On October 4, 2012 HFT President Gayle Fallon, Executive
Vice President, Andrew Dewey, and Grievance Director Joanna Pasternak attended
HISD consultation. This is the monthly
meeting with HISD top administration to discuss concerns, and when new policy
is presented to us for input before going to the HISD Board for a vote. Each
month HFT submits an agenda of issues that are of concern to members.
A couple of things that came out of our
discussions with HISD:
This year, HISD has had a huge increase in class
size waiver requests. 1211 request have been submitted to TEA from
HISD. Each waiver is for one class (K-5
where class size is capped at 22:1 by TEA). The most often used reason that a
campus requests a waiver is lack facilities (Not enough classrooms). HISD's
Mark Smith said in the meeting that we are to report to him if a campus that
requested a waiver has rooms that were built to be classrooms but are not being
used, or are being used for something else. He indicated that he will not
approve a waiver under those circumstances. Let us know if this is happening on
your campus.
We addressed the issue of training outside work
hours and received a response from Chief Academic Officer, Dr.
Julie Baker*. We also brought up the fact that on-line training has gotten out
of hand and that HFT will file a dispute if this is not brought under control.
Teachers cannot be mandated to take 5-7 hour online training modules on their
own time. Planning time is not to be used for training. When on-line training
was 1-3 hours a semester, we let it slide.
But now HISD is putting 6-7 hour modules on-line and mandating the training.
Send us any documentation you get mandating on-line training and the time for
the training as stated on the module. Teachers have always and will continue to
get training on their own time that they think is valuable or to fulfill their
required training hours with TEA. But,
no teacher can be mandated to take a specific training that is not offered during normal work
hours.
*Response from Chief Academic Officer Dr. Julie
Baker:
“Training is offered during the week. Teachers are not required to complete the training on their own time. It is the responsibility of the principal to pay for subs or extra duty pay if the district has not already made that commitment for certain trainings. Yes, the stipend/extra duty pay for a full day of Saturday training is $100.00.”
