Labor/Management Meeting
Minutes
Present: Don
Barber, Bonda Albers, Cheri DeLyria, Willie Pride, Jim Eccles, Sandy Prouty, Dean
Stenehjem, Mary Sarate, Renee Corso, Dee Amundsen, Rob Tracey and
1. Turning
in Vacation Leave in April (Bonda Albers).
Bonda’s concern
was if employees have to submit their plans for vacation by April and then they
are asked to work during the summer, would WSSB be flexible in letting them
change their vacation. Mary stated that
this issue was brought up for budget implications and there is always room for
flexibility.
2. Teacher’s Representation at Board Meetings (Bonda Albers)
Cheri reported
that at the first Board meeting of this school year, the message was given to
teachers that they need to contact their union to determine who would be their
representative. Cheri said that she
understood the Teacher’s contract remains in effect until 2005 and it is their
preference to keep a separate representative at the board meetings instead of
rolling both groups (Federation and
3. Teacher Representation to Labor/Management Meetings (Bonda Albers)
Bonda and Dean
have discussed this issue. Bonda said
that Dean felt that we could have one to two teachers attend the
Labor/Management meetings. Cheri said
that the issue was with the contract language – one contract (teachers) states
that you cannot meet during work time and the other contract (Federation) states
that work time can be used for this.
Dean said that a change could be made so that teachers can be included
in the Labor/Union meetings during work time, however they would have to work
with Craig to handle coverage of their classroom. Don stated another option would be to move
the meetings to
Dean wanted to
reiterate to the group that he is not trying to exclude the teachers from Board
meetings, however the per diem is a question and concern. In a situation which
occurred in the past when two blind consumer organizations became one; they
were not allowed to have two ex-officio trustees, likewise the parent group a
few years ago. A recommendation was to
have two reps. -- one from the east side and one from the west side of the
state; this was not allowed as per state law.
Dean mentioned he would wait for an opinion from the A.G., if the A.G.
said this is fine to continue with one rep. from the teachers and one from the
classified staff, he was fine with this, but did want the Attorney General’s
opinion, because this might be an issue with the other groups.
4. Thanksgiving Week – need to take leave to earn the two holidays (Bonda
Albers)
Bonda asked if they have to take leave to get the two paid
holidays for Thanksgiving. Mary said
that the two holidays are paid and are already figured in to their regular
paychecks, however, if they wanted to get paid for the full five days that
week, they would have to turn in leave for the three non-scheduled work days.
5. Meeting
Schedule (Dean Stenehjem)
Dean stated that this issue seemed to be resolved
and that the consensus was to hold the meetings as they are already scheduled,
the third Tuesday of every month at
6. Miscellaneous
Don stated that he understands that the custodial work
schedules have changed and wanted to know why they changed, why this was not
discussed per article 6 in the contract, and why we were not utilizing the same
schedule as WSD (which was the same as our previous schedule) as they have
changed due to safety reasons. Rob
stated that a new custodial supervisor was hired and his feeling was that
people should work in a group environment and it is his right to try to improve
the efficiencies within his department.
Don asked if Rob or the custodial supervisor sat down with the
custodians to get their input. Rob said
that he and Leonard did discuss this with the custodians. Don’s concern was why
this actually happened and that it bothers him as this change was very
disruptive to some of the custodians’ personal lives. Don felt there should be a trial period set
up for this change. Rob said that it had
been discussed to review this schedule after a period of time. Willie said that there was no actual
time-frame for review. Dean said he felt
it was an efficiency attempt due to the loss of one custodian because of budget
cuts and this situation was looked at thoroughly. Don feels it would be beneficial to review
this new situation to see if it is a success.
Dean said he is hoping to add another part of a position due to the
Vancouver Police Department who will be leasing the Ahlstein building. Cheri asked what criteria would be used for
determining if the new schedule was successful.
Renee felt it should be based on new efficiencies and on performance. Willie said it is going terrible and there
are complaints overall. Don felt that
having meetings throughout the year to see how its going would be
beneficial. Dean suggested that a
meeting be set up for the first part of November. Jim suggested that we get an opinion from
different departments; i.e. Education, Residential, etc. to see how happy the
departments are with the services received.
Mary wanted to reiterate her feelings about
communication as she did not feel she had the opportunity to resolve the recent
grievance before it was filed. Mary felt
it could have been resolved before it got to this point. Don’s understanding was that it was brought
to someone and that he was not sure who.
Don did grant an extension based on Cherie’s information and that Cherie
was going to have some folks from Department of Personnel come visit WSSB to
discuss this. Mary wanted to express
that the business office has an open door policy and they are always willing to
discuss or explain changes. Don was
adamant that this grievance would be resolved.
Dean stated that this Thursday, Congressman Brian
Baird will be here to tour the ORC building, Distance Learning lab, etc. Dean would like to discuss the Federal
implication of IDEA with him.
The meeting adjourned at
________________________________ ________________________________
Dean
O. Stenehjem, Ed.D.
Superintendent
President
– Local WSFE