Lame Duck Updates – SB102 – pension reform bill is no longer being debated. This is not being considered, at this time, due to the phone call, emails, and social media. This bill would have cost the school district more money. Thank you to all who contributed in getting this bill eliminated. Some kind of pension reform might be back in January.
There is an Income Tax Refund Loophole bill (without a number) that will rob money from the school-aid fund and use it for whatever they would like to use it for (road repairs). There is no concrete way to replace the money back into the fund if it is used. This money would just be transferred into the general fund. The money now is allocated to the schools.
SB567 – This bill is for the ability to start school before Labor Day. Mr. Gutman went to testify on Tuesday in Lansing in favor of this bill. They ran out of time for his testimony.
SB279 & SB280 – This bill has been around a long time. This bill is trying to eliminate retirement credit to be earned by teachers who serve in the union. The retirement portion of the president and others who conduct union business during the school day is paid for by the union. If this is prohibited, individuals would be very reluctant to serve in these positions. SB280 is trying to eliminate ANY business/bargaining during school hours. This would mean that bargaining meetings could not be conducted during the day. If there is a concern, it could not be handled until after school hours. The school board, administrators and school district is not in support of this bill. It would make it very difficult to conduct any union business. Call you senator or representative and ask where they stand on this bill. When you do call, ask how much the senator or representative has received in donations from the DeVos Family? Have them give you an answer. This information can be looked up. Tell them what you want them to do. Mr. Gutman and Nancy van Leuwen both wrote a written testimony against this bill.
Another bill was introduced to tighten up the restraining and seclusion rights of teachers (mostly for special education). It would limit the types of things a teacher can do with students.
HB4338- This bill would like to control the new teachers’ hybrid plan to select which company they would like to use for their defined contribution plan. Teri Les and the ORS are against this plan. Teri Les believes that it does not impact Walled Lake’s list of 403B or 457 providers. Our companies will still exist.
Only one week of Lame Duck is left. They are in session on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Daryl S. will be visiting the elementary schools during lunch times. He has already made visits to all the high schools and middle schools.
PLC form for the 2016-17 is on pages 83-84 in the contract. It is the one that everyone should have used. It is a bargained item.
There has been clarification concerning splitting classes in the elementary schools regarding the payment procedures. There is a handout on this. The elementary instructional day is 6 hours and 28 minutes or 388 minutes. This does not include lunch. At the elementary level, when there is a substitute shortage and a teacher takes students from a split class, the teacher will be compensated $1.00 per minute for the instructional time that he/she has the students. Therefore, when a class is split EACH teacher will receive $328.00 for the day (unless a FAPE /Block time is involved. Our union is okay with the district paying this to us. YES…it is approximately $1,000 per day, if the classes are split. Some of the building secretaries were having a problem with this and avoiding splitting the classes. Initially this year, the district was only paying for 4 hours instead of 6. If you did not receive the correct amount, have it resubmit it. FAPE teachers will also get paid for additional students. The students from the other class can go to the FAPE class as an entire class, or as part of the class that they were placed into.
The Letter of Understanding in the contract shows that the pay scale is actually higher than what we actually receive. This is because of the concessions and furlough days and other things that have influenced our salary.
We may be getting some money back because the student count is up.
At the school board meeting it was discussed that Walled Lake would continue with school of choice being an option. New school busses were purchased.
New Web Page coming. 70% is completed. New website will be ready in January.
January 10th at 4:30 there will be a meeting on retirement at the MEA office.
Anyone that you know who needs a get well, wedding or other card sent from the MEA, please send their name and address to Kathren O’Brien and she will send a card.
New teachers are assigned a mentoring teacher. The mentoring teacher and the teacher will share $100 in classroom supplies. There is a form to be filled out and then send it to Mark Hess.
There was a concern that the WLEA was not being represented at the Lansing rallies that were during the school hours. The MEA and the retired MEA have sent representatives. It was felt that we should be in our classrooms teaching.