Instructor's Manual to Accompany McQuarrie/lndustrial Relations in Canada, Fourth Edition NEWTOWN SCHOOL DISPUTE Board of Education's Position You, along with the other members of your team, constitute the whole of the Newtown Board of Education. You are to select one or more of your members to serve as chief negotiator(s) representing your side in contract negotiations with the Newtown Teacher Association. Members of your team not designated as chief negotiator(s) may function in any capacity that the team decides upon. As indicated in the background information, the previous contract with the Teacher Association has expired. It is now the beginning of the school year and, as a result of various pressures, the teachers have agreed to return to work on a dayto-day basis, with the reservation that they may call a strike at any time so long as the contract is not nalized. Your responsibility as the board is to conclude an agreement with the Teacher Association and to avert a strike. However, the teachers are not fully informed of just how important it is for you to reach an agreement. In order to conclude an agreement, in light ofthe budget situation described in the background information, you feel that you have to minimize concessions, reduce staff, obtain an increase in teachers' work load, and retain your prerogatives to make final decisions wherever possible. The board has been informed privately that if it cannot succeed in preventing a strike and finalizing a contract at minimal cost, the community may withdraw its support of the board and ask for your resignation. All members of the board, however, wish to remain on the board. Also, the board has discretionary power to transfer funds among budgetary categories if the need arises. The issues that remain unsettled fall into six categories: Reduction in staff Work load Evaluation of teachers Salary Binding arbitration of grievances Benets These general categories are ranked in order of importance to the board. The board's position on specific issues within these categories is spelled out below. The provincial law requires that all issues in dispute are negotiable. Reduction in staff The board wants the following: . Systemwide reduction in staff, as deemed necessary by the board. The board wishes to retain as much control as possible over layoffs, but may provide opportunities for the Teacher Association to make informal recommendations of various kinds. 0 Final decisions about layoffs of individual teachers, as well as quotas within schools and/or grade levels, should remain with the board. The board wishes Instructor's Manual to Accompany McQuarrie/ Industrial Relations in Canada, Fourth Edition to retain as much control as possible, but may offer mechanisms enabling the Teacher Association to voice its views. . Layoffs to become effective 20 working days after the contract is finalized. The board wishes to expedite layoffs as quickly as possible, but has some room to negotiate on this issue. . Notifications of layoffs to affected teachers to be issued not more than 10 working days prior to layoff date. The board wishes to minimize the notification period. However, the board feels that there is some room to negotiate on this issue. . Members of the board are generally resistant to hearing grievances from individual teachers that have been laid off. However, the board is willing to accept an informal review procedure so long as it minimizes time investment and permits the retention of final discretionary power by the board. . Recall: the board is willing to accept a recall list but wishes to limit formal eligibility to one year from the date of layoff. The board also wishes to retain full discretion in recalling individual teachers, particularly those whose one- year recall period has expired, if it wishes to do so. . Notification and acceptance of recall: the board wants written response within 72 hours of notification of recall in order to expedite recall. Again, the board wishes to minimize its efforts and obtain a clear indication of recall acceptances as quickly as possible. However, there is some room to negotiate within the context of this principle. In general, the board wishes to reduce the number of teaching staff in order to absorb part of the overall budget decrease. It also hopes to use layoffs to partially cover increased costs that would result from finalization of the contract presently being negotiated. Work Load The board wants the following: . Student/teacher ratio: the board wants an increase in the system wide ratio from its current level of 32 to approximately 35. Although there is some flexibility on this issue, the board feels it is important for budgetary reasons to come as close to 35 as possible. . Workday: the board wants an increase in the length of the present workday from seven hours and five minutes to a full eight hours. The shorter workday was agreed to in better times when the budget was able to tolerate it. Now the board feels that it wants the time "returned". . Prep time: the board wants elimination of the 50-minute prep time period given to each teacher on each workday (one period per day). Same reasons as in 2.2. . Duty-free time: the board wants elimination of duty-free time given to each teacher on each workday. This amounts to 25 minutes per day in addition to a 25-minute lunch period. Same reasons as in 2.2.Instructor's Manual to Accompany McQuarrie/ Industrial Relations in Canada, Fourth Edition . Emergency assignments and general obligations: The board wants discretionary power to assign teachers to activities during the 75 minutes gained from 2.3 and 2.4 above. These activities include emergency substitute fill-in, bus duty, hall duty, disciplinary duty, and committee service. Also, the board wants to assign teachers to monitor and chaperone after-school athletic and social activities. In general, the board wishes to increase teachers' workload so as to regain coverage of work lost to layoffs and budget cuts, while at the same time minimizing costs. Evaluation of teachers The board wants to hire its own consultant to develop a systematic evaluation procedure. It wishes to use these evaluations as aids in each of the following areas: Determining pay increases Assigning teachers to schools and classes Granting tenure . Removing teachers The board feels that evaluation is a legitimate management activity and that the Teacher Association should provide only advisory assistance for the design and execution of the evaluations. The board does not want these evaluations to be freely available to teachers, due to the confidential nature of the material included and the notes likely to be made by supervisors. Instead, the board is willing to provide limited access to evaluations by having a teacher's supervisor, principal, or assistant principal summarize the contents to individual teachers. Here, the board wishes to retain discretion as to information revealed to individual teachers. The board is seeking 'unannounced visitations' into classrooms for the purpose of conducting observations as a part of the evaluation procedure. The board wishes to be unrestricted in its freedom to conduct these observations, but is prepared to accept scheduled visitations. Salary The board wants the following: . Retroactivity: No retroactivity of salary increases prior to date of contract finalization. However, if necessary, the board feels it can provide a nominal percentage of full retroactivity, but it would prefer not to do so. . Cost of living increase: the board feels that it can only provide a percentage of the previous year's increase in cost of living, as determined by official government figures. However, this limit may be approached in many ways, and the board is willing to entertain suggestions.Instructor's Manual to Accompany McQuarrie/ Industrial Relations in Canada, Fourth Edition . Across-the-board increases in salary schedule: the board feels that it cannot provide such increases unless budgetary resources can be obtained through sacrifices made by the Teachers Association on other issues in the present negotiations. Binding Arbitration of Contracts The board is hesitant to consent to a binding arbitration procedure, as a result of certain groups in the community who are adamantly opposed to erosion of management prerogatives. The board is willing to agree to some form of advisory (non-binding) arbitration. Benefits During this time of severe budgetary curtailment, the board wants to minimize expenditures on benefits. This includes the direct costs of the benefits, as well as the costs that the school system would incur in administering benefit programs. Accumulated sick leave upon severance: the board wishes to minimize such expenditures. Bereavement leave: the board is willing to give up to two days' bereavement leave in the case of the death of a member of the teacher's immediate family (spouse or children). . Civic duty leave: the board is willing to grant salary for jury duty only. The board also wishes to deduct the amount received for jury duty from a teacher's regular daily rate of pay. . Childbirth leave: the board is seeking a maximum of 10 days' leave for female employees who have given birth, and no more than five days' leave for spouses or partners of new parents. In addition, the board prefers that childbirth leave be classified as sick leave