Teachers file grievance over extra workdays

By AMBER COULTER, Jasper Herald

JASPER — The Jasper Classroom Teachers Association has filed a grievance against Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools for approving a 2010-11 school calendar that requires them to work two more days than they have in the past.

The teachers voted against working those two days before the 183-day calendar went before the school board for approval Dec. 15.

Kim Fidler, Indiana State Teachers Association UniServ director for the area, presented Superintendent Jerrill Vandeventer with a letter explaining the grievance before a school board meeting Dec. 22 and filed the grievance with the corporation later that day. UniServ is designed to bring Indiana State Teachers Association and National Education Association programs and services to the local level.

Now, the teachers association is in the process of filing for a hearing before the school board, during which association representatives and corporation officials will each present their arguments and the board will make a ruling. No date has been set for the hearing.

As adopted, the 183-day 2010-11 calendar has the school year beginning Aug. 19 and ending May 27. It includes three snow days and a one-day fall break.

The corporation’s contract with teachers says that teachers will work a maximum of 183 days each year, but — with the exception of this school year — they have worked only 181 days each year since at least 1958, said Nikki Roberts, president of the teachers association.

The other two days traditionally were reserved as days when teachers could attend education meetings in Indianapolis. It is no longer typical practice to attend such meetings, but the teachers association didn’t push for a contract change based on good faith that they wouldn’t be required to work extra in-class days, she said.

For this school year only and because of the recent change in state education policy to no longer count half days toward the 180 full days of school required, teachers agreed to a memorandum of understanding with the corporation that they would work 183 days. The extra two days they agreed to work this school year were used for parent-teacher conferences, Roberts said.

She said teachers made the agreement because they knew the problem wasn’t the fault of corporation officials but that the understanding was that officials would find a different solution in the future.

Teachers voted not to make the same agreement for the 2010-11 school year when corporation officials asked them to, Roberts said. She also said teachers’ input for the calendar wasn’t reflected in any of the proposals brought before the board last month.

The grievance is more about respect and principle than it is about actual concern about working two more days, according to Roberts. Corporation officials aren’t violating the contract, but they’re breaking away from common practice, she said.

School board President Nancy Habig said school board members knew when they approved the 2010-11 calendar that the teachers association objected to the 183 days.

Board members approved it because they’re asking teachers to work the 183 days for which they are paid, rather than giving them two extra days off based on an old precedent, she said.

In the face of budget cuts, she said, the corporation can’t justify paying teachers for days they don’t work.

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