See You In Court! CABE Monthly Column
“See You In Court!” is written by Thomas Mooney and appears in the CABE Journal, a publication of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.
As with school districts throughout Connecticut, the Nutmeg Board of Education has been struggling to adopt a budget because certain federal grants are ending this year. As the Board members have considered options, they have told Mr. Superintendent that the district must operate more efficiently to save money.
After undertaking a comprehensive review of district practices, Mr. Superintendent discovered that the district employs a number of paraeducators in the elementary schools to accompany students to lunch and special classes, relieving teachers of the responsibility to do so. At the meeting of the Nutmeg Board of Education last week, Mr. Superintendent reported that the district could cut two paraeducator positions at each of the district’s elementary schools and simply ask teacher to resume their traditional responsibility for supervising their students on the way to lunch and to special classes. Given the turnover the district is experiencing with paraeducators, Mr. Superintendent elaborated, no layoffs will result when the Board eliminates these positions. The Board members were pleased to take this modest step to reduce its budget request, and the Board voted to cut the positions as recommended by Mr. Superintendent.
The next day, however, the President of the Nutmeg Union of Teachers (NUTS) sent Mr. Superintendent an email with the caption, “Not So Fast.” In her email, the NUTS President informed Mr. Superintendent that teachers would not be resuming such duties because in 1998 NUTS settled a grievance by way of a memorandum of understanding (MOA) between the Board and NUTS that specified that paraprofessionals would accompany students to lunch and special classes, freeing teachers to do “more important things.”
Mr. Superintendent informed Ms. Board Chairperson of this development, and the Board held an emergency meeting in executive session to discuss next steps. Veteran Board member Bob Bombast was clear – no worn-out MOA from the last century should prevent the Board from taking the steps necessary to operate more efficiently. Board member Mal Content was more conciliatory, and he suggested that the Board negotiate with NUTS to change the terms of the MOA to permit the elimination of the paraprofessional positions in question. After discussion, a majority of the Board voted to rescind its prior action to eliminate the paraprofessional positions and to ask NUTS to negotiate over changes in the MOA.
Mr. Superintendent and the Board were shocked by the response of NUTS. Instead of accepting the invitation to negotiate changes to the MOA, the Union staff representative informed Mr. Superintendent that NUTS declined to negotiate and that the Board would have to wait for the next round of contract negotiations to negotiate over the terms of the MOA.
Mr. Superintendent called another emergency meeting to inform the Board of this development, and now even Mal was antagonized. “If NUTS won’t even sit down to negotiate a change,” Bob Bombast said, “we need to do what we need to do. I renew my motion to eliminate the para positions.” With that, the Board unanimously approved the motion.