Planning, Member Involvement Pay Off in Kenosha

By Terry Lawler
In an era when schools face enormous financial and policy challenges, is it possible to negotiate a a good all-around contract?

Beth Adelsen Djuplin

Bob Baxter

Absolutely, say leaders and members of the Kenosha Education Association, who recently signed off on a 2005-07 contract that includes model language on professional development issues, improves the salary schedule, and contains a compromise on insurance that benefits both the teachers and the district.

How did they do it? It is the result of long-term planning and member engagement, said KEA President Beth Adelsen Djuplin and KEA Executive Director Bob Baxter.

“When I came to Kenosha as executive director in 2000, the teacher contract was 50 pages long. Now it’s 83 pages,” Baxter said.

“And,” added Adelsen Djuplin, “those 33 pages contain language on job security, workplace protection, improvements in benefit areas, a definition of the purpose for teacher evaluations, and subcontracting protection.”

One of the key components of the new contract is language relating to implementation of the state’s new teacher licensing law known as PI 34, and the so-called “No Child Left Behind” federal education law.

Defining role of mentors
“We’ve been negotiating over PI 34 since 2001,” Baxter said. “Our new contract language establishes a firewall of protection between the mentor and the Initial Educator so that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.”

The KEA’s primary concern was that mentors – which are required for new teachers under PI 34 – should have no evaluative authority over an Initial Educator nor any involvement in any proceeding that could lead to possible disciplinary action of the Initial Educator or non-renewal of the Initial Educator’s contract.

“Now that we have those assurances,” Adelsen Djuplin said, “there can be true collegial interaction between the two. In addition, we now have a framework for progression from Initial Educator to Professional Educator to Master Educator,” which are the three levels of teachers as outlined in PI 34.

The new contract also includes a staffing ratio for mentors to Initial Educators as well as a compensation component for the mentor and release time for both.

Baxter said WEAC Negotiations Specialist Mark Simons provided a lot of help. “Mark reviewed the language to make sure it could be implemented in the manner we anticipated,” Baxter said.

In addition, Cedar Lake United Educators Executive Director Steve Johnson gave valuable assistance. “Steve had previously negotiated similar language into a contract,” Adelsen Djuplin said.

Job security under ESEA
The KEA leadership also had concerns about the potential job security impact of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), or the so-called “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) law.

“The keys to our proposals,” according to Baxter, “were workplace job security and privacy.”

Under ESEA, if a school is deemed to be in need of improvement – as measured by “annual yearly progress” standards – it may be “reconstituted” if it is at a certain point in the sanctions process. If that should happen to a Kenosha Unified school, new contract language protects the teachers in that school.

“Teachers will have input on any new education reform model to be implemented at the sanctioned school,” Baxter said. “If they disagree with the proposed reform model, they can request a transfer which is governed by seniority.”

nder the contract, the reconstituted school can be a charter school, but only under district supervision, as the school district’s charter schools presently are. Should the district decide to turn the reconstituted school over to the state, the district’s responsibilities to the staff do not evaporate. The collective bargaining unit will continue to represent those teachers, and their contract still applies. In addition, the district is prohibited from turning the school over to a private company.

As a school becomes more strictly sanctioned, teachers’ names and student performance records could be released publicly, but the new contract provides further protection for the teachers.

“No teacher can be disciplined for student performance or any other reason stated in the ESEA sanction process,” Adelsen Djuplin said. “The district cannot abdicate any of its responsibilities to the teachers under the terms of the contract. Finally, the process for any education reform model for a reconstituted school must come from an agreement reached by a joint committee of the KEA and administration.”

The 2005-07 Kenosha contract contains what many feel is model language in regard to PI 34 and ESEA, but Adelsen Djuplin and Baxter are equally proud of other new provisions in the contract.

“Prep and planning time have not been part of the agreement for years; now they are,” Baxter said. In addition, there is now a seniority-based transfer provision.

“We now have a sick leave bank, something we first proposed in 2001 and secured in 2005,” Adelsen Djuplin said. “These banked days can be used by any teacher who has run out of sick leave because of personal catastrophic health problems, or because of the health problems of a spouse, parent, sibling or child.”

The KEA also negotiated a paid personal leave day, something never before in the contract.

In addition, the KEA secured a 2.75% per cell salary increase in each of the two years of the new contract.

Sure that the teachers’ insurance plan would have to change, Baxter spent months ascertaining the bargaining environment in regard to the health care industry, and negotiation team members put together a proposal that they felt was the best possible scenario for that change.

“By last April,” Baxter said, “Beth was able to address the school board regarding our proposals and draw cheers from the several hundred teachers who were at that night’s meeting.”

“Whereas most districts define employee contributions as a percentage of the premium, our contribution is a set dollar amount which must be renegotiated,” Baxter said. “Further-more, any decrease in insurance goes back on the base salary.”

Members involved throughout
“Our bargaining team was very disciplined,” Adelsen Djuplin said. “It was comprised of teachers who are very highly respected by their colleagues.”

The leadership communicated with the membership regularly, through the KEA newsletter GLUE, as well as e-mails, and, most importantly, countless building visits by Baxter, KEA Assistant Executive Director Joe Kiriaki and Adelsen Djuplin, who said some of those visits were challenging.

“It’s hard to sit down with teachers and convince them to accept changes in the insurance plan, changes many teachers feared. You also have to be honest with your membership, to explain that negotiations can be very fluid. I wanted our information to be as honest as it could be without giving anyone false hopes.”

Baxter and Adelsen Djuplin said the KEA is very proud of the professional relationship and mutual respect that exists between the KEA staff and governance. “Coordination between the KEA staff and governance is crucial so that every KEA member gets the best possible return on their dues dollar,” Baxter said.

The KEA’s hard work and communication have borne fruit. And WEAC’s help was crucial in securing the best possible contract settlement for KEA members, Baxter said.

In addition to Simons, Baxter credits two other staff members of WEAC’s Collective Bargaining & Research Campus for their expertise and involvement.

“As we drew close to completing negotiations, Greg Spring reviewed the economic provisions of the agreement to make sure it was in the best interest of our membership. Similarly, Dennis Eisenberg helped us with costing,” he said.

And Anne Egan-Waukau of WEAC’s Public Relations/Communications Campus helped design ads for the Kenosha Labor Paper and Kenosha News that helped generate public understanding of and support for key aspects of the KEA’s contract priorities. The ads were paid for by the WEAC Bargaining Crisis Fund.

Even though the 2005-07 teacher salary and welfare agreement was just ratified, the KEA is already preparing for the next round of negotiations.

“We look at each contract as a building block,” Baxter said. “Each one provides a foundation for the next.”

Resource page on collective bargaining

Posted October 21, 2005