OFFICERSOFFOOOOOOOFFICER SSOFFICERS CNCIL OCF SCHOOL OFFICERS CSO NEWSLEADER American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA) -‐ Local 4, AFL-‐CIO INSIDE THIS ISSUE: President’s Message 1 CSO Updates 2 Contract 2 CSO Dues Notification 3 CSO Constitution 3 Executive Board Vacanies 3 Member Highlights 4 Membership Meeting 5 President’s Message We trust you were able to take some well-‐deserved time off during the Winter Break. We also hope you were able to volunteer a nd participate Greetings Colleagues, in some of the activities during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. Congratulations to our members who were recognized last week during the Standing Ovation Awards program. In addition to the winners, we want to thank all of our members for performing outstanding service every day for the children of the District of Columbia Public Schools. All of you should be rewarded. Our Union wishes to thank former Mayor Gray and his administration for approving our new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). We implore the new administration under the leadership of Mayor Bowser to act swiftly to cut the ‘red tape’ to ensure that our members receive the retroactive pay due you. It is not enough that you have received your percentage raise from SY2013 and it is not enough that you have received your 3% raise from October 1, 2014!! No, it is not enough that you have received your bonus. We want you to have every dollar due you to date!! a letter to the Office of Labor Relations and Collective We sent Bargaining (OLRCB) seeking information about the process and requested a timeline for disseminating the retro pay. We were told the Office of Pay and Retirement Services process the checks and the OLRCB oversees the implementing of the retro pay. It was stated that over forty CBA’s are being executed that involves retro pay to DC union members. We understand this is a major task. We want what is due to OUR members AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! Aona H. Jefferson about the process and a timeline for disseminating these funds. We were told the Office of Pay and Retirement Services is processing checks. We were also told that the OLRCB is the agency Retro active pay 4 Winter, 2015 Page 2 GENERAL UPDATES • The Retirement of Public School Teachers Omnibus Amendment Act of 2012 impacts District of Columbia Public Schools employees in Council of School Officers positions who are classified as “educational service,” by changing the tax treatment of Teachers’ Retirement Plan contributions from post-‐tax to pre-‐tax. As such, please be advised that effective May 4, 2014 your retirement contributions to the Teachers’ Retirement Plan will be deducted from your paychecks on a pre-‐tax rather than a post-‐tax basis. You will see this change in tax treatment for the first time on the May 30, 2014 paycheck, and this new tax treatment will continue as long as you are a participant in the Teachers’ Retirement Plan. Please contact HR at dcps.hranswers@dc.gov or (202) 442-‐4090 if you have any questions or concerns. • CSO/DCPS Security Task Force DCPS will convene the first meeting of the CSO/DCPS Security Task Force on Thursday, January 22, 2015 from 4-‐6pm. The meeting will be held at the DCPS Central Office in Room 1012A on the 10th floor. Please contact our office if you’re interested. • De-‐Escalation training sign-‐up still open! As you know, the new contract provides for de-‐escalation training, which will cover various techniques for responding to violent or dangerous situations. The training is available to all CSO members. The training will be six hours in duration and is being offered on the following dates: • Wednesday, February 25, 201 • Tuesday, March 24, 2015 • Tuesday, April 28, 2015 • Friday, May 29, 2015 CONTRACT Each member will receive a hard copy of the current CBA, complete with all signatures as soon as they’re printed. A digital copy is attached to this Newsleader. Page 3 OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION – CSO DUES (reprint) “On March 27, 2009, the membership of the Council of School Officers voted to increase dues for full dues-‐ paying members to $32.21 per pay period. Service-‐fee members shall pay $25.76 per pay period. Because of the long, protracted contract negotiations with DCPS, the request for enacting these changes was withheld until the contract negotiation process was settled, ratified and approved by the City Council. CSO has requested the Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining to enact these pre-‐approved changes, effective January 1, 2015. This newsletter article serves as official notification to the CSO membership of pending dues changes, as of January 1, 2015.” The above article was included in the Fall, 2014 Newsleader to notify all members of the pending changes. The new dues structure went into effect January, 2015. We have received calls from some members inquiring about becoming full dues-‐paying members. If you are interested, please call Ms. Long, the Office Manager (202/526-‐4700) to receive the proper enrollment papers. CSO CONSTITUTION AND BY-‐LAWS At our last membership meeting, there was discussion about possible changes/updates that may be needed in the existing CSO Constitution and By-‐Laws. The current document was revised in 2009. As we consider the need for modifications to the existing document, we solicit from you, our members – your specific areas of concern, omissions, updates, or other wording that you feel should be included in a modified document. Interested full-dues paying members who would like to be on the Constitution and By-Laws committee may contact the office. EXECUTIVE BOARD VACANCIES An election to fill the vacancies on the Executive Board will be held in the spring. Until that time, the temporary appointments will remain in effect. The vacant positions are: secretary, senior high principal, middle school principal, elementary/education center principal, middle school assistant principal, elementary/education center assistant principal, special education specialist and 3 members who hold positions as administrative and supervisory officers excluding the school officers in positions covered that are listed in the constitution. Interested full-‐dues paying members in the vacancy categories may contact the office for further information. Page 4 MEMBER HIGHLIGHTS CONTRACT UPDATE Congratulations to the members who received awards during the Standing Ovation Ceremony: Excellence in Leadership Award Janeece Docal, Principal, Powell Elementary School -‐ 2014 DCPS Principal of The Year Rubenstein Award for Highly Effective Leaders Kim Jackson, Principal, Seaton Elementary School Tenia Pritchard, Principal, Whittier Elementary School Mary Ann Green Stinson, Principal, Truesdell Education Campus Natalie Hubbard, Principal, Raymond Education Campus Atasha James, Principal, Leckie Elementary School Loren Brody, Assistant Principal, Hardy Middle School Cynthia Robinson-‐Rivers, Assistant Principal, Seaton Elementary School Rubenstein Award for Highly Effective Support Staff Roselina Tracy Gorham, Business Manager, Martin Luther King Elementary School RETROACTIVE PAY The Office of Pay and Retirement Services (OPRS) has provided the following information with regard to the retro payments. The general procedure is to provide the pay increase by a certain pay period once the Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining (OLRCB) has asked them to implement the new pay. After all has been provided, then OPRS goes back and provides the retro pay after the calculations have been performed. Please keep in mind that OPRS has to perform these processes for all the contracts that were newly implemented as well as contracts that are already implemented, and calls for a pay increase for the upcoming fiscal year. CSO is only one of the unions included in this process. As soon as we know of the payment date, we will inform the membership. Page 5 MEMBERSHIP MEETING The next membership meeting will be held on Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 5:00 p.m., first floor, 2120 Bladensburg Road, NE, Washington, DC. Hope to see you there. COUNCIL OF SCHOOL OFFICERS American Federation of School Administrators, Local 4 (AFL-CIO) 2120 Bladensburg Rd NE Suite 205 Washington, DC 20018 (202)526-4700 Fax: (202)526-8088 Aona H. Jefferson President Barbara B. Childs Executive Vice President Azalia Hunt-Speight Treasurer Magnolia Long Office Manager www.councilofschoolofficers.org