Educational Leaders, Inc. - Accomplishments

Accomplishments

Administrators | Psychologists | Research Project Managers

ELI Working Together,
Working for Us!

Certified and Classified Administrators

Why We Need ELI
To be effective and receive the respect we deserve, TUSD administrators must work together in a cohesive and supportive manner. It is critical that we encourage and learn from each other. Maximizing our effectiveness by working as a group is particularly important since the state of Arizona provides virtually no legal protections or tenure for educational administrators.

ELI Accomplishments For Certified and Classified Administrators
Because of the confidential nature in which ELI does much of its work, many administrators are not aware of the varied activities engaged in by ELI on behalf of its members. Listed below are some of our accomplishments and activities from the past few years.

New Equitable Salary Schedule: After an intensive two year task force study, on February 19, 2002 ELI presented a report and recommendations to the Governing Board resulting in a new integrated salary schedule for certified and classified administrators. Salaries throughout the entire schedule were substantially increased (e.g. the beginning salary for an elementary principal was increased by 18%, the beginning salary for a middle school principal was increased by over 23%, the beginning salary for a high school principal was increased by over 14%.) Many other improvements were made, including insuring a 15% difference between assistant principals and principals at each level, a minimum 5% difference between elementary and middle school grades and a minimum 7% increase between middle school and high school grades.
Negotiated Procedural Protections Against Non-Renewal Without Cause: Using job security as the overriding interest, in 2006-2007, ELI negotiated a procedure including "Recommendations for Improvement" prior to being on a "Plan for Improvement" that must be followed before an administrator can be non-renewed without cause under state law.
Summer Work Compensation: Negotiated summer work compensation pay by way of additional contract days for all middle (8 days) and elementary school (6 days) administrators. These days were incorporated as permanent additional contract days in the new salary schedule referred to in number 1 above. ELI also negotiated five (5) additional contract days at per diem for elementary school administrators and middle school assistant principals to correspond to the additional instructional days mandated by the State legislature. Effective August 2006, those additional days have been incorporated into the salary schedule.
Other Negotiated Benefits: Negotiated significant benefits to our members through the Meet & Confer process, in addition to items listed elsewhere in this document:

a. Restored the sick leave buy-out (and lobbied against District attempts to eliminate the buy-out). Also reduced the number of years of service required for the post June 1991 sick leave payout from 15 to 10 years.

b. Negotiated language to allow for extended medical leave, donation of sick leave to other employees, emergency leave, ability to be released from contract under the Family Leave Act, etc.

c. Arranged for an additional FTE in elementary schools with over 600 students by counting preschool students for staffing and supplies.

d. Enabled a large number of assistant principals (13) to be authorized as a direct result of ELI's efforts.

e. Reduction in force procedure and protections.

f. Guarantees with regard to the ability of an administrator to go back into the teaching ranks.

g. Negotiated a procedure to allow administrators to have their positions reclassified based on their job duties. Many administrators have had their positions upgraded as a result of this ELI-instituted procedure.

h. Memorial Day added as a paid holiday for less than twelve month administrators. (2006-2007)
Professional Development Stipend: Developed an annual professional development stipend (presently $750.00) to compensate administrators for completing professional development activities.
Sick Leave Payoff Tax Deferral: Lead the successful charge for state legislation for the District to implement a sick leave pay deferral plan (403 (b) plan) to receive significant tax advantages at retirement.
EYOS: Negotiated additional compensation for extended year administrators up to $1,921.00 per year which was permanently incorporated into the salary schedule.
Middle School Principals Move to Twelve Months: After working on this issue for several years on behalf of middle school principals, beginning with the 2004-05 school year, ELI was successful in the move of middle school principals (including K-8) to twelve-month contracts.
Required the District to Adhere to Reduction in Force Procedure: In June of 2003 the Superintendent attempted to make central administration layoffs without following the reduction in force procedure negotiated by ELI. Our intervention required that he follow the procedure including our achieving a reversal of the District's position not to pay insurance benefits to those laid off.
Seniority Credit in Teacher's Bargaining Unit: Language was added to make it clear that years accrued as part of the ELI bargaining unit count toward the seniority credit in the event that an administrator goes back to the teacher's bargaining unit.
Grievance Hearing Procedure: Supported a change in district procedure which reduces the confrontational nature of past years' grievance hearings. Created and had implemented a procedure whereby participants in grievance earnings must disclose, prior to the hearing, the documents and witnesses to be used at the hearing. Asked for and received assurance that TUSD legal counsel will be available to represent administrators at grievance hearings when requested.
Legal Advice: Continually provide administrators with legal opinions and legal advice on a wide range of matters and attend meetings with members with their supervisor.
Legal Assistance: Provide funds to administrators for legal consultations, attorney fees and costs as needed from ELI Legal Assistance Fund. Successfully sued the District on multiple occasions to recover money owed to administrators that the District had refused to pay.
Longevity Allowance: Negotiated an additional category to the Longevity Allowance Stipend beginning at year 10 (prior requirement was 20 years).
K-8 Administrators Stipend: Beginning August 2004, ELI negotiated a stipend of $2,000 for K-8 Principals and $500 for K-8 Assistant Principals.
Political Activities: Lobby continuously and intensively with the Superintendent, his staff and the Governing Board in the best interests of individual administrators and administrators as a group, resulting in a much improved Governing Board attitude toward administrators. Host Governing Board members at ELI Executive Board meetings. Attend Governing Board meetings. Maintain constant communication with the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendents and Governing Board members throughout the year. "Run interference" for administrators with central administration and the Governing Board.
TUSD Committees: Participate in various TUSD committees such as: insurance, the Superintendent's principal focus groups, school councils, bargaining with other employee groups, revision of the teacher evaluation instrument, etc.
Hiring Process: Negotiated language to assure that principals' recommendations for filling assistant principal positions at their school (or the recommendation of a non site supervisor in filling a position under their authority) is communicated to the Governing Board prior to the assistant principals' appointment.
Advice Regarding Consensus Procedure: Provide advice and seminars to administrators with regard to the Consensus grievance process and the drafting of notices of intent to impose discipline and similar documentation.
Working with Other Bargaining Groups: Increased communication and decreased tension between ELI, TEA and AFSME, thus improving relationships between administrators and staff. Presented joint workshops on the Consensus with TEA.
Mediate Disputes: Mediate disputes between administrators.
Personnel Issues: Negotiated changes to individual administrator evaluations by working with the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendents. Represent administrators with regard to civil rights complaints. Represent administrators at Arizona Department of Education investigations and complaint hearings. Work with the Superintendent to assure that notices of vacancies are distributed to administrators each Spring. Instrumental in helping to obtain transfers for members who wish to be transferred from a particular location.
Insurance Benefits: Negotiated significant increases in insurance benefits and codified flex benefit package for administrators.
Complaint Procedure: Drafted and had passed by the Governing Board a complaint procedure for staff members as an attempt to resolve conflicts as early as possible at the site.
Site Staffing: Responsible for additional authorizations of staff at sites, for example: assistant principals, office staff and other staffing needs. Persuaded the Governing Board to increase the number of custodians at sites.
Liaison with TUSD Legal Counsel: Work with TUSD legal counsel and outside legal counsel hired by TUSD to insure that administrators are properly represented in various matters, including suits against TUSD that name administrators as defendants. In addition, ELI provides representation for administrators when the District decides that representing the administrator will be a conflict of interest for the District.
Teacher Evaluation: Worked with the District and TEA to create a less burdensome evaluation procedure for experienced teachers.
Parent Issues: Provide support to administrators regarding parent complaints and concerns, including attending PTA meetings and SCPC meetings and writing letters to parents with regard to their behavior toward administrators.
Teacher Terminal Contracts: Active participation in the task force on teacher terminal contracts which resulted in vastly improving the hiring process for site administrators.
Professional Development Activities: Sponsor and organize ELI professional development conferences, as well as ongoing professional development seminars. Sponsor mentoring programs for administrators.
Retirement Issues: Advise administrators on retirement issues.
Administrator Evaluation Procedure: Direct involvement in the drafting of the new TUSD leadership assessment instrument for administrators.
Educational Leaders: Renamed the organization Educational Leaders, Inc. (ELI) from Tucson Administrators, Inc. (TAI) in order to create a more positive image and emphasize educational leadership.

RMH/ rev. December 1, 2006

Psychologists

Why We Need ELI
To be effective and receive the respect they deserve, TUSD psychologists must work together in a cohesive and supportive manner. It is critical that we encourage and learn from each other. Maximizing our effectiveness by working as a group is particularly important since the state of Arizona provides virtually no legal protections or tenure for school psychologists. ELI advocates for psychologists as a group and for each individual.

ELI Accomplishments For Psychologists
Recognizing that as a result of their expertise and responsibilities psychologists act as case managers in an administrative vein, the group moved from the teachers' bargaining unit to ELI effective August 5, 2001. ELI welcomed each member as part of the administrative team. Because of the confidential nature in which ELI does much of its work, many psychologists are not aware of the varied activities engaged in by ELI on behalf of its members. Listed below are some of our accomplishments and activities from the past few years, as well as current efforts:

Salary: Psychologists moved from the teachers' salary schedule to ELI effective with the 2001-2002 year, moving from an hourly basis to a salary at substantial increases in compensation. Moving to ELI enabled negotiation of an additional five (5) days pay before the school year and five (5) days after the school year to be paid as a stipend plus an additional $6,000.00 stipend. A new salary schedule was implemented effective for the 2002-2003 school year which increased the starting salary for a psychologist from $29,226.00 to $38,991.00. The top salary was increased from $54,335.00 to $58,918.00. Salary Increases each year since that time have been 3.5.% a year.

Protection Against Lawsuits: ELI negotiated language requiring that the District defend (and pay any damages) in the event that a psychologist is sued resulting from the performance of their duties.

Sick Leave and Personal Leave: Days increased from twelve (12) days to fourteen (14) days per year.

Educational Stipend: $1,000.00 added to the annual contract for a Ph.D. or Ed.D., $700.00 for an Educational Degree Specialist.

Longevity Stipend: Effective August 2004 the longevity stipend was increased to a maximum of $1,000 from $315 and effective August 2005 increased to a maximum of $1,500 from the prior $730.

Reduction in Force: Provides some protections and a procedure in the event of staffing cuts affecting psychologists.

Optional Sick Leave Pay at Separation: A new category entitled severance pay was added for those who are not able to accumulate fifteen (15) years of full time service for the sick leave accumulation payout. For purposes of the severance pay option, the psychologist stipend is now to be included in calculation of the annual salary.

Professional Liability: Language was added to the Meet and Confer agreement stating that the District will provide legal representation to any Psychologist involved in an legal action brought against the employee related to the employee's work and that if a judgment is rendered against the employee that the District will pay.

Psychologist Substitute Rate: ELI was responsible for increasing the psychologist substitute rate from $75.00 a day (teacher's rate) to $250.00 a day, effective May, 2003 despite a lack of cooperation from the Superintendent. This will benefit not only retired psychologists coming back to work for the district, but also increases dramatically the post-June 1991 sick leave accumulation payoff for psychologists separating from the District since the substitute rate is used as a multiplier.

Professional Development Stipend: Psychologists successfully completing forty-five (45) hours of approved Professional Development activity receive a stipend of $750.00 added to their annual contract. The professional development stipend now includes practicum supervision and permits intern/practicum supervision to be earned during the workday.

Medical Insurance: Maintained 100% coverage for medical premiums for each employee, increasing the dollar amount provided by the district each year.

Medical Leave Assistance Program: Allows psychologists to contribute sick leave to other psychologists or administrators who, as a result of serious injury or illness, have used all of their available sick leave.

Conflict Resolution Procedure: Provides a conflict resolution procedure for psychologists when in disagreement with his or her immediate supervisor regarding Governing Board policy, rule or regulation, a section of the Meet & Confer agreement, or similar dispute.

RMH/ rev. December 1, 2006

Research Project Managers

Why We Need ELI
To be effective and receive the respect they deserve, TUSD Research Project Managers must work together in a cohesive and supportive manner. It is critical that we encourage and learn from each other. Maximizing our effectiveness by working as a group is particularly important since the state of Arizona provides virtually no legal protections or tenure for Research Project Managers.

ELI Accomplishments For Research Project Managers
Because of the confidential nature in which ELI does much of its work, many research project managers are not aware of the varied activities engaged in by ELI on behalf of its members. Listed below are some of our accomplishments and activities from the past few years, as well as current efforts:

Salary: Research project managers (then called research evaluators) moved from the supervisory/confidential bargaining unit to ELI effective August of 2000, moving from an hourly schedule to a salary at substantial increases in compensation. Salary Increases each year since that time have been 3.5.% a year.

Sick Leave: Days increased from eight (8) days to thirteen (13) days per year.

Termination Written Notice Required: New language was added requiring that if the district intends not to renew the contract for a research project manager, written notice of non-renewal must be given prior to May 15th for the next school year. Prior to that, no notice was required.

Vacation days: Twenty full days plus four bonus days for a total of twenty-four (24) days from the start of employment. Also, we codified, in writing, the fact that when separating from the District, Research Evaluators will receive payment for all unused vacation days at their daily rate of pay at the time of separation.

Educational Stipend: $1,000.00 added to your annual contract for a Ph.D. or Ed.D., $700.00 for an Ed. Specialist.

Optional Sick Leave Pay at Separation: The ability to receive pay for unused sick leave instead of the severance pay stipend was reduced from twenty (20) years to fifteen (15) years and then to ten (10) years. The previous requirement of payoff of sick leave hours accrued in excess of 600 hours to in excess of 400 hours.

Professional Development Stipend: Research Evaluators successfully completing forty-five (45) hours of approved Professional Development activity will receive a stipend of $750.00, added to their annual contract. See Article Eight for details.

Medical Insurance: Maintained 100% coverage for medical premiums for each employee increasing the dollar amount provided by the district each year.

Medical Leave Assistance Program: Allows Research Evaluators to contribute sick leave to other Research Evaluators or administrators who, as a result of serious injury or illness, have used all of their available sick leave.

Longevity Stipend: Effective August 2004 the longevity stipend was increased to a maximum of $1,000 from $315 and effective August 2005 increased to a maximum of $1,500 from the prior $730.

Conflict Resolution Procedure: Provides a conflict resolution procedure for Research Evaluators when the employee is in disagreement with his or her immediate supervisor regarding Governing Board policy, rule or regulation, a section of the Meet & Confer agreement, or similar dispute.

RMH/ rev. December 1, 2006

Educational Leaders, Inc.
1604 N. Country Club Road
Tucson, Arizona 85716-3102

ELI Working Together,Working for Us!

ELI Working Together,
Working for Us!