Contract, a sentence has been added: "The District shall consider student performance and value-added data in its decisions regarding term contracts."

Under DNA (Local) the added sentence is: "The District appraisal systems for campus educators shall incorporate value-added data for consideration in the overall appraisal rating, effective beginning with the 2010-2011 school year."

Under DFBB (Local) "Reasons for proposed nonrenewal of an employee's term contract Shall be: #34. Insufficient student academic growth as reflected by value added scores."

What it is called, what is that word when someone tells you one thing and does the opposite?

HFT opposed these changes in consultation, and we will fight them through the grievance process and at TEA. Firing teachers based on student test scores is against state law. This was pointed out to the administration, but they intend to make these changes in local policy anyway.

If any of your friends are not HFT members, tell them they better join now!!!

submitted by:

Joanna Pasternak, HFT Representative
3100 Weslayan, Suite 255
Houston, Texas 77027
713-623-8891 Ph.
713-623-2711 Fax

January 7, 2010 Consultation Agenda

HOUSTON FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Please include the following to the January 7, 2010 Instructional Consultation agenda:

1. 2010-2011 Calendar

At the December school board meeting Dr. Grier mentioned a possible change in the calendar which would change the five professional development days into instructional days. Was this just an off the cuff comment or is there a plan to make this change?

2. Breakfast in the classroom

This issue is once again rearing it’s ugly head. What is the procedure required for schools to make this decision. Is the SDMC required to approve it, is the faculty required to vote on the plan, or is this decision solely in the hands of the principal? The following is a comment sent to us by one of our members:

Principals have been told that we are moving to a breakfast in the classroom program under the new superintendent. We already have rats and ants galore in our annex building. Our children have to go upstairs, at least one has a physical disability that would be difficult for the child to carry his breakfast. We don't want juice and other food products in our rooms. We also don't feel we should supervise breakfast with the children. Please, can we do anything about this?

3. Fingerprinting

In November we asked the district to pay the cost of fingerprinting for employees earning less than $25,000. Has this suggestion been taken into consideration?

4. Federal Stimulus Money

How does the district intend to spend the approximately $138 million in Federal stimulus money?

Consultation Agenda Committee

The next HFT Consultation Agenda Committee meeting is at 5:00 pm, Monday January 4, 2010 at the HFT office.