Q-Comp Mtgs, Pay Freeze Bill, $20 from Medica

Q-Comp Member Meetings Start Tuesday:  Reminder, our first Q-Comp member information meeting is this Tuesday.  Here are the dates of all the meetings, you are welcome to attend any that fit your schedule:

• Tuesday, February 8:  Coon Rapids High School, Auditorium (enter door 13), 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm
• Thursday, February 10:  AHEM Office; 10:30-11:30 am and 1:00-2:00 pm
• Tuesday, February 15:  Jackson Middle School, IMC, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm        
• Tuesday, February 22:  Blaine High School, IMC, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm 
• Wednesday, February 23:  Anoka High School, Auditorium, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm          
• Thursday, February 24:  Andover High School, IMC, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm

Also, you can get more information on our Q-Comp website at www.ahqcomp.blogspot.com  or by emailing us at ahem@anoka.k12.mn.us .

Pay Freeze Bill: You have undoubtedly heard about the bills working their way through the legislature calling for a hard pay freeze for all educators.  Many have asked how they could share the sacrifices those of us in the classroom are already making with their legislators.  To send a message to your representatives, visit http://tinyurl.com/4uxozo4  .  You can use the provided pre-written bullet points, your own stories, or a combination of the two.  When you fill in your address, the site will look up your legislators and address your email to them automatically. In about 3 minutes, you can let your legislator know about the importance of local control in school decision making.

$20 Gift Certificate from Medica:  Grab your Medica card, visit www.mymedica.com , and sign in (don’t worry if you don’t know your password or username – it’s easy to set yourself up if you have your Medica card with you).  Click on the “Health and Wellness” tab and you’ll be asked to complete a short health survey.  Complete it and they’ll email you a link to choose a $20 gift certificate.  I know it works because I tried it a couple days ago and just downloaded my gift certificate (JCPenney was my choice).  From registering to use the site to finishing the survey took about fifteen minutes, and I found some interesting health information on the website to boot.

Q-Comp Mtgs & Guide, Republican Member Mtg, Scholarships

Q-Comp Member Meetings and Guide:  We have set up meetings in February to give more details about our Q-Comp proposal and answer your questions.  You’ll receive a reminder in your box as well, but for those of you who like to get your schedules together early, here are the specifics:

• Tuesday, February 8:  Coon Rapids High School, Auditorium (enter door 13), 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm
• Thursday, February 10:  AHEM Office; 10:30-11:30 am and 1:00-2:00 pm
• Tuesday, February 15:  Jackson Middle School, IMC, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm        
• Tuesday, February 22:  Blaine High School, IMC, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm 
• Wednesday, February 23:  Anoka High School, Auditorium, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm         
• Thursday, February 24:  Andover High School, IMC, 3:30-4:30 pm and 4:45-5:45 pm

Also, our Q-Comp guide with more details is being printed. If you’d like to see it now, visit the “Quick Clicks” section on our main page to download a copy: www.ahem.locals.educationminnesota.org

Republican Member Meeting:  Over the last two years, Education Minnesota has made efforts to involve Education Minnesota Republican members in legislative and political activities on behalf of public education. It’s more important than ever for our Republican members to build relationships with their legislators.

Education Minnesota will hold a meeting of interested Republican members on Saturday, Feb. 5, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Education Minnesota headquarters in St. Paul. Education Minnesota will provide lunch and pay mileage for all members.  We’ll both give you information about engaging in the political process and take the time to hear what you have to say.  If you are interested, email us at ahem@anoka.k12.mn.us and we’ll get you set up.

Scholarships for Union Members and Their Families: The Minnesota AFL-CIO is proud to have scholarships available for union members and their dependents.  Education Minnesota is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, so our members are eligible. Five $1000 Minnesota AFL-CIO scholarship are available  to graduating high school seniors this year. The scholarship application deadline is April 30, 2011.   For more information and application forms, visit http://tinyurl.com/5v5spxz.

Error in Star Tribune Article on our Q-Comp Proposal

You may have seen the article in today’s Star Tribune about the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) signing off on our proposal ( http://tinyurl.com/68vyehj ).  In there, they say our district “would scrap it’s ‘steps and lanes’”.  That is not accurate.

Lanes would not change at all, steps would be modified.  Steps would be called “Performance Increments” and could be withheld if someone was not at a proficient level on their observations two years in a row.  Now, there already is language that says steps can be withheld for performance reasons in our current contract, but it is rarely (if ever) used. Districts that have Q-Comp currently say it is also rare in their programs that someone doesn’t get to move to the next step. This modification is required by the MDE for all Q-Comp plans.  I’ve included more specifics after my signature.

It is a change – and one people should consider carefully – but it doesn’t “scrap” our current system.

Chances are this won’t be the last inaccuracy we see in the media. In this case, someone in the district office misspoke (an honest mistake). We’ll work to get you the real story when the errors pop up so you can make an informed vote on March 8^th and 9^th.  Thank you to the eagle-eyed members who brought this to our attention and keep the questions coming,

-Julie

The specific steps on handling performance increments are laid out in the Appeals Process portion of our proposal:

For those who do not successfully complete their observations, there will be options for additional support from the evaluators, colleagues, or administrators along the way. If those do not work, participants can appeal to the Q-Comp steering committee which is made up of half educators appointed by AHEM and half administrators.

If the appeal is not successful, the participant will not receive the incentives and the next year the participant will be on a formal PAS process with their administrator. If the observations in the second year are also not successful, the participant will neither be awarded incentives nor get a performance increment (step) on the salary schedule. 

The standard for success on the observations will start out lower at first to give us time to get used to the plan.  For the first year of our program, success means earning a rating of Proficient or Distinguished on 3 out of the 5 components of the instructional (or equivalent for those not in a regular classroom) portion of our current Performance Appraisal System (PAS). The second year, you’d need to be Proficient or Distinguished on 4 out of 5 components, with the standard moving to being Proficient or Distinguished on all parts of that portion by year three and each year thereafter.

Q-Comp Proposal Signed

Welcome back – I hope your return from break has been a good one.  While you were gone…

Q-Comp:  The Minnesota Department of Education signed off on our proposal on Monday, January 3rd.  Now it is time for us to decide whether or not this plan works for us.  It will take a 75% yes vote of our membership to approve the proposal.

At this Monday's Representative Assembly, we'll decide the exact date of our vote (we are proposing the first week in March).  We will also set up member meetings to review the proposal throughout February around the district.  Look for more information in your boxes about the specifics of the proposal as well toward the end of this month.

If you want to review the structure of the program right now, you can visit ahqcomp.blogspot.com.  There we have all the information we've sent you so far by mail, email and in your boxes, along with a link to where you can download the full application. (you'll notice  the proposal looks like it is over 300 pages long - however, the actual structure of the proposal is on pages 5-28 and 336-364, 51 pages total).

As always, your questions are welcome at ahem@anoka.k12.mn.us.  I look forward to a good discussion as we consider this opportunity.

Q-Comp Update and Flexing Time

Q-Comp – The Status of Our Proposal:  In November, the Minnesota Department of Education responded to our application with a set of clarifications and modifications.  We had a month to respond to them and we will make that deadline by sending in our final changes this week.  This is a common part of the process and the changes they required were minor.  They plan to give us final approval by January.  At that point, we will begin sending out more information about specifics of the proposal for your review. 

You already know the main components of the proposal – participants will create building wide and individual goals, and have three observations (two by a full time peer evaluator and one by a peer of your choice) that work much the same way our current Performance Appraisal System (PAS) works.  If your building reaches its goal, all the participants at the site earn $210.  If you reach your individual goal, you earn a separate $210.  If you successfully complete your observations, you will earn a separate $1728. 

Given this timeline, we plan to get out information via fliers in January, hold member meetings to go over the proposal around the district in February, and take a vote in March (it takes a 75% majority of those voting to pass).  As soon as the state completes their process, we’ll finalize dates for ours.

Flexing Time:  We are getting a good number of responses on last week’s question about your thoughts on flexing your duty day.  The vast majority of the messages have been from people who want some flexibility in the beginning and end times of the duty day as long as it doesn’t end up actually increasing the number of the hours in the week or simply eats up work days.  People are citing most often the reasons for flexing as finding time to meet with colleagues, parent communication, and medical issues.  Wanting to “be treated as a professional” was a common phrase.  What does being treated as a professional in the context of flex time mean to you?  We meet as a Labor Management team to begin discussing this issue just before winter break.  If you’d like to add your ideas before then, email us at ahem@anoka.k12.mn.us.

Meet & Confer and Flexing Time

Last Tuesday’s Meet & Confer:  Thank you to all who braved the icy roads on Tuesday to attend Meet & Confer, and to the over 600 of you who had the chance to complete the workload survey.  Our speakers, Beth Popalisky, Ryan MacSwain, LeeAnne Clauer, Tom Kobelinski, Sarah Weil, Marti Biegler, Heather Hjelle, Kari Kaehn, Jay Wilkins, and Sheila Davies did a terrific job laying out some concrete ideas for reducing our workload.  Key ideas were:

•      Increases in workload are outpacing reductions in workload

•      Autonomy and individuality decreases workload

•      Paperwork can be decreased in many areas

•      Workload problems at any level increases workload at every level

•      Time to work together is better than other kinds of training

•      Everyone needs to let something go – district administration, principals, and teachers

Their statements seemed to help our school board members show a willingness to work toward solutions.  Look for an article in our newsletter coming out later this month for a summary of the survey and ideas.

Flexing Time – What Do You Think?:  Our Labor Management Committee - a team of representatives from AHEM, school board, and district administration who meet to work on workplace issues – has been focusing so far this year on finding ways for collaborative teams to meet, especially those who are “singletons” at their sites.  Out of that discussion, we decided we need to discuss how flex time is being used across the district for PLC’s and other reasons.  We are thinking of flex time as when you work outside your duty day in exchange for taking the same amount of time off your duty day down the road.  It seems that how this works around the district varies widely.  We’d like to know what you think – do you flex your time for something at your site?  What have your experiences been with attempts initiated by you or by others to flex your day?  How would you like this to work?  Should we flex our time at all?  Email us at ahem@anoka.k12.mn.us with your thoughts.