Today’s latest installment in our series on new
contracts and other policy changes in NCTQ’s Teacher
Contract Database, will highlight a few of the changes that jumped out at
us in six districts: Indianapolis, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Rochester, Anchorage
and Christina (DE).
(Remember, if you are interested in creating a custom report on your district’s teacher contract, you can build one using our Teacher Contract Database.)
Indianapolis Public Schools (IN),
July, 2013 – June 30, 2014
At 23 pages, the agreement between the Indianapolis Education
Association and the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners is one of the
shortest in our database. No doubt, a
2011 Indiana law that restricted collective bargaining to salary and wage-related
benefits contributes to the lean agreement we see in Indianapolis. This new contract
brings more of the same – including the same salaries – as its predecessor
agreement.
Albuquerque Public Schools (NM)
, September 2013 – July 2014
Without much of a budget for changes to compensation, teachers received a one-time 1% bonus in pay. Beyond that, Albuquerque’s
latest contract focuses on changes in language. There was some change related to professional development:
- Professional
Development: The contract includes
new language on collaborative planning, but it’s somewhat loosey-goosey. Under
the contract, collaborative planning meetings may occur as long as they don’t interfere with a teacher’s
preparation time; the contract doesn’t go further to specify when collaborative planning meetings could take place, if they are held at all.
Cleveland Metropolitan School
District, July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2016
“The Cleveland Plan” passed by
the state legislature in 2012 empowered the mayor’s office to introduce some
radical changes to the city’s struggling school system. While the Cleveland
Teachers Union continued to bargain over most of the usual issues, the reforms
found in the Cleveland Plan changed the terms of the negotiations. As a result, seniority took a back seat to
other considerations in many parts of the contract.
- Teacher
transfers: Seniority is no longer king. The district now uses a weighted point system to identify teachers for involuntary
transfers in the case of budgetary reductions or program changes. In this new system, seniority still plays a role but just not as dominant of one. Points totals are based on years of teaching experience, certification area, licensure, and specialized training. Teachers with the fewest points are the first to be involuntarily transferred. For voluntary transfers,
school selection committees are no longer allowed to use seniority as the
primary factor in determining who to hire. - Layoffs:
Seniority may only be a secondary factor
in determining who is laid off. The
recall period has changed from five to three years. - Evaluations: Of the five Ohio school districts
(Columbus, Toledo, Cincinnati, Dayton and Cleveland) in NCTQ’s Teacher Contract
Database, Cleveland is the only one that is not using the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES). The district has developed its own model, the Teacher Development and Evaluation System. Whereas the state
requires two formal classroom observations for all teachers, Cleveland requires
two formal and three informal observations. Cleveland has also built an
unusual appeal procedure into evaluations. A teacher can appeal any evaluation event to the superintendent,
beginning with the first classroom observation. - School day: Students and teachers are working longer
hours this year. The student school day has increased from six hours, thirty
minutes to a full seven hours; teachers are now working seven hours, twenty minutes
instead of six hours, forty minutes. As a comparison, the elementary teachers’ cohorts in Toledo and Columbus work six and a half hours a day and five and a
half hours per day, respectively. - Class
size: Not only are teachers working
longer hours but they’re carrying a bigger load. Class size has increased by three to five
students at the elementary level. On the secondary level, whereas the contract
used to restrict the number of students a teacher could have in a day (maximum
of 170) it now sets a limit on individual class size at thirty students. - Salary: State
law requires all districts to develop a differential compensation system based
on performance, effective 2013-2014. To
that end, Cleveland has identified five tiers on a teacher’s career pathway:
Resident, Professional, Specialist, Leader and Expert. Professional advancement
is determined by a teacher’s Achievement
Units. The district is still in the
process of determining what will comprise the Achievement Units. Placement on each tier at the start of this school
year was determined by the teacher’s most recent step placement on last year’s
traditional salary schedule. The final
two tiers, Leader and Expert, are positions a teacher may apply for and require
a review process. Teachers who are selected for either of those roles receive a stipend.
The last three districts in this round up have seen only minor
changes.
Rochester City School District, June
30, 2013 – July 1, 2015
- Salary: Teachers
will be a little older and grayer before they reach the maximum step on
the salary schedule. An additional longevity step was added to the schedule
raising the number of years that it takes to reach the maximum salary by one year
to 48. Wow. Teachers will
receive a 1% annual adjustment increase this year as well as their step increases
for another year of experience.
Anchorage School District (AK),
July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2016
- Salary: The
contract included an increase of 1% to teacher salaries. - Leave: Teachers
may take advantage of an additional half day of personal leave which has
increased from 2.5 days per year to 3 days. Paid military leave has also
increased from 15 days to 16.5 days.
Christina
School District (DE), July 1, 2013- June 30, 2016
- Salary: Teacher
salaries are up by an average of 3% this year.
Just over 2% of that is an increase for another year’s experience; the
remainder, 0.8%, is the annual adjustment.
