LITTLE ROCK — The Pulaski County Special School District’s newly formed Personnel Policies Committee, made up in part by teachers elected last week by their colleagues, met for the first time Tuesday and agreed that the election of teacher members should be repeated in September.
Deborah Coley, the district’s Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and an administrative member of the committee, said three of the 13 teachers who were elected to the committee last week and three district administrators attended the committee’s inaugural meeting at the district’s administrative headquarters.
“It was extremely positive, a breath of fresh air,” Coley said about the meeting, during which she gave members a copy of state laws on personnel policies committees and the district’s newly approved personnel policies.
But Coley also acknowledged that teacher attendance for the hastily called meeting was low.
Four of the 13 newly elected teachers have declined to participate, she said. One of those did so because he has accepted a job in another district.
District officials were unable to reach a fifth teacher to notify her of the meeting. Coley said the vacancies will be filled for the time being with the next highest vote-getters in last week’s election.
The group decided Tuesday to wait until it meets again - probably in late August - to select a chairman, Coley said. Additionally, the group agreed that one of the first tasks for the committee’s teacher members should be to organize a secondelection for all of the committee’s teacher member positions, Coley said.
An election in September would conform more closely to state law that says personnel policies committees should organize themselves in the first quarter of the school year.
“That will get us off on the right foot to start the new school year,” Coley said about the potential of a new election. “There is a lot of gray area right now. To clear it up, it would be best to follow the procedures as they are written in the law.”
The formation of a personnel policies committee in the Pulaski County Special District became necessary after the School Board voted in December and again in April to discontinue recognizing the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as the teacher contract bargaining agent for the district’s 1,200 teachers.
Arkansas Code Annotated 6-17-203 and 6-17-205 say that every district must have a personnel policies committee to make recommendations to schools boards on teacher employment issues, including salary increases.
Only school districts that engage in collective bargaining with teacher representatives are exempted from forming a committee.
The law precludes district officials from organizing or playing any part in teacher elections for members of the personnel policies committee.
After the School Board voted in April to sever its ties with the teacher association, teacher Janie Naylor took on the job of organizing an election for the personnel policies committee.
Naylor testified in Pulaski County Circuit Court Monday that she asked a handful of teacher friends to help her collect nominations for the committee and then send out and collect ballots.
Just over 200 of the district’s 1,200 teachers participated in the vote, Naylor said. She said she believed that the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers had discouraged teachers from voting.
Naylor was a witness in a hearing in the teacher association’s lawsuit accusing the district of violating the terms of the existing union-negotiated teacher contract.
The administrative members of the committee are Coley, Maumelle Middle School Principal John Pearce and Jacksonville Elementary Principal Sonja Whitfield. They were appointedby Acting Superintendent Rob McGill.
The elected teachers who attended Tuesday’s meeting were Traci Holland, Robin Dorey and Michelle Camp. The elected teachers who declined to participate on the personnel policies committee are Debbie Shearer, Kim Wickliffe and Katherine Young. Jim Gonzalez has accepted a job in another district.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/30/2010