The most important thing about last week's LWV candidates' forum is something that didn't get talked about:
The candidates for the District 2 school board seat are smart, accomplished women who were probably curve-busters as students, so it was embarrassing when moderator Matt Shafer Powell asked what they thought of PECCA at last week’s League of Women Voters forum. Nobody had an answer.
To be fair, the moderator mispronounced it, but neither Charlotte Dorsey, Jamie Rowe nor Tracie Sanger knew what he was talking about.
Powell explained that it was the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act, which has been state law since 2011 when the General Assembly stripped school boards of the authority to engage in collective bargaining with organizations representing teachers – mainly the Tennessee Education Association – and instead required them to set up something called collaborative conferencing to deal with issues like salaries, benefits, insurance and leave. Knox County became the first school district to start the collaborative conferencing process in October 2011 but may be among the last to fully comply.
The school board delegated its authority to Superintendent James McIntyre.
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Virtually the same thing happened at the LWV forum for First District and Sixth District candidates, before the primary, when we were asked about the MOU.
There were seven of us candidates on stage, three from the First and four from the Sixth.
Among candidates in the First, even incumbant Gloria Deathridge was a blank slate.
Among canidates in the Sixth, Rowcliffe knew nothing about either PECCA or the MOU. I knew only that PECCA replaced the former process for union negotiations, but not that any MOU might be produced via that process. Hill tried to wing it and began talking about the Teacher Advisory Group, which was unrelated (although possibly she was not a KCEA member while she worked with the school system, but I never heard anyone ask her point blank).
Only Buchanan, whose wife is a teacher and KCEA member, answered intelligibly.
After the forum, we candidates lamented to one another that the media had failed to really cover what changes in process PECCA had meant for teachers.
Then again, as rapidly as those changes had arrived, we were also sympathetic that it was pretty hard to keep up with all their implications.
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BTW, PECCA is codified at TCA 49-5-601 through -609, here.
Concerning the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), note what the very last clause of the very last statute in this section says is to happen if no agreement may be reached:
And amending policy is exactly how the previous BOE has been addressing these issues over the three years since PECCA became law, in the absence of any MOU.
We'll just have to wait and see whether this new board is any more insistent on a MOU.
(EDIT: Just corrected that quote's citation in code. Should read -609, not -690 as I had indicated.)
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BTW, the term "PECCA" is pronounced "peck-uh," with emphasis on the first syllable.
This bothers me
I assume this is the statute that led to the virtual elimination of due process and the grievance procedures as well. Would I be correct, and if I'm not, can someone please explain what these processes are? Thanks in advance.
Sometimes one hooks the biggest fish when someone is just casting and paying attention because what one does well is cast and pay attention and what one prides oneself in is casting and paying attention. Lloyd and I used to talk about shit like this. Those that really care find common ground in what is and isn't morally right and work from there. Looks to me like Betty's cut to the heart of the issue.
If you want to hear what
(in reply to fischbobber)
If you want to hear what McIntyre had to say about this, click link below:
(link...)
Then go to the 10:55 mark
(edited) the link is supposed to be to the 9/29 work session, not the 10/1 board meeting, but I cannot get the work session link to work. It takes me to the 10/1 board meeting. So look below the linked meeting at the row of other videos and find 9/29. the superintendent's optimistic report will be there.
The link
(in reply to Bbeanster)
Thanks.
Although we just updated our operating system, and I now have two school board meetings going on simultaneously and I have no idea how to get to the LWV site. I have to believe I've led a horrible life and now have died and gone to hell. They're reciting the pledge of allegiance in one looping soundtrack as we speak. I don't know if this thing doesn't work, or if I just don't know how to work it.
*
(in reply to fischbobber)
You're right, Bob.
The specifics of the law get a little gritty, but follow my above link to TCA 49-5-601 through 49-5-609, this way:
--Click on Title 49 (the plus sign in the left margin, that is).
--After it opens to reveal more choices via a drop-down menu, click on Chapter 5 (the plus sign again).
--After it, too, opens to reveal more choices via a drop-down menu, click on Part 6 (the plus sign again).
--You will then see each statute detailed by its three-digit suffix (601 through 609, in this case); just pick one statute at a time to read, using the back arrow to return to the list of three-digit suffixes.
It occurs to me that I've long linked LexisNexis and seldom explained how to navigate the site. Sorry 'bout that.
Your above link
(in reply to Tamara Shepherd)
You don't have an above link coming through on my computer. `
And if you'll forgive me I'm going to degenerate into that"the world is all about me and I'm going to explain why you should care" style of writing that tends to piss me off so much, but that, right now is all I have the energy, or will to engage in. Let me tell you about my week.
Last Saturday, fall break, the plan was to smoke a turkey breast, watch the game, and make my lunches for the week so I could squeeze in my trip to the doctor. Well, it's fall break and my son asks if he can have some friends overs. I subscribe to the policy that if there under roof, engaged in productive activity (card and board games count) then I know where they are and what they're doing. I don't have to supervise or run the show, I just have to take a periodic head count and make sure they don't run out of food. Well, they went through my turkey breast like sharks on a bleeding tuna and there was no back-up plan so there was that. My wife was mad because I said, "Sure" instead of "Ask your mother" when the idea was proposed. She had a valid point, and I paid the price. Plus, there was no plan for my lunches.
Then I find out that there is an issue that isn't all that bad, but it looks bad and the people responsible aren't exactly stand-up, and one of the kids moms is going to be hung out to dry. I've known this woman for years, her son was playing board games at my house that night, and the guy that started this shit knew what he was doing. The woman they pinned it on did not. Far be it from me to state that someone that wouldn't stand up and take the blame for something they obviously did isn't a worthless piece of shit, but, in this case, knowing the woman and reading his side of the story in the Sentinel, I'll state unequivocally, this guy had a moral duty to stand up and tell the truth. He failed miserably, and it looked like it was due to a lack of character. So it goes.
Luckily, despite the fact that they're hot-tempered, the small group of people dedicated to telling the truth in this town looked for and followed it. The mayor laid it out and the reporters went digging. The money spoke volumes, but what spoke even louder was the publisher in charge shutting down the one obviously progressive voice in this town. The timing is suspicious in the sense that,if one was conspiring to throw a school board race, which, at this point is starting to look like what is going on, one would certainly shut the Pulse down now before Carrie got into a last second competition with Betty. It's easy to hide skeletons from one reporter because you're looking for her, it's exponentially harder to hide them from two, and, if a town has a real working press, skeletons can fall out daily.
Kudos to Betty, by the way, for not missing the old, "We're going to hide it right under your nose" trick.
By Wednesday night there was an issue with someone advancing a far right agenda within a work group I'm involved in. It was clearly not in the groups best interest and clearly a violation of his oath of membership and I called him on it. Imagine that.
Plus, I hadn't gotten to the doctor. I hadn't gotten my shot and I'm beginning to get tired and short tempered.
People are trying to fix this school board race. That pisses me off as a citizen. As to the details, the exact whys, hows and who's, I doubt it will sort itself out before the election (though I hope the few ethical people covering it really lean on people for information). Maybe all the facts will come to the table and maybe the good guys will win for a change.
It would be about time.
I think he called it
I think he called it "Deck-uh" Or maybe "Teck-uh."
But reading Lance McCold's email about McIntyre throwing him out of the meeting made me think of another important point at last week's forum:
Rowe always hammers on openness, particularly at the Teachers' Advisory Committee meetings (McIntyre wants them to remain closed to the media and the general public). Sanger took her on on that point, saying that teachers feel safer in closed meetings.
This was shocking to hear, since it's teachers who have called for openness since the TAC was formed. They've been speaking out at board meetings and any other forum they can find about openness, and it's even more shocking that members of the media – who generally insist on letting the sunshine into any kind of forum involving public issues, money or officials – could pass this point off so lightly.
It's not the public or the media that teachers are afraid of.
It's McIntyre.
I don't believe there's
I don't believe there's anything about this on the League web site (assuming they have one).
Starting from scratch here
(in reply to Bbeanster)
Apple has just released the greatest most user friendly OS of all time and I'll be damned if I can figure out how to make it work. I write and speak. That's what I do best. I struggle to keep up with the smartest people and I anguish over how to get points across to the dumbest people. But I'm not good with computers. I'm lost tonight. I hope this posts and I'm working from there.
I know Lance though, and you can take it to the bank that if Lance says it, it's both true and right. Knoxville is lucky to have him.
League website
(in reply to Bbeanster)
(link...)
I didn't have time to look, but I doubt it would contain a summary of the meeting, since that would be difficult to produce w/o appearing to favor some candidates.
Already found it. Nothing
(in reply to Rachel)
Already found it.
Nothing much there.
Link to LexisNexis
Hmm. My 9:38 pm post should have a link to LexisNexis on the very first line, under the word "here."
I'll toss it out again, below:
(link...)
Sorry about your lost turkey sandwiches and your chagrined PTSO friend whose innocence I know you maintain.
As for the Second District race, here's hoping we both feel better on November 4.
(P.S.--This thread is really about PECCA, you know :-)
Thanks
(in reply to Tamara Shepherd)
I got there, but I'm going to bed as I'm going to need to run that off to study and understand it.
And I appreciate your concern. Friends and turkey sandwiches are important. And please don't misunderstand when I say, having seen this happen before, there's always someone set up in the chain of command to take the fall. Google John Schmid and the gunshot deer. I never said everyone was innocent of everything, and in fact, the genius of the fall guy really sticks in my craw.
November in general is going to be tough. I've never seen people go to the length of closing a newspaper to throw an election though. Maybe it's closer than I think.
Again, the closing of Metro
Again, the closing of Metro Pulse has nothing to do with PECCA, last I looked.
McIntyre is talking like December is the deadline. Ms Coates got up and corrected him: it's the end of October, 3 years after negotiations began.
The board delegated its duties to McIntyre and looked the other way for 3 years. Now it's looking like this is a tactic to weaken TEA, which is losing membership since the General Assembly gutted its powers in 2011. Specifically, it's an ALEC-inspired anti-union measure against an organization that wasn't a union in the first place.
Without the MOU
As Tamara pointed out , without the MOU the teachers will be working without a contract. As such, their working conditions will be subject to board policy.
(Hence the paranoid supposition on the closing of the Metro Pulse)
Having a reasonable sounding puppet on the school board as the swing vote give total control of the teacher's working conditions to McIntyre. He can hire and fire at will. As long as the board gives him the policy he needs to continue this feudal system of Lords and serfs, he's golden.
The teachers will not be afforded due process, reasonable grievance procedures nor even the right to speak up for their students. In other words, the teachers will be stripped of their power to educate and be subject to the whim of the board. Given the everyday commonplace abuse of power that has been going on with both the board and the superintendent, this is a worst case scenario for Knox County Schools.
As to the paranoid supposition, the demographic of the Metro Pulse was such that a strong editorial stance against Amendment 1 would have brought people to the polls. Maybe 100, maybe 1000, maybe 5000, who knows? Those same people would have been likely to vote for a school board candidate that ran against the status quo. Perhaps the closing of the Metro Pulse was a foregone conclusion, but the pieces of the puzzle of this election are starting to form a picture. The timing was odd.
Money honey
(in reply to fischbobber)
Budget to meet: $X. Cut to meet it. Wish it were sexier - Goliath slays David for refusing to buy his stone at Pilot or Putin poisons seeker of truth and school board justice - but it ain't.
Money is a huge part of it.
(in reply to Jamie Satterfield)
Money and control.
If you don't think patrick Birmingham is concerned about controlling the message as well as cutting expenses, you're not reading your own paper.
But it's true. Once fear becomes the overriding motivator, one can pretty much cut salaries at will.
Without the control, McIntyre can't move money out of the umbrella of the public sector into the private sector at will. That's the goal.
Me = peon
(in reply to fischbobber)
I am the tiny flecks of dust adhering to the mud on the shoes of the janitor who cleans the bathroom where the higher ups relieve themselves.
I feel your pain.
(in reply to Jamie Satterfield)
But, you know,it's clear that you have some sort of fundamental self respect and professionalism that shows through in your work. It's just that less and less of that get's through to the paper on a daily basis. You can only stretch people so thin, and jack them around so much, until the stress shows through in the final project.
(Edit: Upon a reread this morning this above comment sounds like a personal dig at you, when in fact, it was meant as a broad based observation on the direction of the paper in general. It wasn't meant as a personal dig and I chalk that up to my writing being an ongoing effort at getting my point across, not some polished finished product. I'll probably go to my grave trying to get this stuff right.)
The funny thing about this whole affair is that if someone was to put together a prep sports team, and staff a local section with 24/7/52 reporters as needed, it wouldn't be that difficult to give the Sentinel a run for their money. But that's another story.
No, that's incorrect.
(in reply to fischbobber)
PECCA does not create a "contract" in the collective bargaining sense. There is no exclusive bargaining representative. There is no right to strike. And there's a kill switch written into the law which seems to give boards of education a right to decided to refuse to collaboratively conference with employees. However, that language is inconsistent with other parts of PECCA, because PECCA is a propagandistic pile of badly written crap, but what are you gonna do?
There is a Memorandum of Understanding under PECCA, but it addresses a much narrower slate of subjects than a traditional bargaining agreement or "contract", such as existed under the EPNA. By operation of law, teachers still enter into individual employment contracts when they are offered and accept employment with a school system. PECCA is irrelevant to the creation of that contract, so teacher are still "under contract" to the Knox County Board of Education, whether or not an MOU exists.
Working conditions have always been subject to board policy, unless there was a collective bargaining agreement under the EPNA that specifically addressed those working conditions. Unfortunately, PECCA only allows the parties to collaboratively conference those working conditions that are not otherwise prescribed by law and/or regulation. It's a pretty short list.
You are absolutely correct
(in reply to Min)
I misrepresented what an MOU does, and rather badly, I might add. And I knew better.
As I understand MOU's, they are broad general statements of how things will generally be done, which, may or may not be binding. In a case like KCS generally the Board expects everything that is to their advantage to be binding while anything to the teacher's advantage to be open to be revisited after the MOU is in place.
My badly stated point was that a strong MOU was better than nothing and it doesn't look like even that will happen.
Collective bargaining, including the right to strike and picket, needs to be restored to teachers, or in the event they never had their full rights to begin with, they need to get them.
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(in reply to fischbobber)
Teachers have never had the right to strike or picket.
They didn't even get a duty-free lunch until around 1991, I think it was.
Well then.....
(in reply to Tamara Shepherd)
I suppose I've found my starting point in how to fix the system. They should have that right. They should also have the right to unionize and collectively bargain. They seem to be the only people in our education system that know what's going on. How can we citizens, in good conscience, not give them a real voice?
As for a duty free anything, when I was subbing, back in the early eighties, the best I recall was a rotating lunch. At Karns, under Tommy Everett, I seem to recall a teachers lounge right off the lunch room where one could eat and converse with adults if it wasn't your turn to be on the floor. I could be wrong. Everywhere else, I was in the lunchroom. I ended up in this position investigating the job to see if that's what I wanted to do for a career. I loved it, but couldn't figure out how someone was supposed to start from scratch, buy a home and raise a family on a teacher's salary.
Teacher unionism reborn
(in reply to Tamara Shepherd)
Lois Weiner in New Politics Winter 2012 - Teacher Unionism Reborn
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TCA 49-5-609(d), cited in full above, makes clear that LEAs are not required to enter into MOUs with their professional employees by October, by November, by December or ever...if the parties do not reach consensus.
My assumption is therefore that this deadline to which Tanya Coates refers is some directive the former BoE gave McIntyre to wrap up this process.
However, a number of board members who presumably tendered that directive no longer serve. Fugate is an interim. An election for his temporary seat, which will determine the perspective of the body's majority going forward, is coming up in just a couple of weeks.
I can't guess on what points McIntyre will claim an inability to reach consensus, but it's crystal clear to me that that's what he will do. It's highly unlikely that he would be willing to enter into any MOU prior to the election (and it's equally unlikely that he wants to do so even after that vote).
A look at this list of the BoE's Human Resource polices reveals that since PECCA became law in 2011 McIntyre has led the charge to enact or revise 24 of 50 such policies.
I can't imagine that he would decide midstream--least of all now--to begin "collaboratively conferencing" with his professional employees those issues he has to date successfully dictated via top-down policy.
(link...)Specifically:(3)
(in reply to Tamara Shepherd)
(link...)
Specifically:
(3) No board of education shall have a duty or obligation to engage in collaborative conferencing with its professional employees pursuant to this part unless a majority of those eligible to vote in the poll under subdivision (b)(2) respond "YES" to the first question.
(4) Upon receiving the results of the poll in which the majority of those eligible to vote respond "YES" to the first question, the board of education shall appoint at least seven (7), but no more than eleven (11) persons, to serve as management personnel. The professional employees shall be entitled to the same number of representatives as the number of management personnel selected by the board of education. The professional employee representatives
- 8 - 00858662
shall be selected according to each organization's proportional share of the responses to the second question; provided, however, that only those professional employees' organizations receiving fifteen percent (15%) or more of the responses to the second question shall be entitled to representation. The category of "unaffiliated" as a response to the second question, but not the category of "none of the above", shall be considered a professional employees' organization for the purposes of this subdivision.
(5) If fifteen percent (15%) or more of the professional employees polled indicate a preference for an unaffiliated representative, then the special question committee shall select and appoint a person or persons to serve as an unaffiliated representative or representatives according to the proportional share of responses to the second question in the category "unaffiliated".
(6)
(A) The term of the members of the panel constituted as the
result of a poll in which the majority of those eligible to vote respond "YES" to the first question shall be three (3) years. If a vacancy occurs on the panel, then the appointing body which appointed the member to the position that became vacant shall appoint a replacement for the remainder of the term. Prior to expiration of the terms of the members of the panel, a new poll shall be conducted under this subsection (b) to determine whether the professional employees want to continue to engage in collaborative conferencing.
(B) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (A) to the contrary, a memorandum of understanding may provide for polls after a poll in which the majority of those eligible to vote responded "YES" to the
- 9 - 00858662
first question to occur more frequently than once every three (3) years. The term of the members selected for the panel after such poll shall be the length of time specified by the memorandum of understanding between two (2) polls.
*
(in reply to Bbeanster)
Oh, I understand that the BoE is obligated to conference with its teachers due to the vote teachers took, Betty.
What I meant to imply is that the "collaborative conferencing" process itself is a sham. Many of the issues now most important to teachers are topics the statutes say are strictly off-limits within the conferencing process. And even those issues teachers are free to discuss with management they nevertheless may not be able to resolve with any MOU.
All in the world management has to say is that they couldn't reach any consensus with personnel, so it's time to write or revise another BOE dictate...er, policy.
Bob, Jamie's right. It's
Bob, Jamie's right.
It's money. First, last and always.
Sandra Clark runs a lean operation that makes money and in selected instances rattles as many (or more) cages than anybody in town. She's still in business because, well, see the above sentence. If you don't believe that, you haven't been paying attention. I know you prefer elaborate conspiracy theories, but it's just not there.
Sandra's in business for two reasons
(in reply to Bbeanster)
First and foremost, I stand in agreement with you. She makes money.
But mostly she's great at what she does, she's built a team to which money is secondary, and she loves the business. Look, Birmingham can come in and shut the Shopper down and offer everyone six months severance in return for silence and a non-compete and you guys (or enough of you) would tell him to get bent and be publishing within a month. Plus, he would have created a monster. And the Son of Shopper would likely make a good bit more money.
I've been wrong before,and maybe I'm wrong here, but what you said about pieces fitting a narrative really hit home. I started looking at all this stuff like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle sitting on a kitchen table. The quality of the Sentinel has digressed to the point where money literally can't be the only objective. Control of the market and control of the message is what these guys see as the future. And maybe it is. The only real wild card in this election was the Metro Pulse though, because, like Holly Hambright said, they controlled the under forty demographic. The demographic most likely to vote against Amendment 1 and a wild card for all the other races. There's far more going on in KCS than just cutting teacher's salaries. It goes beyond just money.
The KNS came out against
(in reply to fischbobber)
The KNS came out against Amendment 1. Why would they be pissed at Metro Pulse over its stand?
And KNS doesn't support cutting cutting teachers' salary, per se. They've just bought the McIntyre/Haslam/Chamber of Commerce's test-driven theory of education reform.
And Metro Pulse didn't 'control' any voting demographic. It influenced it, yes; sold stuff to it, yes. But although young people spend lots of money on entertainment, they aren't who votes, except during presidential election years. Senior citizens are the super voters.
Listen to what Frank Cagle said on Channel 10 Sunday. He knows whereof he speaks.
Amendment 1
(in reply to Bbeanster)
The Sentinel doesn't have the juice to get people to the polls to vote against the Amendment. The weren't out to change minds or motivate voters. Their editorial position was simply Barker being good at his job. The demographic is such that it won't change a pre-determined outcome at the polls. If I was to put a number on potential Metro pulse votes it would be between 50 and 5000. That's enough to affect State Senate as well as the school board race. If you're thinking about pulling the plug, now is the time.
I'll listen to Cagle tonight.
There may not be a big picture here. And if there is, I think it will come back to fundamental motivations like ego. Money is just a tool once you're one of the few that has it.
Of course it's a sham. It's a
Of course it's a sham. It's a "conversation."
But there's still a three year time limit, and therefore a deadline, which the teachers say is 10/31 and JMac says is some inspecific time in December. Thinking of most with whom I've discussed this is he's hoping that KCEA lwill have lost so much membership that they can no longer win a vote to be designated to represent teachers.
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(in reply to Bbeanster)
There just isn't any mention I can find in the statutes of any time limit for producing a MOU?
And why would there be, since the statutes don't require that any MOU be produced at all?
Neither does it appear that negotiations could have been underway for three years yet, given the implementation process outlined in statute?
The statute guiding the implementation process for conferencing called for the TN Organization of School Supers and "representative organizations" to first produce and remit to the legislature a training program on conferencing by January 1, 2012, and to next implement such training by July 1, 2012. It forbade any conferencing before the time this training was created and implemented, here:
I haven't pored over past board meeting minutes to confirm it, but this "deadline" being bantered about sure sounds like some sort of local level instruction from the BoE to McIntyre, rather than any statutory directive?
I'm certainly not arguing against teachers securing a MOU, you understand. I'm just trying to get a clear understanding of the likelihood of that happening this month or next (or ever).
I'm thinking that unless some of our new BoE members step in to themselves participate in conferencing as part of the management team, that likelihood appears to be slim.
This one takes the
This one takes the cake:
"Autopsy data" = data collected at the end of a teaching year that can no longer be used because the students have moved on.
Autopsy data. That is just gross.
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(in reply to Bbeanster)
How is it we learned (at the TEA event at Fulton High) the TEAM evaluation model compiles a three-year rolling average of teachers' TVAAS? Seems like that formula employed "autopsy data" of some sort?!
(Yawn. Off to bed for me. Will look in here in the AM.)
Autopsy Data
(in reply to Bbeanster)
Makes sense when used in context with the edu-babble word rigor.....which is most often followed by the word mortis.