What does "hold harmless" mean to our Special Ed teachers who may change employers?

If the State Board of Education approves the dissolution of the Leavenworth County Special Education Cooperative, then the districts outside USD 453 will need to hire their own special education teachers. Those districts are all working together with one attorney to make the dissolution happen, and they have agreed that each one will offer employment to the teachers currently working within their districts.  What that offer looks like may vary from district to district, because each offer must be negotiated with the teachers' association in that district.

USD453 administration hopes that the offers can be ready for distribution along with notice of the dissolution of the co-op, if and when that happens.  It is the hope of LNEA and KNEA, and USD 453 administration agrees, that the offers should "hold teachers harmless."  That phrase may not be used precisely as a lawyer would use it, but the intent is that teachers should not lose income, benefits, or rights in the process of changing employers. 

Some of the things that have been considered as LNEA officers met among themselves, with KNEA representatives, with representatives of the other associations, and with USD453 administration, are listed below.  If there are other items you feel should be listed here, please add them using the "Comments" link at the bottom or email them to lneanews@gmail.com. We want to know what contract provisions concern you.

• In terms of the annual rate of pay, keep in mind that USD453 teachers are currently working for the same pay they made in 2012-13.  An offer for 2014-15 should include at least one year's movement.  A fair annual rate of pay should also include stipends or extended contract that may be offered, depending on the position. Those would have been bargained in order to make it possible to hire and keep teachers in those positions.  Some of the additional pay that might need to be considered in the equation:
• The $3080 payment made when a 30-minute extension of the duty day is made for school psychologists, speech therapists, and occupational therapists
• The $1960 stipend for National Board Certification, for three years after completion
• Longevity pay ($700/year for 25-27 years service; $1200 for 28-30 years; $1800 after that)
• At least $305/month toward health insurance for a single, $390 for a family plan.  We have a tentative agreement to increase this by $85/month for 2014-15.
• The length of the contract year may be considered in the offer. Leavenworth's contract requires 186 duty days. In districts with a longer contract year, special ed teachers are paid 1/186 of their salary for each additional day. In districts with shorter years, special ed teachers can be asked to work 186 days.
• We understand that teachers who have accumulated leave time do not want to lose those. In USD453, teachers can accumulate up to 100 days and then they are paid $60 per day at the end of the year for additional unused days.

Some other things teachers may want to compare:

• Districts have the option of offering due process rights to teachers who have earned them with USD 453.  If a district asks teachers to give up those rights, the teachers should be compensated for them.
• Related to that, teachers who have been employed in the district may not want to return to twice-a-year evaluations. 
• The USD 453 agreement provides ten days of leave time per year which can be used at the teacher's discretion.
• Teachers in USD453 have the right to grieve violations of the negotiated agreement or of school policy and have recourse to binding arbitration if need be. Giving up those rights is worthy of consideration.
• The USD 453 agreement provides for 260 minutes per week of individual planning time for elementary teachers, 225 for secondary, in blocks of at least 20 minutes, with at least one block of 20 minutes each day.
• Any time a teacher changes employers, the one-year waiting period for rights under FMLA is restarted.  FMLA guarantees that an employee can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for the following reasons: 1) birth and care of the eligible employee's child, or placement for adoption or foster care of a child with the employee; 2) care of an immediate family member (spouse, child, parent) who has a serious health condition; or 3) care of the employee's own serious health condition. It also requires that employee's group health benefits be maintained during the leave.

There may be aspects of the other district's contract that teachers like better, and that too is worthy of consideration.