The meeting resumes in public session
Payment of Bills Mr. Kelly - motion, passed 7-0
Payroll Ms. Armenio
FHS Student Representatives
Correspondence: none
Announcement of what was discussed in Executive Session
Non-union all agreed without conditions
FEA would not take any action until the School Committee publicly requested
FEA would not discuss budget reductions
FEA requested to get together ASAP to review the proposal (as announced previously).
Offered via phone call
not have to provide the reason, did want to keep all 32 meetings (including the 5), did want to keep the reimbursement, did want to convey these directly to the teachers
Response back was to schedule a meeting on Thursday 4/16/09 at 7:30 AM
Creedon, Schlefke, McGovern
Clear from that meeting there would be no middle ground without consultation with each party.
Proposed joint meeting with FEA and School Committee (rejected by FEA)
Invited FEA to School Committee meeting
Final proposal to convene at 3:30 PM 4/28/09
School Committee met separately from FEA in same building
Reporting today that the FEA rejected the counter proposal, nor would they change their original proposal, nor would they meet with the School Committee.
The School Committe is not inclined to address the FEA proposal.
Town Administrator agrees with the School Committee stance.
There was no opporutnity for public comment at this time!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Live reporting - Executive session
The School Committee is still in Executive Session. It is passed their 15 minutes estimate. The longer it goes, the more interesting it becomes.
Stay tuned for a resume sometime
Stay tuned for a resume sometime
Live reporting - Teacher's proposal
The teacher's proposal previously reported was rejected by the School Committee.
As reported earlier, there were two meetings being simultaneously this afternoon. The teachers met and voted to reject the School Committee counter proposal and resubmitted their proposal unchanged.
So a stalemate is currently underway.
The School Committee received the teacher's update and are now in Executive Session likely preparing their public comment.
Stay tuned.
PS - I still have part of the School Committee meeting detailing some of the history behind the 5 meetings to write up when I get a chance.
As reported earlier, there were two meetings being simultaneously this afternoon. The teachers met and voted to reject the School Committee counter proposal and resubmitted their proposal unchanged.
So a stalemate is currently underway.
The School Committee received the teacher's update and are now in Executive Session likely preparing their public comment.
Stay tuned.
PS - I still have part of the School Committee meeting detailing some of the history behind the 5 meetings to write up when I get a chance.
Live reporting - School Committee 2nd Mtg
Attending: Armenio, Kelly, Roy, Rohrbach, Trahan, Mullen, Cafasso
1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments - none
Review of Agenda - move guests and presentations up, going into executive session shortly
a. Dan Telhada – All Scholastic Award
b. Coach Carmen Colace – Coach of the Year
Motion to enter executive session with potential to return to open session
Motion approved
1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments - none
Review of Agenda - move guests and presentations up, going into executive session shortly
a. Dan Telhada – All Scholastic Award
b. Coach Carmen Colace – Coach of the Year
Motion to enter executive session with potential to return to open session
Motion approved
Live reporting - School Committee Mtg 1st
Attending: Armenio, Cafasso, Kelly, Mullen, Roy, Rohrbach, Trahan
Also participating: Jeff Nutting, all the school principals, Ogden, Sabolinski, Goodman, and others from the School Administration office
The meeting opened with a recap by Jeff Roy of the events leading to this particular meeting. Briefly, after the Executive Session at the 4/14/09 meeting, Jeff notified the FEA of the School Committee's reluctance to accept the full proposal. They would accept the deferral of the 2.5% cost of living increase. They would waive the requirement on requiring a reason required for personal days for the remainder of the year. They wanted to keep the 32 meetings. They wanted to continue to provide the teacher reimbursements.
A subsequent conversation between Roy and Creedon set up a meeting for 4/16/09 7:30 AM to further review. At that meeting it was discussed setting up the 4/28/09 meetings. FEA separate from School Committee with an agreement that when something was ready for the School Committee designated intermediaries would "knock on the door".
Those two meetings are still in session.
At their request, the principals have remained in the session with them.
The School Committee meeting will return to open session at some time.
Also participating: Jeff Nutting, all the school principals, Ogden, Sabolinski, Goodman, and others from the School Administration office
The meeting opened with a recap by Jeff Roy of the events leading to this particular meeting. Briefly, after the Executive Session at the 4/14/09 meeting, Jeff notified the FEA of the School Committee's reluctance to accept the full proposal. They would accept the deferral of the 2.5% cost of living increase. They would waive the requirement on requiring a reason required for personal days for the remainder of the year. They wanted to keep the 32 meetings. They wanted to continue to provide the teacher reimbursements.
A subsequent conversation between Roy and Creedon set up a meeting for 4/16/09 7:30 AM to further review. At that meeting it was discussed setting up the 4/28/09 meetings. FEA separate from School Committee with an agreement that when something was ready for the School Committee designated intermediaries would "knock on the door".
Those two meetings are still in session.
- The FEA meeting is closed to all but union members.
- The School Committee meeting after conducting some fact finding with the principals on the history of the 5 extra meetings has now gone into Executive Session.
At their request, the principals have remained in the session with them.
The School Committee meeting will return to open session at some time.
Help avoid a train wreck?
There is an interesting confluence of meetings scheduled for Tuesday at 3:30 PM at Horace Mann.
Bottom line: These two groups have not been communicating with each other.
There are quite a few points of disagreement but the major one for me is:
The teachers feel that since the School Committee did send a letter to them asking for the salary concession, they have, in effect, opened the contract for negotiation. The three items tied by the teachers to their salary deferment were supposed to have been addressed in a side-letter after passing the current contract two years ago. For a few reasons, the most current of which is beyond the control of the individual assigned to lead the side-letter effort, resolution on these three issues has gone nowhere. As a result, these three issues were brought to the table with the salary concession and linked together.
So there seems to be a stalemate brewing.
For some reason the School Committee is hung on keeping the three items.
To the extent that they keep the three items, they will lose the million dollar concession.
Who wins?
No one, not the School Committee, not the teachers, not the children of Franklin.
In my unique position, I can not stand by and watch this train wreck occur.
Note: I am deliberately using the terms 2.5% cost of living increase deferment because that is really what it is. There are still salary increases possible for some on both the Town and School side due to "steps and lane" changes per the union contracts. In this case, the talked of "salary freeze" is a misuse of the term.
- The Teachers have scheduled to hold a union meeting. This is a closed session, open only to union members. The union will be updated on the response by the School Committee to the teachers offer of the million dollar contract concession.
- The School Committee have scheduled to hold an open meeting intending to participate in a discussion with the teachers.
Bottom line: These two groups have not been communicating with each other.
There are quite a few points of disagreement but the major one for me is:
- Contrary to what the School Committee has stated and published, the teachers union meeting of 4/13/09 did have a vote of all teachers present on a deferment of the 2.5% cost of living increase for FY 2010 without any conditions. It failed miserably.
- The vote that passed (80% for, 20% against) for was for the 2.5% cost of living deferment attached to three conditions. The three conditions have been reported in the Milford Daily News and here.
The teachers feel that since the School Committee did send a letter to them asking for the salary concession, they have, in effect, opened the contract for negotiation. The three items tied by the teachers to their salary deferment were supposed to have been addressed in a side-letter after passing the current contract two years ago. For a few reasons, the most current of which is beyond the control of the individual assigned to lead the side-letter effort, resolution on these three issues has gone nowhere. As a result, these three issues were brought to the table with the salary concession and linked together.
So there seems to be a stalemate brewing.
For some reason the School Committee is hung on keeping the three items.
To the extent that they keep the three items, they will lose the million dollar concession.
Who wins?
No one, not the School Committee, not the teachers, not the children of Franklin.
In my unique position, I can not stand by and watch this train wreck occur.
Note: I am deliberately using the terms 2.5% cost of living increase deferment because that is really what it is. There are still salary increases possible for some on both the Town and School side due to "steps and lane" changes per the union contracts. In this case, the talked of "salary freeze" is a misuse of the term.
FPC - Information Session 04/27/09
The live reporting posts for the Informational Forum held to review the Financial Planning Committee report can be found here:
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