Sandy HughesA “special question committee” will meet Wednesday afternoon to decide things such as whether Hamilton County teachers will use paper ballots or vote electronically to choose their representatives for the collaborative conferencing process that will replace collective bargaining.
For the first time in decades, teachers will have the chance to be represented by an organization other than the Hamilton County Education Association, the teachers union, because the Professional Educators of Tennessee, which describes itself as a nonpartisan teachers’ association, will vie for votes.
“They will be on the ballot,” said Hamilton County Department of Education Assistant Superintendent Lee McDade. The vote could take place within a week, he said. By law, it has to be completed by Jan. 1.
In order to get a seat at the negotiating table, a professional organization will need to capture 15 percent of the vote from the district’s roughly 3,200 teachers and other professionals, such as librarians, who are eligible to participate.
J.C. Bowman, executive director of the 8,000-member Professional Educators group, which is based in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood, said his group has enough members in Hamilton County to get the required 15 percent.
“We have significant [membership] in Hamilton County,” Bowman said.
However, he predicts that a significant percentage of teachers won’t want to bother with collaborative conferencing. The first question the poll will ask is whether the process should take place. The second question will ask teachers who they want to represent them.
“I would encourage them to do it, and I would encourage them to choose us,” said Bowman, who said his group will poll teachers to see what issues they’d like to see negotiated.
“We’re finding working conditions may be the number one issue [around the state],” he said.
Lee McDadeHamilton County Education Association President Sandy Hughes predicted the teachers union overwhelmingly will win the poll.
HCEA got the ball rolling on Oct. 1, when Hughes gave schools Superintendent Rick Smith petitions signed by hundreds of employees seeking the confidential poll to start the collaborative conferencing process.
“Our focus in the new year will be to get our teachers a raise,” Hughes said.
She said teachers took a hit to their salaries in August when the school board raised monthly health insurance premiums by $100 and eliminated health insurance for teachers’ working spouses who can get insurance through their nonschool jobs.
“We’re going to work on salary, rather than benefits,” Hughes said.
Collective bargaining ended in Hamilton County because of changes to education law the Republican-controlled Tennessee General Assembly made in 2011. The changes didn’t take effect here until July 1 because Hamilton County’s three-year collective bargaining agreement didn’t expire until then.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomar zu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.