Frequently Asked Questions
| How do I transfer from one teaching position to another? |
| How do I go about requesting a leave of absence? |
| If the leave is related to the serious illness of the employee, their spouse, child or parent, then the request is to be made through the Family Medical Leave Act. These forms are available through Human Resources. If the leave is for extended personal leave, advanced study or government service, then an explanation must be submitted in writing to the School Administrator according to the guidelines in the Master Agreement. --Jenny Kalson |
| What is the district policy on multimedia materials in the classroom? |
| What is a grievance and how do I do if I feel I want to file one? |
| What if I feel an administrator is treating me unfairly? |
| How do I draw from the sick leave bank? |
| To draw days from the sick bank, the employee must complete the sick bank request form obtained from Human Resources. The committee made up of union members and a designated person from the district will then determine if they are granted. --Jenny Kalson |
| What do I need to fill out to make a salary lane change, what is the timeline? |
| The form can be obtained from Human Resources and is to be turned in prior to the last day of the school year for the following year. --Jenny Kalson |
| How do I renew my license? |
| Teachers can go directly to the DPI website to find the application to renew their license. Once obtained, a photocopy is to be sent to Human Resources for documentation in their personnel file. --Jenny Kalson |
| What is CAUS? |
| UniServ stands for "Unified Services" and is a means of providing staff services, and the resources from the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) and the National Education Association (NEA) at the local level. UniServ is a structure that facilitates the communications, planning, pooling and resources among locals. It is a recognition of the desire to build extra strength for the local and the fact that strength of a neighboring local has carry-over for your own. Capital Area UniServ-South (CAUS-South) staff provide ideas, information, training, consultation and representation. Call on CAUS-South for the following assistance:
All of the above services are either coordinated by or carried out by your UniServ Staff. CAUS-South represents your "first line" of professional staff services. CAUS-South, WEAC and NEA staff people work closely together to maximize the efficient delivery of services and to avoid needless duplication of services. However, your CAUS-South staff does more than just provide services. They are also organizers whose job it is to mobilize members into action to solve problems or to increase the strength of the United Education Profession (UEP). Your organization has always operated on the principle that effective action at the local level is essential to the achievements of its goals at any level. --CAUS |
| What is WEAC? |
| What is WEAC? The Wisconsin Education Association Council represents the public policy, labor and professional interests of its 98,000 members. WEAC is a strong voice for its members and for the 865,000 children in Wisconsin public schools. Who are its Members? WEAC membership includes:
--WEAC |
| What is the NEA? |
| NEA is a volunteer-based organization supported by a network of staff at the local, state, and national levels. At the local level, more than 14,000 NEA local affiliate organizations are active in a variety of activities as determined by the local members. These may range from raising funds for scholarship programs to conducting professional workshops on issues that affect faculty and school support staff to bargaining contracts for school district employees. At the state level, NEA affiliate activities are equally wide-ranging. NEA state affiliates, for instance, regularly lobby legislators for the resources schools need, campaign for higher professional standards for the teaching profession, and file legal actions to protect academic freedom and the rights of school employees. At the national level, from its headquarters in Washington, D.C., NEA lobbies Congress and federal agencies on behalf of its members and public schools, supports and coordinates innovative projects, works with other education organizations and friends of public education, provides training and assistance to its affiliates, and generally conducts activities consistent with the policies set by its elected governing bodies. At the international level, NEA is linking educators around the world in an ongoing dialogue dedicated to making schools as effective as they can be. At the international level, NEA is linking educators around the world in an ongoing dialogue dedicated to making schools as effective as they can be. --NEA |
| What is the QEO? |
| The QEO (Qualified Economic Offer) is a means by which a school district can offer its teachers union a salary and benefit package that settles all economic issues and precludes binding arbitration. Arbitration would still be available to resolve non-economic issues or if a district chooses not to offer a QEO. The intended purpose of the QEO, in general, is to provide school boards assistance in dealing with state imposed revenue limits. It grants them the authority to control the rate of increase for the largest portion of their total staffing costs. The QEO provision first came into law as a part of the 1993-95 budget bill. Originally set to expire in June of 1996, the 1995-97 biennial budget bill repealed that sunset date and made the law permanent. A key additional change in 1998 required that any savings resulting from a fringe benefits increase of less than 1.7% must be added back in salary. The law is often thought of as a maximum 3.8% total package increase with a 2.1% salary and a 1.7% benefit component. It is not quite that simple. It has always been the case that benefit increases of over 1.7% could have resulted in the salary increase being reduced until a 3.8% total package increase was attained. However, if the benefit increase was less than 1.7%, there was no requirement to increase the salary or reach a 3.8% total. That changed with Act 237 and, beginning July 1, 1999 and later, savings from fringe benefits have to be added back to the 2.1% salary increase minimum until a 3.8% total package increase is attained. In brief, to meet QEO requirements, a district must first maintain the teachers' fringe benefits and continue to pay its percentage of those costs. Changes in the cost of fringe benefits determine the amount of money available to apply to salary increases. The law is predicated on an expected minimum annual salary increase of at least 2.1% of the existing salary and fringe benefits package. In fact, however, QEO requirements are met if the combination of increases in both salary and fringe benefits total 3.8%. In a very simplified way, the QEO is calculated through following these steps:
A completed, legal QEO requires both Form A (the above noted determinations and calculations) and Form B (a summary of the underlying specific calculated totals). There are additionally a Form C (instructions for determining the components of a QEO) and Form D (a WERC filing form once a settlement has been reached). --Madison Metropolitan Schools |
| How to use a Flex Account? |
| If you've been healthy this year, congratulations. But if you've spent less on medical expenses than you expected when you set up your flexible spending account, you may be scrambling to find ways to use the money before it disappears. Many companies let employees set aside $2,000 to $3,000 annually in pre-tax money to spend tax-free on medical expenses. It's a great deal, but the big catch is that you lose what you don't use by the end of the plan year. The good news is that the U.S. Treasury Department issued a notice allowing employers to extend the flexible-spending account deadline for up to ten weeks. So employers now can give employees until mid-March rather than December 31 to clean out their accounts thanks to a change in the rules. But even though employers are now allowed to make this change, they aren't required to do so -- and a surprisingly large number have decided to keep their use-it-or-lose-it deadline on New Year's Eve. Only about half the employers surveyed by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, a consulting firm, planned to extend their deadline for using FSA health-care money, and only about one-third planned to extend the deadline for both health-care and dependent-care FSAs. So before you rush out and spend your FSA money, first ask your employer about your company's deadline. Whether your deadline is in December or March or any time in between, there are plenty of places you can spend the money -- much more than there had been in the past. If you start considering your options now, you should have plenty of time to make the necessary appointments and purchase the items and procedures you really need. Where to spend your flex funds: You can use the flexible spending account money for almost any health- related expense that isn't covered by insurance, including:
--Kimberly Lankford |