LAFSE Virtual Meeting
Meeting Information
In the meantime, we want to stress that we are here as a support to you. If there are any questions, comments or concerns that arise during this time, please do not hesitate to contact us either through email (LAFSENM@gmail.com) or on Facebook.
Why vote now?
Due to the March School Board Work Session being canceled, the next time that the School Board can vote on our proposed changes is April 14th (if this meeting continues on as scheduled). It is our custom and past practice that we meet with our membership prior to this going in front of the board. The reason being that there is no reason to have the School Board take action on something that the membership has already voted down.
From there- anything with a financial implication (raises!) gets put in front of the budget committee to allocate money or in certain situations, identify budget priorities.
Below is an infographic we have created to demonstrate how the negotiations process works. Please note that right now we are on step 4.
We want to repeat that we have every intention of having the meeting as soon as possible but are concerned that delaying the vote to have an in-person meeting would delay these issues going in front of the school board and would consequently delay them being decided upon before the budget is submitted.
Long story short- we would like this wrapped up on our end as soon as possible so that it can get in front of the board and prioritized in the budget.
Proposed Certified Contract Changes
- Separating our additional 2 paid professional development days so there will now be one in August and one in January instead of having both at the beginning of the school year.
- Increasing union leave days from 5 to 7. This will provide union leadership both now and in the future some flexibility to participate in union professional development without having to worry about personal leave days being impacted.
- Language establishing quarterly meetings between union leadership and the Superintendent or their designee to discuss professional development needs.
- Language establishing Indigenous Peoples' Day as a holiday. This is important as our previous language read that we will get any holiday that LANL gets and LANL no longer has this day off.
- Duration of agreement. This language change states that our contract remains in place until a new one is agreed upon. This is a change to the previous language which states that our contract will expire in November if a new one is not agreed upon.
- The language that aligns with the HB 364 language including access to bargaining unit information, and a 10-day union membership drop window
- Language updating the structure of leave payout days when an employee retires. As it stands, our current language puts our employees at a disadvantage and puts in place a system that only pays out a maximum of 30% of days 91-140 of accrued sick leave.
Under the new proposal- Employees who retire will receive a payout according to the chart below. It is very important for us to note that this does not impact current employees as it is explicitly written that any current employees who have already accrued 6 or more days by the current standards will be grandfathered in.
Proposed Classified Contract Changes
- Changes to the job posting language which will now read that available jobs will be posted online. This language change matches the current practice.
- Professional development language similar to the language we proposed for Certified Staff. This language states that the District and the Federation will work collaboratively to develop and implement job-related programs of in-service professional development for employees.
- Representation language- this language mirrors Weingarten Rights and states that an employee has the right to representation in meetings which could result in discipline but they must request it.
- Duration of agreement language. This language change states that our contract remains in place until a new one is agreed upon. This is a change to the previous language which states that our contract will expire in November if a new one is not agreed upon.
- IA holiday pay- The following holidays will be paid based on contracted daily hours to employees in the classification of Instructional Assistant.
These days are:
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
New Year’s Day
Chain of command chart- this language states that a change of command chart will be available online.
Union leave- increasing the days of union leave available to our leadership team from 5 days to 7 days.
Strikethroughs that clean up the Pay Schedules (Article XXIII) of our CBA. This will just eliminate language from previous years that is now outdated.
Workday Language- this would eliminate comp time which will now be offered only as overtime. A survey of classified employees told us that this was preferred as overtime can be seen on paychecks and comp time was hard to utilize with our rigid schedules.
Strikethroughs that eliminate outdated language from the time when classified employees were potentially asked to work a 9:80 schedule.
The language that aligns with the HB 364 language including access to bargaining unit information, and a 10-day union membership drop window.
Transportation Addendum cleanup. Definitions, seniority, and the bid for route assignments would be integrated into our current CBA. The remainder of the transportation addendum will be incorporated into the Transportation Handbook with a caveat placed in our CBA that will read "the Director of Transportation will annually review all trip records and will insure trip distribution equity".
Raises
Proposed Constitution and By-Laws Changes
The cliff notes version of these updates are:
- Updating how LAFSE officers are elected and how nominations are shared
- Including language about our Committee on Political Education
- Updating the duties outlined for President and both Certified and Classified Vice Presidents
- Including language about our worksite representatives
- Correcting a spelling and numbering error
- Updating the dues structure (what we currently have written is incredibly outdated, long-winded, and lacks protection from dues increases.
- Language about our drop window to be in compliance with the PEBA law changes (HB 364).
- Wording that says that any policy changes need to be made available to the union membership at least one week before the meeting
Updates from the Legislative Session
How do we vote?
Please note that this vote will be open from Thursday, March 19th and will close at 10:00 P.M. on Thursday, March 26th.