HTA Representative Assembly Minutes September 17 th, 2014

Transcription

1 HTA Representative Assembly Minutes September 17 th, 2014 AFL-CIO NYSUT AFT Meeting was called to order at 3:46 at Charlotte Avenue School. Secretary 1. AFL-CIO Endorsement conference: Marie Hennessy attended the conference and shared information regarding how the endorsement process was conducted. AFL has 2.5 million members; approximately 1,000 delegates from across NYS attended the conference, 500 of which were NYSUT members (up from about 100 in previously). Many unions were represented including: university professors, retail, construction, machinists, transit, CSEA (school employees), SEIU (service employees), teamsters, AFSCME, fire, police, steel workers, electrical workers, painters, metro, and communications. 2. NYSUT Training: 12 members attended the Summer Leadership Conference and participated in informative workshops (legislation, funding, legal updates, member benefits, organizing, communication, negotiation, grievances, discipline, activism). Bill Fletcher, union activist, was opening speaker at the conference. He emphasized the importance to be tactical in approach to legislative issues. He argued that teachers are presently on the defensive and need to be arguing for reformation of public education. Teacher unions need to Flip the Script, tell their story, focus on dedication to students, community, etc. He cautioned to be careful not to appear as though defending status quo. 3. Robert s Rules: A summary of Robert s Rules of Order was discussed and distributed to Building Chairs. President s Report 1. Contract Ratification: Contract was ratified. Groups will be formed to ensure the wording is clear. District will also have the opportunity to review and confirm language. Will take about one month to complete this process and have contract printed and distributed to members. Salary changes were effective the day the Board approved the contract. Benny cards will be credited fees as per contract.

2 2. A. Takacs has scheduled a meeting next week with Dr. Coppola to discuss union issues. 3. NYSUT endorsements/phone Banking: List of endorsed candidates will be sent out to Building Chairs. We need representatives who are supportive of public education. Chairs are advised to check with their building and get all members registered to vote. We need members to assist favorable representatives get elected and stay elected. 4. NYSUT Standing Committees-H. Mardino will be on the Early Childhood Committee, R. Nahrebeski will be on the Human Rights Committee and Marie Hennessy will be on the Special Education Committee. 5. Reminders a. Champions of Education: September 22 nd. J. Mrozek will be one of the presenters. Tim Kennedy, Sean Ryan and John Ceretto have been supportive of public education consistently and will be in attendance. Work of NYSUT members was successful in the primaries. Need to keep positive momentum going into general election in November. b. Breast Cancer Walk: Prizes available through social committee. Please register and support this worthwhile NYSUT event. c. October General Meeting: is being planned in lieu of Representative Assembly meeting. Officers are planning informative and interesting topics for the meeting. d. Wear green on Friday to support SSRPs getting a contract. They are on their third year without a contract. Vice President s Report Building Representative Training is being planned for October. By-Laws & Constitution proposed: Vote to change Constitution as presented passed (Weidmann, Bartoo). Proposed changes will be sent to general membership for ratification. Clarification requested from the floor regarding reduction in retiree votes in RA. Response was that all buildings were reduced last year and the reduction is commensurate with those changes. APPR: All teachers were rated effective or highly effective. Administrators will start walk-throughs October 1 st. S. Weidmann will be meeting with Brent Jordan to ensure consistency. Question from floor regarding high achieving class, how do you show growth on state tests. Response: It s a problem across the state. We only have control over local scores and SLOs.

3 Corresponding Secretary Thank you cards received from Lois Rosenhaun, Ruth Mohr, Paula McDermott and Joanne Yoviene for retirement gifts and from Ryan Fortuna for an HTA scholarship. Minutes will now be posted on HTA website. An will be sent out via school when minutes have been posted. The password to access the minutes via the site will be sent in the . Reform Agenda proponents are now using discrepancy between high teacher performance scores and low student performance scores to say that APPR isn t an accurate way of evaluating teachers. Treasurer s Report Treasure report shared: Savings $9, 576; Legal Defense $4,229; Money Market $42,935; Checking $22,415. Motion to accept Treasure s Report passed (Mrozek, Cerrone). Units Teacher Aides: One building has roving aides who have not been trained on hall monitor duties. Nurses/Technology-Nothing to report Charlotte-Nothing to report Union Pleasant-Nothing to report Boston Valley-Contract question about who will be covering the five minute break as per new contract. Response: Thought was that aides would cover the class. Administrator gave the directive that no new instruction be given while AIS students are out of the room. This directive was not given in other buildings. Rightto-Know being completed in a week at the beginning of the school year was tight. Armor-Scheduling committee was called in over summer because schedule wasn t done. Members do not have to attend summer meetings for scheduling. Teachers aren t getting a schedule until coming back to school. There is not time to address errors. Another building was given flex time for summer scheduling meetings. Recommendation to not volunteer for clubs that have been eliminated. Middle School-Busing not provided within district for teachers paying tuition. There was no prior notification for this change and not all affected members were notified.

4 This group has sent a letter to Dr. Coppola requesting a meeting. Leadership concerns include lack of communication. MOA for 6 th class will be addressed at upcoming meeting. D1 decision to modify schedule is causing members to go over 300 minutes in student contact time. High School-Nothing to report Committees NYSUT/AFT-Champions for education September 22 nd. Campaign material will be brought back to buildings. Retired Delegates-Nothing to report Grievance- Nothing Active Negotiations- Addressed during President s Report HTA Benefit Trust- Building Chairs please send list of who needs to have a will made to M. Huen at HHS. Legislative- All Vote-Cope has been sent. Many members who thought they were giving, weren t. If members are not sure, R. Nahrebeski Social Committee-Breast Cancer walk October 18 th. It s a big NYSUT event for an important cause. Please consider registering. Items from the floor -Meeting with building administrator in spring showed a.4 science teacher.4 was needed. Nothing was done over the summer. Member asked if someone would do a 6 th period for $15, 000. Motion to adjourn 5:06 passed (Gilhooly, Nahrebeski) Attendance: AES: J. Mason, D. Ziegler, N. Trotta BVS: R. Bartoo, T. Roberts, Anne Ingoldsby CAS: M. Diggins, A. Brand UPES: M. Wolf, S. Merrit, M. Hennessy, A. Takacs, C. Fitzery, T. Voger, HMS: D. Tuberdyke, S. Knoche, M. Knoll, J. Miodonski, J. Springborn, C. Sullivan, C. Cerrone HHS: M. Huen, M. Hennessy, B.Gilhooly, A. Kamats, R. Nahrebeski, B. Wagner, S. Weidmann, R. Musilli, C. Bosinski, J. Mrozek Retirees: K. Fendya, T. Ferraro, D. Skovenski Benefit Trust: C. Huen Other: Mark Jurenovich

5 HTA Meeting Schedule * Meetings will be held the 3 rd Wednesday of the month. The February meeting will be held on the 4 th Wednesday of the month, due to the Winter Recess. ** The RA meetings for November and May will be held in the evening, 7:00 p.m. at the locations stated below. Date School Date School Date School 9/17 Charlotte Avenue 1/21 Boston Valley 4/15 Union Pleasant 10/15 Union Pleasant *2/25 Middle School **5/20 High School **11/19 High School 3/18 Charlotte Avenue 6/17 Armor Elementary 12/17 Armor Elementary Location: Cafeteria Time: Afternoon meetings 3:45 Evening meetings(11/19 &5/20) 7:00 p.m. * Building Chairs Please complete Use of Facility Forms