Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Union grievance is settled
By William Kincaid
A grievance filed by the Celina Education Association against Celina City Schools' administration has been amicably settled, CEA President Wally Ellinger announced on Monday night during a school board meeting.
The CEA filed a grievance on Oct. 8 against the administration for its decision to make teachers post their lesson plans electronically on the computer program Progress Book, effective Jan. 20.
The grievance was dropped last week because Superintendent Matt Miller agreed to allow teachers to continue the current practice of either writing their lesson plans out by hand or submitting them online.
Miller earlier this year made the request that teachers begin electronically submitting lesson plans. The teachers objected and after a few unsuccessful meetings, the CEA voted to go into arbitration.
Subsequent discussions proved fruitful as the two sides came to an agreement. The CEA dropped the grievance and arbitration was averted.
"I want to thank everyone involved," Ellinger said on Monday night, adding that Miller kept his professional bearings during the process. "This was a learning experience for me and I hope it bodes well in the future."
The online submission of lesson plans is a very labor intensive process, Ellinger said.
"They didn't feel as if it were making them better teachers," he said.
