March 5, 1999
The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 represent the first major change of IDEA, since it was enacted three decades ago. The U.S. Department of Education reports that "prior to its implementation in 1975, approximately one million children with disabilities were shut out of schools and hundreds of thousands were denied appropriate services." Since then, IDEA has had a positive impact on the lives of all children. The law has vastly changed the roles, responsibilities and work obligations of special education teachers, regular education teachers, and support personnel. IDEA '97 expands the involvement of parents in the education of their children; seeks to ensure that regular education teachers are involved in planning and assessing children's progress, and provides for greater inclusion of children with disabilities in assessments, performance goals, and reports to the public.
These components, and the change in policies and procedures, resulting from the compliance efforts of the Madison Metropolitan School District, have significantly raised the anxiety level of ALL STAFF, according to MTI Executive Director John Matthews. MTI and the District management are in high gear attempting to bring such matters to satisfactory resolution. MTI Executive Director John Matthews, Assistant Director Ed Sadlowski, and MTI Legal Counsel Linda Harfst have been working with Superintendent Art Rainwater; Director of Educational Services, Jack Jorgensen; Director of Human Resources, Timothy Jeffery; and Director of Labor Relations, Duane McCrary, to ensure that the District's plans to implement IDEA '97 take into consideration the burden they cause to MTI-represented employees. MTI's action is being guided by special and regular education staff who have been meeting at MTI Headquarters under MTI's Special Education Sub-Committee to the Bargaining Committee. The sub-committee's meetings are noted in the "Upcoming Meetings/Events" section of MTI Solidarity!. All MTI members are invited to participate in the Committee's meetings.
Agreement was reached March 2 tentatively resolving the issue of LEA Representative, by guaranteeing that they remain in MTI's teacher collective bargaining unit. The District had planned to eliminate 5.5 Program Support Teacher (PST) positions and create 6 management positions for the purpose of carrying out the responsibilities of LEA Representative. When one has the unlimited authority to commit resources, he/she loses bargaining unit status and with it all MTI contractually provided rights and benefits such as seniority, insurances and due process guarantees. Management employees serve at the will of the Superintendent. The agreement reached over the LEA matter, while not totally desirable, enables those so designated to remain in MTI's teacher collective bargaining unit and provides MTI and the District time to resolve the matter for the long term. The agreement on the topic runs until the commencement of the 1999-2000 school year.
The District has also agreed with MTI's proposal to establish a joint committee with the authority to resolve special education issues. Negotiations over the topics will run concurrently with regular teacher negotiations. Rainwater and Jorgensen have stated their agreement that this is an appropriate means to efficiently resolve all outstanding issues and to ensure their inclusion in the successor Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Until such time as MTI and the District agree to revise the terms and conditions in Sections III-Q and V-C-4 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and terms and conditions of the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding entitled "EEN Policies and Procedures", as regards teachers' obligations in the IEP process, the current Contract language continues to govern all teachers' work and their compensation for same. The referenced language will remain in effect until new language is agreed upon.
One of the most controversial issues created by IDEA '97 involves a teacher's obligation in the scheduling of IEP meetings. IEP meetings are to be scheduled at times that are mutually agreeable to ALL IEP Team participants. This means that each and every teacher's schedule must be given EQUAL CONSIDERATION with that of their colleagues, the child's parents' or legal guardian's availability to meet.
No member of MTI's teacher collective bargaining unit is obligated to meet outside their contract day. Every effort must be made to hold IEP meetings during the regular workday. However, if a teacher agrees to meet after his/her regular contract day, MTI's Collective Bargaining Agreement establishes that the teacher is additionally compensated for the time at his/her regular contract rate of pay. This is set forth in Section V-C-4 (pg. 70) of MTI's Collective Bargaining Agreement, which states:
"In order to accommodate parent/guardian needs for flexible scheduling, IEP meetings will, from time to time, extend the workday. In scheduling such meetings, teachers will seek prior approval from their building principal. Confirmation of the decision will be communicated to the teacher within one workday. Teachers who participate in such meetings will be compensated through extended contract pay (the teacher's regular contract rate of pay) (see Section III-J of the Teacher Collective Bargaining Agreement) for meeting time beyond the workday."
MTI is concerned about the possible abuse of a teacher's time when they are involved with the IEP process. MTI Executive Director John Matthews has asserted that teachers are under no contractual obligation to meet parents at times inconvenient to the teacher and that MTI will not agree that teachers have to be available at the demand of a parent or administrator. Two examples Matthews has used are teachers: 1) who are single parents and who must pick up their own child at daycare; and 2) a student's parents demand that teachers meet at an unreasonable time (i.e. when a parent's shift ends at 11:00 p.m. and wants a meeting to occur following that). MTI stands firm that the teacher controls his/her time and willingness to meet after their work day.
Should a teacher be appointed as an IEP team participant and there is a possibility that the IEP meeting will occur or extend beyond the teacher's work day, they should immediately request in writing that their principal list them on the Request for Extended Contract Pay form which principals use for IEP meetings which extend beyond the workday. As reported in the January 11, 1999 MTI Solidarity!, the District, under the above referenced agreements, paid more than $58,000 in additional compensation to teachers for such situations during the 1997-98 school year.
Much of the emphasis of IDEA '97 is to create greater involvement of regular education teachers, the child's parents, special education teachers, and the local educational agency (LEA) representative. MTI and the District were out in front of this legislated change; such involvement served as a basis of the 1997 District/MTI Joint EEN Committee that resulted in the agreements set forth in Section V-C-4 (pp. 69-72) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Revenue controls on Wisconsin school districts and the Legislature's failure to adequately reimburse school districts' categorical aids at a rate to sufficiently cover the cost of special education services has forced school districts to attempt to reduce labor costs by combining jobs such as those performed by teachers certified in ED, LD or CD-B/CD-S. For years, Wisconsin has delivered services to special education students with a categorical system whereby the program unit corresponded to the license of the teacher for that unit (i.e. an ED program staffed by a teacher certified in ED). Recent repeal of Chapter 115 by the Legislature, and the Department of Public Instruction's ruling on flexibility in special education programming, has allowed school districts to combine jobs cloaked in a "best practices" theory. Many teachers feel overwhelmed when forced to work with students who have disabilities for which the teacher has not been educated to teach.
MTI's Collective Bargaining Agreement is in full force and effect! Until MTI and the District agree to modify it, the terms and conditions of the 1997-99 Collective Bargaining Agreement continue; i.e., the District's plans to implement IDEA '97 must follow the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In order to protect one's contractual rights and benefits, it is imperative that teachers utilize those which are available via the Collective Bargaining Agreement. MTI recommends that teachers schedule their workday in accordance with the rights guaranteed by the Agreement. Be sure that your colleagues and your supervisor know your schedule. Look to the following provisions of the Agreement for guidance and call MTI Headquarters for assistance when necessary.
Section III-G-21 (pg. 21) establishes a full teaching load (5 classes per day, or 4 classes plus a study hall, or any combination thereof). Any teacher assigned to teach an additional class beyond the above standard shall receive an additional 15% of his/her regular contract salary for the school year.
Section III-Q Compensation for Performing Additive Duties in Special Education Program (pp. 39-41) provides workload maximums for responsibilities involving individual evaluations per school year and process for completing initial evaluations which exceed the maximums set forth in the Agreement.
Section V-C-4 Resolutions of the Joint MTI-MMSD EEN Committee (pp. 69-72) outlines factors to be considered by the student's IEP Committee in determining the least restrictive environment (LRE) for the child, mandates that the IEP of an incoming special education student not be implemented until one workday after the teachers have been provided with a copy of the IEP by a district administrator, and outlines a process for addressing a significant concern regarding a student's behavior or learning and an agreed upon procedure for responding to a special education student's misconduct.
Section V-J Hours of School (pp. 75-77) establishes the hours of work with students for Elementary, Middle, and High School teachers and the contract day for teachers.
Section V-K Duty Free Lunch (pg. 77) mandates that all teachers be provided with a daily duty free lunch period of at least 30 continuous minutes.
Section V-P Planning Time (pg. 83) affords all full time staff with planning time within the established school day for pupils, to be used at the sole discretion of the teacher.
Last fall, MTI conducted a survey of special education staff to assist the Union in identifying practices which work for teachers and students, as well as those that are inappropriate or deficient. A focus of the survey was to assess the extent to which regular education staff have been involved in the educational process for special education students. Seventy-five percent (75%) of the respondents indicated that general education classroom teachers are not fully involved in decision making, planning, and the evaluation processes related to a given student's IEP. IDEA '97 guarantees that general education teachers be an equal participant in the IEP process.
Seventy-nine percent (79%) reported that they were not provided with time within the school day for planning and consultation with resource and other support team personnel. MTI urges that teachers talk with their immediate supervisor for assistance to assure that you receive the benefits negotiated for you. If you are unable to schedule your planning time, call MTI for assistance.
MTI has numerous grievances in process over lost planning time and overload assignments. Negotiations are currently underway between MTI and the District in attempt to resolve these grievances. If the grievances are not resolved to assure the contractual benefit due MTI-represented teachers, MTI will proceed to arbitration.
As noted herein, agreement has been reached for the remainder of this school year. MTI and the District are continuing to work towards reaching mutually agreeable solutions, for the long-term, regarding the outstanding issues resulting from the District's implementation of IDEA '97 and the corresponding changes in the District's special education policies and procedures. The Collective Bargaining Agreement will not be resolved until ALL outstanding issues are resolved be they regular contract issues or those dealing with special education.
MTI and the District have agreed that any issues not resolved by May 1 will be subject to mediation and that those not resolved by May 26 will be arbitrated. Labor peace and resolution of all issues is guaranteed.