Representative Council Meeting September 14, 2015

REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 14, 2015
Present:  J. Slonim, J. Hunsche, T. Millard, M. Richardson, M. Carr, A. Bohn, T. Mullenax, J. Pfeiffer, A. Campa, E. Ruebusch, N, Carpenter, H. Smith, A. Kuhn


I.   Attendees for the September 8 Board meeting are Cherita, Katie, Terry and Anne.

II.  Thank you cards for Tim Sharp and Erik Lutz will be circulating.  Their terms expire at the end of the calendar year and it would be a nice gesture to thank them for their service.

III.  The Evaluation Committee will be convening to discuss value-added teachers and attendance information on teacher evaluations.Removal of PARCC caused some teachers to need a SLO; admin wanted 2 year hiatus on scores for those teachers (allowable by state) Board not in favor.  One year hiatus granted.  Then an approved test will be used.

IV.  Presentations: Greg Hogg from Talbert House will be presenting to parents on October 5, 6:30 – 8:00, in the Middle School MP room on the Warning Signs of Substance Abuse.
He will be presenting to the high school student body on October 28 and 29.

V.   The District is partnering with IHEPO to provide a series of presentations to teachers  involving the well-being of our students.  The series will include the following topics:  Substance  Abuse (mentioned above), Depression, Multi-potentiality and setting limits, Social Media Anxiety, Eating Disorders, Gifted and Transgender.  The first four topics will be presented to High School students as well.  The first six topics will be presented in the evening to teachers and parents.  The last 2 topics will only be presented to teachers after school.  Attendance is voluntary but teachers may earn 1 semester hour of graduate credit for attending all eight 90 minute sessions, attending a 30 minute informational session and writing a one-page reflection.

VI.  IHEPO will provide lunch for all faculty and staff again this year in each building once per semester.  Start thinking about dates and vendors.
HS:  Oct. 1  Jett’s Pizza
First Happy Hour:  October 23, Village Tavern.

VII. There are some concerns about lunch duty in the Middle School.  Teachers are assigned a duty to be present, one day/week with students in cafeteria at their lunch time.  They have 2 additional planning times in the day in which they can eat lunch, or they can eat lunch while in the cafeteria with students.
Current schedule:
          6th Grade
                   3rd Period (9:28-10:16)
                   4th Period (10:20-11:12)
                   Student Lunch Time: 11:12-11:42
          7th Grade
                   1st Period (7:35-8:30)
                   6th Period ( 12:50-1:40)
                   Student Lunch Time: 11:46-12:16
          8th Grade
                   2nd Period (8:34-9:24)
                   7th Period (1:44-2:35)
                   Student Lunch Time: 12:16-12:46
Schedule results in either difficult timing for lunch or lack of a duty-free lunch one day/week.  Contract maintains a 30 min. lunch.  Experience this year with medical emergency, presence of teachers was a benefit to the smooth handling of the disruption to the normal procedures.
Need for flexibility and equitable mindset on the part of colleagues…have two planning blocks which exceeds contract.  May need administrative intervention to make staff members aware of ability to step up.
Decided building issue/turned over to MS reps to address with admin.

VIII.  Terry has heard some concerns about teachers who do not live in the district enrolling their children at IH. 
o   Enrollment is on the rise, if cost neutral, how will class sizes be affected?
o   What about specialized learning needs? Expanding our role still further.
o   Transportation issues?  Try it out and then withdraw?  How much turmoil/turnover are we willing to tolerate?  Should we generate a list of “things to think about?”
o   Conversation to continue with peers…make colleagues aware of things to think about.
o   In the end, it is a personal/family decision and responsibility of faculty to consider all variables.
         
IX. Documents concerning teacher sick leave language were reviewed:.
         First attachment:  Contract language from other schools
        Second attachment:  IH contract language, see page 12 for sick leave language
        Third attachment:  Domains used for our evaluation
        Fourth attachment:  Attendance data for the last 2 years
       Language in our new contract would change to “granted” from “entitled” and the                     addition of “misuse of sick leave shall be grounds for disciplinary action and/or
             dismissal.”
-May need language to describe “misuse” or recognition of patterns/trends.
-Consider “available should you need it” in place of entitled.
-Defined stages of administrator contact:  “8-10 absences, conference with administrator,” letter of warning, letter of reprimand, reduction in pay.

      Explore the continuation of accumulating beyond the 315 as “cushion” for last year sick
      days.

X.  School Board items
.           3 Candidates running for 2 spots on School Board.  Tea Party-led Forum to discuss 3      main issues:  declining enrollment, salary increase for teachers, performance scores.  Perspective based on faulty information. Foundation exploring the idea of donating inside millage refund to the Foundation to avoid taxable income for Village residents.
.      Meet the Candidate, sponsored by PTO, Oct. 6, 7-9 HS MPR

XI.  Other Concerns
A.     New members are now included in email group.  Any progress on holdouts in other buildings? 
B.      Shared Attribution:  MS looking at it as an option.  Specialist concerns about students pulled for all kinds of academic reasons (valid and valued reasons) but it takes from already limited instruction time in support of SLO.
C.     PTO meeting Wednesday, Sept. 16 6:30-8, MS MP room, Continue to build the relationship with our PTO.
D.      John Concannon, Oct. 1, 2:45 HS MPR, 3:50 ES MPR to discuss liability concerns.  How supported financially? What about civil suits? Workman’s Comp coverage?  Procedures? Private insurance?  Liability policy umbrella for teachers?


JMP
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)