LUSD approves new teachers contract
After months of negotiating, the Lodi Unified School District and the Lodi Education Association recently approved a new contract for the district’s teachers that includes a Memorandum of Understanding that could become a permanent fixture of the contract in 2021.
This MOU details plans for a Teacher Career Path (TCP) program, individualized professional development and a new teacher evaluation system, in addition to two pay raises for teachers. All teachers will also receive a 2 percent initial pay raise, retroactive to July 2016, as well as an additional 2 percent for the 2017-18 academic year.
These are not new ideas individually, but putting them together into a single program is, said Board of Education Vice President George Neely.
In the past, teachers all received more or less the same pay, regardless of their grade level, subject or the amount of work they put in, Neely said.
The new teacher career track takes into account that some teachers have more training and take on additional responsibilities that their peers may not.
“I want to help teachers be the best that they can be with the district’s support,” Neely said.
The Review Board for Excellence in Teaching (RBET) committee, also outlined in the MOU, will consist of 16 people, with an equal number of teachers and administrators, all tasked with developing a plan to fill the new career track positions, as well as determining what the duties and qualifications for each position will be. The committee must be formed no later than Dec. 31, 2017, according to LEA President Michelle Orgon. LEA executives will meet in August to develop an application process for the committee.
LEA will nominate teachers, who must be approved by the district. Similarly, the district will nominate administrators who must be approved by the union. The goal is to encourage collaboration between the two.
LEA members wishing to apply for the RBET committee must have held permanent status with the district for at least five years and may not be current officers, according to the contract. They must also have received satisfactory evaluation for the last two cycles. Administrators seeking to become management members of the committee must have been with the district for at least five years and may not be current cabinet members.
The committee will be divided into elementary and secondary education, with four elementary school teachers, including one special education teacher, and four elementary administrators. The secondary education portion of the committee will be similarly organized. Each committee member will serve a three-year term, with four LEA members and four management members appointed to a two-year term during the initial appointment cycle to create staggered terms.
Two subcommittees will also be formed, one for elementary TCPs and one for secondary TCPs. Each subcommittee will consist of four LEA members and four management members.
The three new career track positions — master teacher, model teacher and teacher specialist — will not just be paid for the extra days they will work during the year, but also for their qualifications, training and responsibilities.
The RBET committee must develop the criteria for these positions by Jan. 31, 2019 and begin its implementation by July 1, 2019.
The master teacher will work with site administrators to train other teachers and will receive a 10 percent stipend. One master teacher will be stationed at every site with 20 or more teachers, currently 21 school sites according to the contract.
A model teacher will work with site administrators and master teachers in each schools on improvement plans and advise and train new teachers, receiving a 7 percent stipend.
Teacher specialists will be available in each school to assist with issues such as students in poverty, English learners, parental engagement, technology, curriculum content, student engagement and differentiated instruction, and will receive a 5 percent stipend. The stipends will be calculated based on each teacher’s position on the salary scale.
The new contract also tackles the way teachers at Lodi Unified are evaluated.
The current evaluation system operates on a pass/fail basis, which is not sufficient to recognize excellence in teachers, Neely said.
The RBET committee will develop and recommend a new research-based evaluation system by Feb. 28, 2018 that utilizes formative evaluations, as well as rubrics for evaluation and calibration for evaluators. Additionally, if a teacher has held permanent status for 10 years or more, and has received a satisfactory evaluation, they could potentially elect to only be evaluated once every four years, according to Orgon.
“This would allow more time to evaluate the newer teachers, as well as those who may need improvement,” said Orgon.
Neely made a point that Lodi Unified does not and will not involve standardized test scores in teacher evaluations, a sentiment he believes is shared by the majority of the board.
Instead, he said, the goal is to identify what areas need improvement, giving the teachers final say in the matter with the exception of teachers who receive unsatisfactory evaluations. Other school districts will be following the new programs to see if they work, he added.
“I’m excited about teachers taking more ownership,” Neely said.