President C. SantaMaria called the meeting to order at 4:08 PM.
J. Ruse made a motion to accept the January Executive Council minutes - sec by A. Avellino. - Passed.
Officer’s Reports:
President’s Report: C. SantaMaria gave the following report:
- As of February 9 we have used 1 snow day – the next snow day will mean staff will need to make up one day. Please try to avoid making plans very close to the end of school in case we need to make up these days.
- Member Survey – CNC will survey the membership as we develop our bargaining proposal – hopefully this will be done online by the end of April. Please encourage members to take this survey when it becomes available.
- Open Records Law – new law in effect Jan 1. A private entity can request to see email transactions between employees. Burden would be placed on the district as to why particular emails would not be viewed. Members should be wary of treating email and other electronic communications as a form of casual conversation: the danger is that there is a record of that conversation which is now subject to possible public release. The LMEA has 2 email accounts through Comcast. Those accounts would NOT be subject to this Open Records Law. C. SantaMaria explained our new Email Policy for LMEA communication on the LMSD Server. The LMSD acceptable use policy already covers what shouldn’t be in emails.
- IBX Out of Network risk – right now our core plan would have IBX cover 70% of out of network expenses. IBX seems to be requiring the completion of a ‘waiver’ for procedures done out of network. This issue is still unfolding.
- Heating/AC system update – we have received several bids. More information next month.
- Act 48 Update – recently the PA Dept of Education tried to mandate that all future Act 48 hours would have to be done in 3 hours blocks – anything less would not have been accepted. However, after PSEA intervened the PDE agreed NOT to mandate the 3 hour minimum blocks for Act 48 credit.
- Some PSERS questions were addressed – among these is that your PSERS money cannot be loaned to you nor be used as collateral prior to retirement.
- Applecore items were discussed – The Applecore is produced monthly by the officers of the LMEA for our members.
VP Support: NP but C. SantaMaria gave the following report for V. Fedeli:
- Chapter 14 Update – Apparently there are about 25 Instructional Assistants who have not achieved “highly qualified” status. Soon these IAs will be receiving a letter from the district advising of their status. These IAs have until July 2010 to become highly qualified. However, ALL IAs MUST complete their 20 hours of training by the end of June 2009 and each year after that. The district will implement a plan to help the 25 IAs become highly qualified. The district will do this by conducting interviews with IAs and by classroom observations. The district will also consider past training sessions if they meet the required standards and are able to demonstrate how the training is applied. The district has also decided to accept a training course from Pattan. The Pattan course offers a PDE certificate when the course is completed stating you meet the standards to be highly qualified. More info will come as the plan unfolds. The implementation of the plan has not been determined yet.
- Support Evaluations – Just a reminder that when you receive an evaluation you have five days to make any comments on the evaluation or on an attached sheet. February 28 is the cutoff date for Support evaluations. If you do not receive an evaluation by February 28 by default you are satisfactory. If you receive an unsatisfactory after Feb 28 the evaluation can only contain comments that have occurred after Feb 28. If this happens do not sign the evaluation and contact an officer immediately.
1st Vice President: NR
VP Professional: NR
Secretary Support: NR
Secretary Professional: NR
Treasurer: D. Mandarino made a motion to approve the Treasurer’s report for January. - Approved.
Committee Reports:
Constitution: NP
Elections: NP
IPD: NP
CNC: Meeting scheduled for Feb 19. They’ve finished going through the contract addressing each article.
FAC: NR
Health & Safety: A. Flicker reminded to be careful about slips and falls – if any issues let them know.
Legislation: G. Rosazza reminded to visit http://capwiz.com/psea/home regarding key issues in education. Some current issues such as the proposed Graduation Competency Assessments (details coming soon), bridge certification, and NCLB were discussed.
Minority Affairs: M. Mixon reported on the success of the MAC social at the LMEA office on Jan 14. The MAC Leadership conference will be March 20-22 in Gettysburg.
PACE: A. Pass reported there was no change from last month.
PR&R: NP but C. SantaMaria gave a brief update on current grievances.
Public Relations: NR
Social: The LMEA Spring social is scheduled for May 27. T. Tyler noted that Dan DiBono will send out a flyer reminding of the social. Building reps should get names of who is attending and submit to T. Tyler. Retirees can attend free and bring one guest.
Special Services: A. Avellino noted about a flyer to get an AC Moore discount. JoAnn fabric also has a discount to members – show your card.
Sunshine: D. Williams noted there have been many births among the membership.
Membership: D. Grumbine noted we now have over 1300 members.
CARE: M. Rios noted at their recent meeting the Superintendent asked for summary on how successful districts have closed their achievement gaps – looking for goals on how to accomplish this.
Education Foundation: D. Simon reported they had a meeting of the allocations committee – they funded several grants and are still taking grant applications. Their next meeting is during the 3rd week of Feb.
403(b): P. Kaczmar noted they will have a meeting Feb 24th – still finalizing Vanguard issue.
Building Reports:
Belmont Hills: Concern about possible vandalism recently at/near the school.
Cynwyd: NR
Gladwyne: NP
Merion: NR
Penn Valley: NR but they are happy with their interim principal. Can you take a personal day for training to fulfill 20 hours? – apparently approved by an administrator.
Penn Wynne: Are administrators’ salaries open to our scrutiny? – PSEA has this info. Also, can you take 2 personal days back to back? – yes. Also, concern that there is no training of teachers for administering standardized tests – will be brought to ICC.
Bala Cynwyd: NR
Welsh Valley: NR
Lower Merion: NR
Harriton: Concern about ‘common assessments’ – possible differences between both high schools – will be investigated. Also, discrepancy between 10 and 12 month secretaries’ starting times on delayed opening days – will be investigated.
Building and Grounds: NR
At-Large Reps: NR
Administration: Concern about discrepancy about when admin office secretaries had to come in compared to other secretaries on snow delays – will be investigated.
Matson Ford Transportation: NR
Connolly Transportation: NR
G. Rosazza made a motion to adjourn - second by J. Alvord. The meeting was adjourned at 5:43pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Stettner, Secretary Professional |
