I.                   Trustees Fill Vacant Treasurer Post: The AEA Board of Trustees has elected Janell Brown (Erie Island) to fill the Treasurer vacancy created by the retirement of John Robishaw. Janell is the Buchtel Elementary cluster representative on the Board. She was chosen to fill the unexpired term through the 2008-09 school year and is eligible for re-election in May of 2009. 

 

II.                Superintendent Search: The field of candidates for the superintendent’s position has been whittled to three. The only remaining in-house candidate is David James who heads up Business Affairs. James has been the point man for the district in the on-going construction campaign.

 

III.             Master Agreement: The final draft of the CBA is nearly completed. We expect final printing to take place within the next thirty days.

 

IV.             High School Assessments: High school teachers are too familiar with the snafus that plagued December’s exams. AEA convened a small group of members and senior staff to discuss the problems. Test accuracy, scoring problems and timing were all on the table. English/Language Arts was the most troublesome content area. The administration has promised to continue the dialogue with our members in an effort to work out the kinks experienced in December.

 

V.                Trustees Endorse Louise Heydorn for County Council: See related Random Notes article.

 

VI.             Background, FBI Checks: See related Random Notes article. Also, a question has arisen as to who is responsible for the fee to have these checks completed. After reviewing the law in its entirety, we believe that the Board is liable for the fee for current employees. We intend to arrange a meeting with recently hired Board attorney Rhonda Porter to further discuss the issue.

 

VII.          Breakfast Program: For years, the Food Service Department has been self-sustaining; i.e., the department has not been subsidized by the general fund. That has changed. In an effort to realize more income and return to a self-sustaining operation, the department would like to entice more students to take advantage of the breakfast program. Among the buildings in which the department sees room for considerably more participation are Barrett, Betty Jane, Hill, Leggett, Pfeiffer, Portage Path, Rankin and Stewart. These buildings may be asked to participate in a pilot program that would include a variation of the way in which breakfast is now being made available to students.

 

VIII.       H.B. 423: See related article in Random Notes.

 

IX.             ULP: SERB has dismissed the ULP filed by the Association and the Akron Association of Classified Personnel (the union representing the district’s secretaries). We plan to request reconsideration based upon a number of issues, including the fact that the attorney representing the Board (not the aforementioned Rhonda Porter) misrepresented fact in his correspondence with SERB.

 

X.                Cohort Program: Akron U is meeting with us to plan another cohort Masters Degree program.  Through this program teachers can earn a Masters in education with other APS teachers.  Look for more information on our website about an organizational meeting sometime in March.

 

    XI.         AEA classified ads are updated regularly on our website, www.akronteach.org