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June 28, 2005STATEWIDE HEALTH PLAN Although the issue of a Statewide Health Insurance Plan may have slipped from the radar of many, your MSBA would like to remind member districts that the potential for such a plan passing remains - as long as the Legislature stays in session.
Even though several school boards, administrative units and teachers’ bargaining groups have expressed their concerns with the current bills under consideration, more needs to be done. MSBA is asking school board members and administrators to contact both House and Senate leadership and their local legislators to seek their support in opposition to a Statewide Health Insurance Plan.NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND The U.S. Department of Education (ED) recently announced that it is extending the deadline by which time paraprofessionals must become “highly qualified” under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by one semester. Paraprofessionals with instructional duties now will have until the end of the 2005-2006 school year to demonstrate that they are “highly qualified” under NCLB.
In making this decision, the ED noted that the original deadline of January 8, 2006, falls in the middle of a school year. In an effort to provide consistency between paraprofessionals and teachers, who must be “highly qualified” by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, the ED has extended the deadline for paraprofessionals.SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS In accordance with M.S. 205A.03, school districts are required to conduct primary elections to choose nominees for election to the school board if more than two candidates file for a specified school board position or there are more than twice as many school board candidates as there are at-large positions available on the board. A primary election may only be held on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in September in the year in which the school district general election is held. Since a district must inform county auditors of its intent to hold a primary election no later than 53 days prior to the second Tuesday in September (a date which generally falls within days of the last day to file for election), many districts find themselves with little time in which to accomplish this act.
In an effort to help districts avoid these difficult-to-meet time lines, MSBA has developed a sample resolution that may be passed in lieu of the resolution calling solely for the election of board members. For information about or to receive a copy of the “Contingent Resolution Relating to Choosing Nominees for Election to the School Board and Calling the School District Primary Election,” districts should look under "Leading Resources" on the MSBA Home Page or contact the MSBA office.
For further information on primary elections, please review your MSBA Service Manual, beginning on page 37 of Chapter 14.RETIREE HEALTH INSURANCE On May 19, 2005, the Minnesota Supreme court handed down a decision in the Housing and Redevelopment Authority of Chisholm v. Norman retiree health insurance case. MSBA has had the Court’s decision reviewed by legal counsel and has developed responses to relevant questions about this important court decision. Copies of the MSBA analysis will be provided to each district’s superintendent by means of a direct mailing prior to July 1.RETIREES RETURNING TO WORK AS REGULAR TEACHERS As spring changes into summer, many districts are being faced with questions about teacher staffing for the 2005-2006 school year. More and more, these questions include discussions about rehiring district (or other district) retirees. In order to help superintendents and board members deal with the process, MSBA is including for your review an article on the subject that appeared in the July 25, 2003, “Management Services Newsletter”:
“2000 Minnesota legislative amendments relative to teacher retirement make it possible for school districts to rehire retired teachers who are drawing their full pensions. Your MSBA staff has been receiving inquiries as to how that process should work, and a number of questions about the status of such employees have been raised. Below are several points regarding the employment status of such teachers that MSBA staff as well as staff from Education Minnesota believe to be true:
– Retirees who were tenured prior to retirement and who return to the same district are immediately tenured upon reemployment.
– Retirees who were tenured prior to retirement and who are subsequently hired in a different district are probationary teachers for one year in the new district (three years in cities of the first class).
– Continuing contract rights for returning retirees cannot be unilaterally waived by the local union; however, returning retirees may waive those rights themselves.
– Retirees who return to work have access to all of the collectively bargained benefits in the same way as other regular teachers, unless the parties have limited those benefits in the collectively bargained Master Agreement; however, individual returning retirees cannot individually agree to any lesser contractual benefits with a school district.
– Returning retirees are considered to be “new teachers” for purposes of seniority (when a teacher terminates employment with a district, he/she loses seniority but not tenure).
– Unless addressed in the collectively bargained Agreement, returning retirees will be placed on the salary schedule pursuant to the provisions of the Master Agreement for incoming teachers.
– Returning retirees must join the union as active members or be required to pay the fair share fee.
What, then, should districts do if they wish to rehire a retired teacher? Your MSBA staff believes that districts should protect themselves as much as possible by both entering into a modified individual teacher’s contract and negotiating specific language addressing the issue into the Master Agreement. If districts cannot do both, they would be well advised to simply not rehire retired teachers.
The individual teaching contract should be modified to include language which states (1) that the retired teacher has had the opportunity to talk with his/her attorney relative to waiving his/her statutory rights to tenure, (2) that the retired teacher understands his/her statutory rights to tenure, and (3) that the retired teacher willingly agrees to waive those statutory rights.
Language addressing this issue should also be negotiated into the teachers’ Master Agreement. That language should specifically address how the particular district will deal with the following points: (1) placement on the salary schedule (preferred language would state that such placement will be as mutually agreed upon by a retired teacher and the school district); (2) insurance benefits (again, preferred language would state that a retired teacher would receive only those insurance benefits as mutually agreed upon by the teacher and the school district; however, the district should carefully review the provisions of the particular insurance policies in effect to make certain that such a teacher is even eligible for coverage); (3) retirement/severance benefits (preferred language would state that a retired teacher is not eligible for these benefits); (4) leaves of absence (the Agreement language should stipulate either which negotiated leaves a retired teacher can access or which ones he/she cannot access; also, districts may want to negotiate language which limits particular leaves); (5) tenure (preferred language would state that a retired teacher has willingly waived his/her rights to tenure and that the district reserves the right to terminate his/her employment at the end of any school year).
Again, districts should carefully consider whether they wish to rehire retired teachers or not, and if they choose to do so, they should negotiate specific Agreement language addressing how those teachers will be treated in addition to modifying the individual teaching contract to be used. If they cannot do both, districts would be well advised not to rehire such teachers.”SCHOOL DISTRICT AUDITS In a recent edition of the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants (MNCPA) magazine, Aaron T. Nielsen of Malloy, Montague, Karnowski, Radosevich & Co., P.A., provided a summary of the MNCPA School District Audit Review Task Force. The review of 30 audit reports and related financial statements examined the audited information of school districts, charter schools, and other special districts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004. Several interesting findings were noted, and districts were advised to be alert to the need to follow professional auditing standards and provide for adequate presentation and disclosure.
Common findings included:- the failure of some reports “to appropriately identify the financial statements that were audited,”
- the failure in several reports to “appropriately refer to Government Auditing Standards and internal control and compliance letters,”
- the failure on the part of some reports to “refer to budgetary comparisons in the opinion paragraph when they were presented as part of the basic statements,”
- the failure to adequately report “various components required in management’s discussion and analysis,”
- the reporting of “budget to actual statements of other funds” in the basic financial statements,
- the failure to disclose “non-SEC-regulated investment pools” for some districts using the Minnesota School District Liquid Asset Fund, and
- the failure in some reports to identify “deficiencies in short-term debt, long-term debt, interfund balances, and transfers.”
MSBA strongly recommends that districts carefully select auditing firms and make certain that all audits are done in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). BARGAINING The workshops have been completed, and the process of negotiating the 2005-2007 contracts has begun or will begin shortly. Your MSBA staff recommends that districts consider the following items if they have not already done so:- review your licensed Agreement and have principals and other administrators share their thoughts and ideas about what changes could be made to better the educational opportunities for your students;
- have your Agreement analyzed (a new pair of eyes is useful);
- determine who will represent the district at the bargaining table and who will act as the district’s spokesperson during the negotiations process;
- learn about the law changes that are almost certain to come after our special session concludes;
- gather data - make sure that you have developed adequate information to help board members understand the economic consequences of any proposal received or made during negotiations; seek information relative to both the economic and language items in comparably-sized districts.
SALARY SETTLEMENTS Although we are quite early in the process, MSBA has heard of or received reports that approximately 10 districts have already completed negotiations with their teachers’ groups for 2005-2007. MSBA is unable to report on these settlements at this time since limited settlement report information has been received. As soon as MSBA receives settlement reports from those districts which have completed the process, that information will be posted on the MSBA web site.Return to Management Services Newsletter Home Page
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