Dr. Johnson invited one of the District accountants to our monthly meeting. We discussed the Year Round to Traditional pay problems. I thought this was an issue that just impacted teachers, but it also impacts many classified personnel including principals, secretaries, custodians, and bus drivers. Expenses are tracked by school, making the accounting more accurate. The 13-month pay option given to schools moving from Year Round to Traditional is the best one at this point. Other programs that were investigated included Davis District, which uses a "trusted" computer program without human checks and balances. Clark County District doesn't pay Year Round teachers their first paycheck until September. That is not a viable option either. We will continue to look at this; however, the more I learn, the more I realize that what we have is probably the best possible option.
We also talked about Senator Aaron Osmond's Education Employee Reform Proposal. Dr. Johnson is most concerned about the loss of collective bargaining or being forced to negotiate in public. She does not see that as productive. Should the Orderly Termination Act be repealed and/or five year contracts be established, she said the District would maintain a process for termination as well as cause for non-renewal of contracts.
She is waiting to hear from the trainer for Interest Based Bargaining. I appreciate Dr. Johnson's willingness to work with JEA on improving the negotiations process and including JEA in designing a performance pay model.
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