SDNEA Members want to know.
Here
you will find answers to some of the most
commonly asked questions.
Last
edited 3/17/2008 
Return to main SDNEA web page.
What happens is there is a snow day and I'm already working extra/fewer days in my partner district? 12/12/07
Our SSD contract requires that we work 188 days. There are 10 days for professional development, 4 paid holidays, and 178 days of student attendance for a total of 192 paid days. Missouri law requires that students attend school 174 days each year. That means we can have as many as 4 inclement weather days (with pay) in an SSD building or any partner district with a 192 day calendar and not have to make up any school. So in effect, there are 4 snow days built into our SSD calendar. But we don't get out of school 4 days early if there are no snow days in the year. The Bargaining Team proposed language (2006) that would build in those extra days so the end of school would be earlier whenever there aren't any snow days. However, SSD would like more of the 23 local school districts to adopt calendars similar to theirs and not the other way around.
There are still five districts that build "inclement weather" days into their respective calendars (Jennings, Hazelwood, Parkway, Pattonville,and Valley Park). These are the districts that occassionally reduced the number of days their teachers will be attending (because there were no snow days) and then SSD teachers are working days that the partner school's staff will not. SSD has been proposing that we go back to the way things were some years ago and have all staff follow whatever calendar the partner district has. That would mean there would not be extra days added to your calendar if your partner districts calendar is less than 192 days. The flip side though would be no one wouldn't receive any extra pay for days in a partner district calendar that are in ecess of 192 days.
Getting paid for those extra days is where this all started about 8 years ago. Once SDNEA bargained and won the right for employees to be paid for days worked over 192, then the District insisted that employees must work a MINIMUM of 192 days in all other districts. So in places like Affton, where the calendar calls for 188 work days, the SSD teachers start 4 days earlier.
View SSD Policy on Leave and Inclement Weather day make-up.
A step will be removed from the 07-08 salary schedule and will be again in 08-09 so members ask:
"I've been with the District 14 years, how come I'm only on step 13?"
or An old question that keeps coming up:
" How come we got "frozen" on our salary steps back in 2001?"
The salary schedule for school year 2002-2003 had Step 1 removed. All the remaining salary Steps from the previous year (2-20) were renumbered 1 through 19 and a new Step 20 was added to the schedule. Staff raises that year (averaging close to 7%) were figured for a total amount of new money with employees remaining on the step from the prior year. Also, teacher level staff advanced two steps in the 2000-2001 if they had been employed since January of 1995 to make up for when we really were frozen. When SDNEA negotiated salary increases for the years between 2001 and 2004 there was money from the newly passed tax levy available. Raises were above average for three years and were intended to bring SSD teacher level salaries closer to parity with other large school districts in St. Louis County. SSD salaries in all channels ranks in the top third compared to all local school disticts and in the top 3-5 for most of our salary schedule.
Continuing on this goal to have the fewest possible steps in our schedule, SDNEA bargained to have the first step dropped from the salary schedule in 2007-2008 and again in 2008-2009. The salary schedule in 2007-2008 will be 19 steps and the 2008-2009 schedule will have 18 steps. Employees advance in the schedule each year as if they were getting a step increase and raise but the steps are renumbered to reflect the new total number of steps.
Believe it or not, your Association does not endorse adding steps to the salary schedule. Every teacher's monetary goal should be to reach the maximum salary your district has to offer in as few years as possible. This benefits you in a number of ways. First, you are making as much money as you possibly can sooner. More importantly, fewer steps mean teachers can retire sooner with larger pensions, since their benefit amounts are calculated on their three best years of earnings.
The total amount of new money in every salary proposal is bargained first by SSD. How that money is distributed then becomes the real challenge for each party in reaching agreement. If additional steps are continuously added to give those at the top of the payscale a percentage increase and a step increase , the overall raises all teachers receive would be diminished. Adding more steps means the pieces of the same pie are just cut smaller. Who would want to work in a district where it took 25 or 30 years to reach the maximum salary? Missouri NEA recommends salary schedules with as few as 10 steps to top pay as a bargaining goal. Bigger raises over the fewest number of years until your salary is maxed out - That's what is best for teachers!!
View the 2007-2008 salary schedule
My supervisor just told me I would get an improvement plan if I ever miss more than 5 days of work. Can they do that? Isn't it my right to use 13 days of sick leave each year? 2/9/2007
The Administration of the Special School District has been announcing since the beginning of the 2005-2006 school year that improving staff attendance was going to be a goal of SSD. The Joint Resolution (Article 23) does allocate to staff 13 days of paid sick leave each year. Any unused sick leave accumulates for use if an employee needs an extended period of paid absence. Also, the value of unused sick days is paid to employees when they retire.
Whenever an employee uses a sick day they must follow the reporting procedures their supervisor has instructed them to use. Sick leave is intended to be used when an employee is sick or needs to care for a family member they are responsible for (Article 23.1). There is no automatic right for employees to use 13 days of sick leave each year just because they feel like doing so. Most employees know this. Some do not.
Therefore; if a supervisor has reason to believe that someone is abusing the sick leave policy, that employee can expect to have a conference to discuss what has been going on up to that point. If an administrator remains unsatisfied and believes that the sick leave policy is being abused they may write a Performance Improvement Plan.
There is nothing magic about "5" days for conference or "6" days for a PIP. These were only discussed by administrators to be used as guidelines for them. Any employee who is using the sick leave procedure as it is intended will not be receiving improvement plans. This is not a new SSD procedure or policy. Admittedly, many supervisors had not been making a big deal about absenteeism prior to 2004. Administrators are now being told to try and reduce absenteeism that is occurring in their divisions. You may have noticed that evaluation feedback forms now have a space to record "days absent" and "days late".
SDNEA would vigorously defend members (through the appeal process) if they received Performance Improvement Plans without just cause.
What's the deal with the Voluntary Transfer Reference Report form? Is this new? 2/2/2007
It was new (2005-2006) that teacher level staff, who wish to participate in the voluntary transfer process needed to obtain the Reference form and request that their supervisor fill it out. In the years prior, the interview team would request that the supervisor submit this form for transfer applicants. There were delays and mishaps. Currently when somebody wants to transfer, they will get their supervisor to fill out the same form that has been used in the past. The supervisor then submits the form to Human Resources where it will be available on file for the interview teams. Once the transfer period is over, all the Reference Forms will be discarded. They do not become part of anyones permanent file. Click here to get a printable copy of the Voluntary Transfer Reference Report.
During bargaining (2006) it was agreed that this process could be more transparent. SDNEA would like for teacher level staff to receive a copy of this form. The forms have been modified to indicate to supervisors that they may share the form with the employee.
SDNEA believes that our members should know what their administrators are saying about them, good or bad.
I just saw a membership form that said annual dues were $268.00, how come mine are so much more? 9/14/07
There is an incentive program for reduced state and national dues for new employees (NEIP). Most new employees tend to be recent graduates or first year teachers who need a financial break. SDNEA used to be eligible for a similar program that offered reduced dues to any new member (MIP) regardless of how long they had been employed by SSD. The MIP program was not effective in encouraging enough new members to sign-up and SDNEA is no longer eligible for this program.
I just received a membership form in the mail with my membership materials. Do I need to renew my membership each year? 09/18/08
Your membership in SDNEA continues automatically each year unless you cancel by sending a written notice of your intention to drop your membership to the SDNEA office. Members have until September 15th to cancel their membership for the coming year. If you pay your membership dues by check as one lump sum payment, we must receive your check by September 15th to continue your membership for the coming year. Payroll deduction of dues continues automatically each year.
The membership form that was included with membership materials mailed in August was your opportunity to enroll a NEW member! SDNEA pays a $25.00 bonus to you if you enroll a new member and sign as the "Association Representative" on the membership form.
Click here for a printable copy of the Membership Form.
How is the dues amount determined ? Where does the money go? 8/30/07
The annual dues in SDNEA for full-time professionals is $566.00 per year. Your Association worked years ago to get the right for members to elect payroll deduction of their dues. If you elect payroll deduction, you see deductions of $31.45 per pay check begining September 30th and ending on June 15th (or 18 pays). All dues rates are set by the membership and voted on at the Representative Assemblies. By the way, there have been no increase to your local dues ($77.00 annually) for many years.
Because we are affiliated with a National organization (NEA), a portion of the dues you pay goes to the national and state office (NEA/MNEA). From the $556 annual full-time professional dues, $158.00 goes to the National office (a good portion of which we get back in the form of UniServe staff), $331.00 goes to the Missouri NEA (from where we get most of our legal representation) and the remaining $77.00 is what your Association (SDNEA) uses to pay its bills. Remember that if the 900 employees who currently are not members of SDNEA were paying dues, all members would pay $25.00 less per year because everyone would be paying their fair-share.
SDNEA members review and then vote to approve the proposed annual budget at the May General Membership meeting (last occured on May 8, 2007- Neuwoehner School Gymnasium). Click here for a copy of the 2007-2008 SDNEA budget.
I have questions about my health insurance. Who should I contact? 09/18/08
Employees health insurance is not bargained by SDNEA as part of teacher's overall salary package. SDNEA does have representatives on a Benefits Committee that meets in the spring of each year to discuss any changes to the current plan that are being proposed. If any employee has questions or concerns about accessing benefits they need to contact the SSD Benefits office.
Click here for a link to SSD Benefits/Insurance.
I never hear anything from SDNEA, what's going on?
As local Associations go, we are spread out all over the place. Communication with our members is a big challenge! There are 23 area school districts and 253 buildings in additon to SSD schools where teachers, nurses, psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, social workers and others provide service to SSD students. Currently SDNEA has about 1800 members, by far the largest local in the state!
There is a contact person assigned to each building who is responsible to put news items in your school mailbox. The last thing mailed was a SDNEA Image Item sent to building contact to distriute to teachers in November 2007 for American Education Week. There has been a number of President's voicemails so far this year. If you aren't receiving voicemail, check to make sure your voice mailbox isn't full, then contact our local office (314-432-2425), to be added to the list.
We try and utilize this web page, email, voice mail, meetings and bulletin-boards to keep members informed of what is going on. SDNEA utilized an on-line survey prior to bargaining last year. Over 900 members responded to the web survey in November 2006. That is evidence that web-based communication can reach a large portion of our members quickly. It also allows for two way communication, something a newsletter cannot do.
I just got a terrible evaluation (or a Performance Improvement Plan), what do I need to do to file a grievance?
Anyone can "grieve" anything that is a violation of the Joint Resolution. The Teacher Evaluation process (Summative Evaluations/Formative Evaluations/Performance Improvement Plans or PIP's) are not a part of the J.R. so they cannot be grieved. There is an appeal process within the Evaluation document however. Its on page 12 of the blue book outlining how evaluations are done. You should be aware that basically the appeal process only allows you to challenge that the "process" has not been followed properly, not the content of the evaluation itself.
Should I sign my Evaluation/PIP? Won't I forfeit my rights?
Your signature on an Evaluation document only indicates that your supervisor has reviewed the document with you. Signing does not imply that you agree with everything in the document or negate your right to the appeal process. Make sure that if you have concerns about the documents that you note them in the "Employee Comments" portion of the form. If you don't have enough room you can attach a separate sheet with your comments.
How do I file a gievance? 5/21/06
Whenever an employee feels that something has occured that may be a violation of the Joint Resolution they can begin the Informal Step of the Grievance Process themselves (Article 10.7). You basically notify your supervisor that you would like to meet with them and discuss your concern. You can request that an Association representative be present to assist you but it is not required. The intent is to settle disagreements with a minimum of formality. Your supervisor will respond in writing what the outcome (or their opinion) on the issue is. If you are not satisfied with that outcome then more formal grieveance steps can be initiated. The steps begin with the Area Coordinator/Director and can be appealed all the way to the SSD Board of Education. A representative of your Association will almost certianly assist you with the formal steps. Click here to see a copy of your SDNEA Joint Resolution or to see a list of Building Representatives to help you file a grievance.
Sometimes the best way to get started is to write down all the facts about what has happened.
Click here for an Issue Management Form
My Administrator/My Principal has made my life so miserable I want to sue the District. How do we get started?
The Missouri NEA (through which members are provided legal services) does not sue school districts unless there have been violations of civil rights, labor laws, safety/health, etc. Members need to remember that issues that involve their employer are just that: employement issues. Issues that involve your assignment, evaluations, personal conflict, etc. are not subject to legal redress. Your Association stands ready to assist you in correcting problems that are violations of the Joint Resolution through the grievance process. Ask yourself this question; how many situations can you think of where involving an attorney would make the situation better?
Remember that " you " are the first step in the Grievance Process. There is information in this list (above) on how to file a GRIEVANCE.
I just found out about a significant change in the Joint Resolution. When did this happen and why didn't I get a chance to have my say? 8/30/07
Any changes to the Joint Resolution occur after a lengthy bargaining process. Bargaining for the current JR began in January 2007 and concluded May 24, 2007. Members are represented by a bargaining team, appointed by the President, that is comprised of Special Ed teachers, Related Services and Vocational-Technical staff. The team members are trained in advance of the bargaining process by MNEA staff. Once the bargaining process has reached the point where both SDNEA and the SSD Administrative team have reached tentative agreement, the SDNEA membership is given the opportunity to review the changes and vote (up or down) to accept the contract or send the team back to the bargaining table. During the actual bargaining process, both parties agree to limit any outside discussion to only very general information about what issues are being discussed until tentative agreement is reached. The SDNEA President does however provide members with updates as to how the process is going and when members can expect to vote on the proposal.
When bargaining was completed , the new extended proposal and salary schedules were presented to members at three separate Regional Meetings (June 4, 5, and 6). Click here to view a copy of the Joint Resolution.
Still confused or if you have not seen your question listed here, contact us at:
314-432-2425 or
