Union president predicts another beef with district now that
finalized report released
When the Gilroy Unified School District began compiling a plan to improve student achievement, some community members were excited and volunteered to help write the report.
But Michelle Nelson wasn’t elated by the news.
To the Gilroy Teacher’s Association president, the district’s Strategic Accountability Plan simply translated to more work for an already overloaded staff. On Feb. 9, 2005, the GTA filed an unfair labor practice suit with the California Public Employment Relations Board. The suit claimed that, once implemented, the plan would violate the educators’ contracts because they would be forced to work extra time to achieve the results requested.
In January, PERB sent a letter to the California Teachers Association lawyer informing him that the suit had been dismissed because the union failed to submit data, namely the number of teachers and the extra hours they were required to work due to the accountability plan.
Nelson said she couldn’t provide the district or the lawyer with specifics because the accountability plan had yet to be enacted.
“It was hard to put your finger on a specific because the schools weren’t done yet with the plan,” she said.
Nelson predicts she’ll have another beef with the district now that the 22-member Accountability Task Force committee released the finalized report to the public last week. She said teachers will likely violate their contracts in an effort to reach the report’s goals.
Nelson calls it the “creeping crud,” when administrators continue to pile on a little bit of work at a time, still expecting teachers to complete the work in an 8-hour day.
“And pretty soon you’re working 24/7.” she said.
The union leader said some of the district’s goals, such as completely closing the achievement gap between minorities and whites, are unreachable.
“I think it was a very aggressive goal,” she said.
But Superintendent Edwin Diaz said the Accountability Plan is complete and he hasn’t heard any complaints “coming from school sites about the Accountability Plan.”
“As far as I’m concerned it’s a dead issue and I think we (need to) move on and continue the implementation of the accountability plan,” he said.
Diaz said he was completely taken aback when the claim was filed because district officials were at the negotiating table with the union and had asked the teachers to provide them with specific incidences when contracts were violated.
If the union filed a similar suit in the future, he said he would be totally surprised again.
The superintendent said the district wants to keep the lines of communication with the union open, to ensure that teachers are okay with the flow of the job.
“We’re always willing to sit down and discuss any impacts on time but in order to do that we need specifics,” he said.
