New Contract Online

The new Master Contract Between the Board of School Trustees of Fort Wayne Community Schools and Fort Wayne Education Association, Inc. is now online. You can access it by clicking on the image of the contract cover below or by using the link under IMPORTANT FWEA DOCUMENTS on the right side of this page.

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Summary of Changes for 2013-2015 FWEA/FWCS Ratified Contract

1. Eligible teachers* will receive $1,100 (pro-rated for part-time teachers) on their base salaries for 2013-14. Teachers who were rated Effective or Highly Effective during 2012-13 and have continued employment with FWCS will receive this base increase to their salaries.

2. Base salary for Bachelor’s Degree will be raised the next two years for new hires and eligible teachers* currently below the base salary level:

2013-2014 = $33,875 present, raised to $35,500 = increase of $1,625
2014-2015 = $35,500 present, raised to $37,000 = increase of $1,500

3. Base salary for Master’s Degree will be raised the next two years for new hires and eligible teachers* currently below the base salary:

2013-2014 = $37,500 present, raised to $39,500 = increase of $2,000
2014-2015 = $39,500 present, raised to $41,000 = increase of $1,500

4. New teachers hired in hard-to-fill areas may receive a stipend after completing a required minimum time period after consultation with the Association.

5. Teachers Incentive Fund grant money will be awarded to eligible teachers* in the form of a one-time stipend (following final calculation of evaluations with SIP scores included) during Fall 2013 as follows:

*Only Effective and Highly Effective rated teachers are eligible per law.

                                                               Effective                 Highly Effective
School Year 2012-2013 (retroactive)    $2,000 stipend         $2,500 stipend
School Year 2013-2014                         $2,100 stipend         $2,600 stipend
School Year 2014-2015                         $2,300 stipend         $3,000 stipend

6. Length of contract – July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015.

7. Per Indiana Law the only items that are allowed to be bargained are salaries and wage-related benefits. Items removed by law are now discussable.

8. Your FWEA bargaining team was able to also keep this language in the contract:

• Grievance Procedures intact with binding arbitration except for teacher dismissals
• Any teacher who incurs expenses or damages for glasses, braces or personal items because actions of a student shall be reimbursed by the Board.
• No teacher shall suffer loss of salary or reduction of leave if the teacher is absent to appear before judicial body or legal authority in an action resulting from student disciplinary situations.
• Teachers providing official retirement notification prior to February 1 and completing the school year will be paid 2% of the teacher’s base salary.

9. All Extra-Curricular stipends (formerly based on indices) will be rounded up the nearest $25.

10. All other former contract language remains intact and will be put in a Human Resource/Administrator/Teacher Handbook with a Memorandum of Understanding that requires official discussion with the Association before any changes are made.

11. The final contract will be available on the FWCS website and the FWEA blog: http://fweateachers.blogspot.com/

Additional Information

Health Insurance Summary

FWCS Press Release announcing Contract Agreement

The Value of YOUR ISTA Membership!

Individual Teacher's Contract

• In August, 2011 ISTA immediately challenged Dr. Tony Bennett's new teacher contract form and was granted a Preliminary Injunction to keep it from being used. The judge ruled that current teacher contract forms should be used because Bennett's form did not conform to Indiana code.
• In August, 2012 ISTA opposed IDOE's attempt to overturn that Preliminary Injunction and ISTA was granted a Permanent Injunction.
• ISTA then prepared to challenge IDOE's appeal of the Injunction to the Indiana Court of Appeals.
• In March, 2013 Indiana's Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal at IDOE's request.
• ISTA is drafting a sample teacher contract providing IDOE with suggestions on how the teacher contract should read.
• This effort by ISTA and its legal counsel (costing in excess or $50,000) is worth the cost of your membership because no teacher in this state will now be forced to become an at-will employee and be required to work any and all hours their employer would request.

ISTEP Integrity Statement

• ISTA's legal efforts resulted in an immediate revision of this statement last school year and a recall of the first version teachers were mandated to sign.
• ISTA is currently working with the IDOE to further modify the statement to make it less offensive to those who are required to sign it.

License Revocations

• ISTA has successfully represented several members in license revocation cases.
• Without ISTA's efforts on their behalf, they were certain to lose or have their licenses suspended. Some of these cases were brought against teachers who had no charges of any sort pending against them and who had been entirely cleared of any offense by law enforcement and Child Protective Services but were still being pursued by the IDOE for license revocation.

Child Abuse Representation

• Eric Hylton, ISTA legal counsel, has handled more than 35 child abuse allegation cases so far this year with tremendous success in getting an unsubstantiated ruling on virtually all of them.

Permanent/Semi-Permanent Property Rights

• ISTA is currently challenging in court the property rights of teachers who have previously earned semi-permanent or permanent status but who have now been RIF'd before a less senior colleague.
• This challenge could have huge ramifications for every teacher in the state who has semi-permanent or permanent status when school districts start looking at layoffs this spring.
• ISTA is also challenging to establish the right of a semi-permanent or permanent teacher to have full evidentiary rights at a dismissal hearing.

Collective Bargaining

• ISTA has several pending cases or Unfair Labor Practice claims that will try to establish the right of teachers to bargain the payment of wages for additional hours worked into their master contracts.
• A Nettle Creek Fact Finding case is pending in a trial court and a Noblesville ULP is awaiting a hearing before the IEERB Board. Both could have significant impact on our members across the state.
• ISTA is currently inquiring into the authority of the State Board of Accounts to audit local bargaining agreements and to issue citations to local school corporations.

Legislative

• ISTA staff continues to aggressively advocate for public education and education employees and lobbying against many bills that are not favorable to ISTA members or to public education in the General Assembly, including the bill that vastly expands the current voucher program that provides public dollars to private schools.
• ISTA remains the voice for public school educators at all levels of state government.

Political Action

• ISTA was an early supporter and stayed extensively involved in the successful election of State School Superintendent Glenda Ritz and will continue to support her efforts to improve public education and the Indiana Department of Education.

Voucher Challenge

• NEA/ISTA presented oral arguments before the Indiana Supreme Court in opposition to the voucher program on November 21, 2012. ISTA continues to believe that Indiana's private school voucher program is a clear violation of the state's constitution. The Indiana Supreme Court has not yet ruled in this case.

Look for more information from ISTA soon!

Teacher's Contract Lawsuit Filed Today

IDOE’s Teacher Contract Forms Not Contracts At All

INDIANAPOLIS –Dr. Tony Bennett and the Indiana Department of Education late last week issued the new teacher contract forms for the 2011-2012 school year. Upon reviewing the documents, particularly the regular teacher’s contract, the Indiana State Teachers Association believes that certain proposed terms violate both Indiana law and existing collectively-bargained contracts.

ISTA filed a lawsuit today requesting injunctive relief to prevent these documents from being forced upon Indiana’s dedicated and hard working public school teachers. ISTA also plans to request that these teacher contracts be modified to comply with Indiana law.

One major violation of the law found in the regular teacher’s contract form released by IDOE is a provision that allows school corporations to shorten or lengthen a teacher’s work day or the number of days a teacher works each year at will at any time during the school year.

Indiana’s new law clearly states that the individual teacher’s contract must contain “the number of hours per day the teacher is expected to work, as discussed pursuant to IC 20-29-6-7 (which is the teacher collective bargaining law). SEA 575-2011

The new DOE “contract” as stated below and in pertinent part, is in direct violation of that Indiana law:

“In exchange for the Teacher’s services described below, the Corporation and the Teacher agree that:

3. The Teacher’s expected work day shall consist of a minimum of _________hours daily, exclusive of any extracurricular or co-curricular assignments.

4. The number of days and hours may be modified by the Corporation during and after the term of the Contract.” (emphasis added)

“Once again, the Department (of Education) is proceeding under their theory of “proceed until apprehended,” said ISTA President Nate Schnellenberger. “The General Assembly enacted a series of laws this year that, frankly, have a multitude of ambiguities, gaps, and internal conflicts that ISTA is trying to now work through as the new school year approaches. However, the issues of a teacher’s expected hours, the discussion rights attributable to those hours, the bargainability of salary and wage-related benefits, and the content of the teacher contract itself as it relates to the number of hours (and not “minimum” hours) were not unclear and ISTA expects that the IDOE should be made to comply with the laws it promoted.”

ISTA is appalled by the contents of these contracts and especially incensed that they were issued just as teachers begin returning to school for the start of the 2011-2012 school year with little or no information from the Department of Education about the content or their consequences.
“Again, without collaboration, IDOE has taken it upon itself to “re-legislate” public education policy to suit its own agenda after the General Assembly adjourned,” concluded Schnellenberger.