August 4, 2011 Consultation Agenda

HOUSTON FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Please include the following to August 4, 2011 Instructional Consultation agenda:

1.          Job Codes, Teaching Areas, Teaching Assignments

Teachers need to be informed of their job code and attendant job title to be sure they are coded correctly. This information can easily be included on the pay stub. When a teaching assignment changes the teacher needs to see that the job code changed with the assignment. Job codes need to be more aligned with the specific job title. There are too many job codes that have the same title as other job codes. We have teachers teaching the same classes with different job codes for no apparent reason. Also teachers  need to be informed in writing, the budget area that is being used to pay their salaries.

2.             Grievance Procedure

More and more when we represent our members in Level I hearings with the principal we find we are meeting with the principal and the SIO. We find it a huge conflict of interest to have the person who is to rule on the next level of the grievance present at the lower level. We either need a re-write of the procedure putting the SIO formally at Level I and designating someone else to hear Level II, or we need to keep the SIO out of Level I and allow the principals to decide without their boss looking over their shoulders.

3.             Opening of School

As the school year opens there are several negative issues principals can avoid simply by routinely following the rules:

·         Classes should be balanced early and class sizes should adhere to legal limits where a law applies and reasonable limits where there is no legal mandate.

·         Lesson plans exist to facilitate instruction. They are not a vehicle to document that every imaginable rule or regulation is being followed. The law requires plans to be “brief and general”.

·         All teachers are entitled to 30 minutes of duty-free lunch periods.

·         All teachers are entitled to 450 minutes planning time during a 10-day period. That planning time belongs to the teacher and there can be no assigned duty during that time.

·         The teacher contract specifies a 187-day work year. Those days are approved by the Board of Education when the calendar is adopted. There can be no required duty beyond the contract year. This includes so-called mandatory training in the summer.

·         The length of the teacher workday is 7 hours and 45 minutes. 

·         All employees are entitled to all supplies necessary to do their jobs.

·         There must be an elected Shared Decision Making Committee in place and actually functioning.

4.             Required Summer & Saturday Training

We have been receiving reports this summer of mandatory training being required by the principals of Young Elementary and Sharpstown High School. Both of these schools are Apollo Schools. We have also received the same complaint from Elrod Elementary. The calendar for  mandatory training from Young ES is attached.