Hamilton County Education Association submits petitions for 'collaborative conferencing'

photo Hamilton County Education Association President Sandy Hughes speaks to reporters and editors of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in this Jan. 21, 2014, file photo.

What happens next for the Hamilton County Education Association (HCEA), the teachers union that this summer saw the end of its 36-year-old contract to represent public school teachers here?

That should be clearer soon, since the teachers union took the first steps to launch "collaborative conferencing" with the school district.

The process replaces collective bargaining under changes to education law the Republican-controlled Tennessee General Assembly made in 2011 to reduce the power of teachers unions. The changes didn't take effect here until July 1, when Hamilton County's three-year collective bargaining agreement expired.

HCEA President Sandy Hughes on Oct. 1 gave schools Superintendent Rick Smith petitions signed by hundreds of employees to ask the district to conduct a confidential poll to see if teachers and other licensed employees want to start the collaborative conferencing process.

"Teachers miss having their contract," Hughes said in an email. "The recent arbitrary changes in [health] insurance with no communication ... reminded all of the value of the contract."

The school board on Aug. 29 voted unanimously to end health insurance for school employees' working spouses who can get health insurance through their non-school jobs. The board also voted to charge school employees an extra $100 per month out-of-pocket to keep eligible spouses on school health insurance.

For the poll to take place, the teachers' union needed to gather at least 15 percent of professional employees' signatures -- which it did.

"They needed 472 [signatures]," said Stacy Stewart, the district's assistant superintendent for human resources. "Once we got to 500, we stopped counting. We didn't go through and count the total."

The district will poll professional employees on two questions sometime in late October or early November, Stewart said.

The first question will determine whether more than 50 percent of licensed employees, such as teachers, librarians and school psychologists, want to do the collaborative conferencing process.

If so, the second question will ask employees who they'd like to have represent them.

Previously, the district only could negotiate with the teachers' union, Stewart said. The change in state law allows other organizations to sit at the table and represent professional employees. One such organization is the Professional Educators of Tennessee, which describes itself as an alternative to teachers' unions that doesn't endorse political candidates.

Those appointed will reach a memorandum of understanding over any of seven conditions: salaries and wages, grievance procedures, insurance, fringe benefits, working conditions, leave, and payroll deductions -- excluding any deduction for political action committee purposes.

However, the school board won't be bound to comply with the memorandum of understanding -- unlike the memorandum of agreement produced by collective bargaining.

"Whatever we've agreed to, they can make changes to it, the board can," Hughes said.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com, www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu, twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.

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