Thanks to help from public school advocates, progress has been made on HB 566
04/09/2015

 

Yesterday, due to the calls and emails made to your state representatives (in response to our request) and because we know for a fact that many of them went to leaders in the House that were marshalling SB 566 to seek improvements; you were able to “bring us to the table” and engage in negotiations concerning the list of SB 538 provisions that were inserted into SB 566 and reported on earlier this week.

 

The following were agreed upon:

(1)    Deletion of all reference to Professional Educator Organizations (PEOs) that would have authorized “equal access” to employees in the district and provided “equal treatment” to which your exclusive representative is entitled. The legal complications and distractions from the real work at hand and unnecessary ill-will that would have been invited are removed as well.

(2)    Deletion of the creation of a state-level, top-down route to challenge the existing exclusive representative. Again, current law allows for these issues to be handled locally. 

(3)    Personal teacher data was protected by including a provision stating that information shared between the DOE and attorney general regarding an annual letter of teachers’ rights and protections must remain private and not become the subject of a public records request.

(4)    The Indiana Educator Employment Relations Board (IEERB), in terms of reviewing collective bargaining agreements for legal compliance, must complete the review by March 30 of that year in which the contract is supposed to expire (instead of by the end of the contract term) and must allow bargaining to continue in the subsequent year for all matters that are not pending as noncompliant. Additionally, the scope of penalties were narrowed including the penalty requiring a “monitor” to sit in on subsequent bargaining sessions were removed as was the requirement for the parties to pay for this monitor.

 

Additionally, there is a pledge from the House not to allow what has been deleted to be reinserted in other bills nor what has been limited to expand again—enabling parties to focus on the issues that matter most—working to help students learn better in an environment that also benefits the employees who serve them.  ISTA’s stated position on the House’s SB 566 is neutral.

 

Don’t doubt that your collective voice matters. 

 

There are three weeks of session and a lot can and will happen. Please stay tuned.