For Teachers

DCFT General Membership Meeting Minutes

March 24, 2005 - 5:30 p.m.

Call to order:

The Meeting was called to order by the President, Pat McGraw at 5:30PM

Roll Call:

Formal roll call was waived.

Introductions:

Pat Introduced Greg Spearman from Liberty Mutual and outlined the services he provides for our union.

Mr. Spearman then spoke with us discussing his services which cover auto insurance, life insurance, financial planning and homeowner insurance coverage. He also brought several items that he gave away to raffle winners.

Mr. McGraw then introduced Chris Kolker, from Axa Advisors, who spoke with us briefly about the services he can provide to our members.

The final introduction by Pat McGraw was Rod Oosterhouse, who is running for office with the PERA board. Mr. Oosterhouse spoke briefly regarding his campaign.

General Business - Acceptance Of Minutes:

A motion was made and seconded for acceptance of the minutes from the fall membership meeting – no discussion – motion passed.

Treasurer's Report – Brenda Smith:

Each member received a copy of the DCFT financial to review while Brenda Smith gave the semi-annual treasurer's report.

Our office lease will expire on May 1, 2005. We plan to go on a month to month lease until we decide what we would like to do in future months.
During February we reimbursed the Douglas County School District for our portion of salaries due for the period of 1/1-12/31/04. The check in the amount of $94,885.60 was paid out of the operating funds account. Due to good budgeting and cost control, we were able to absorb this expense and did not find it necessary to secure funds from our savings accounts.
We have started working on our budget for the 2005-2006 year, which will begin June 1, 2005.
Pat McGraw reiterated that our membership dues are some of the lowest in the country.

A motion was made and seconded to accept the treasurer's report. Members accepted by saying “aye” - no opposed.

Membership Report – Cyndie F. Pierce

The January – February membership count is 1,841 members. A growth of 18 members since our fall meeting. Updated lists for each school were passed out to the building reps for their review, with a request to make any necessary changes. Members were reminded about our $25.00 membership sponsor program and requested to call the office with name and/or address changes.

A motion was made and seconded to accept the membership report. All in favor signified by saying “aye”. No opposed.

Items For Action – Amend Constitution Article IV

Mr. McGraw explained that he would like to amend Article IV of our constitution to include additional Members At-Large. One Member At-Large for every 150 members, thereby increasing the number of Members At-Large that serve on the Executive Board from 9 to 12.

Mr. McGraw called for the vote and it passed unanimously.

Election Of Officers:

Each member received an Executive Board Ballet for the 2005-2007 year. After review, Mr. McGraw moved to accept the slate of candidates by acclamation.

The following candidate slate was seconded and passed for the 2005-2007 period:

Pat McGraw – President
Joanne Slanovich – Vice President
Brenda Smith – Treasurer
Brenda Munzert – Secretary

Members At-Large:

Scott Buchannan
Cheryl Heaton
Sarah Staebell
Kiersten Martinez
Michael O'Day
Joe White
Nicole DiPasquale
Carlye Holladay
Cindi Leitch
Pat Nicholson
Jody Papini
Suzanne Wyatt

CFT Convention – April 30, 2005

Mr. McGraw provided information to the members about the summer convention for CFT that will take place on April 30, 2005. He encouraged attendance and asked anyone that was interested to call Brenda Smith at the DCFT office.

Updates/Reports – Middle School Grading Policy:

Mr. McGraw advised there has been discussion about changing the way kids are graded. One idea is the “ABCDI reporting system. The project team has been discussing it and had a few concerns:

Not allowing any kids to fail. Concern that parents wouldn't support the system. Homework counting for a grade or not.

Mr. McGraw stressed that the best system you can have is one you believe in.

Evaluation MOU – Joanne Slanovich

Ms. Slanovich discussed the various methods used and said they were starting to look at different key components:

Align employee groups – Give employees more responsibility – Retain Due Process

Field testing needed to be done – there was too much emphasis on class evaluation.

Student Awards – May 10, 2005 – Brenda Smith

Mrs. Smith advised that this years Student Awards will be held at Rock Canyon High School on May 10, 2005 at 7:00PM. All paperwork needs to be into the DCFT office by no later than April 8, 2005.

Last year all but two schools participated. If there is anything the members should attend it's this evening. We plan on giving out scholarships and money again this year.

Ms. Smith asked everyone to put the word out about this event and plan on attending the awards ceremony.

Organization Of Classified – Pat McGraw

Mr. McGraw filled the members in on the progress of trying to get the districts classified employees to organize. He advised that we were visiting buildings trying to get cards signed so we could put the matter to a vote. Mr. McGraw reiterated that the classified employees don't have to join if they don't want to. In April, if we have received 1,000 cards, it will be put to a vote, otherwise it will die. Building reps were asked to tell the classified employees to sign the cards. Any new cards submitted by Building Reps will entitle them to $2.00 per card. Some building reps advised that some of the classified employees didn't like the cards because they felt they were required to give to much information. Mr. McGraw said we needed to advise the classified employees that their information was confidential and that they would be paying half dues based on wages.

Negotiations – Pat McGraw

Mr. McGraw gave a report on the negotiations process letting us know that they continue to work on benefits, quality separation, elementary planning time. He advised that the CP Index was 1/10 of 1% increase for next year.

Average steps 2.3% state given 1.1%. We are down before we get started - Insurance is expensive – we will try to keep the insurance increase around 2.3%. 2.6 cost – 1.1 money – Teachers don't look at step increases as a raise. 1% raise around $500.00 a year – ½% thrown in if we get funds from the state budget fixed election passes in November. DPS 1/10 of a percent raise.

We get $6,000.00 a head for each kid. Ask for an election to get more. Ms. Slanovich spoke about the Tabor Amendment and said education is in trouble. Pat McGraw said it's not a huge money year – quality separation is not going away.

Introduction of Sean McGraw – Pat McGraw

Pat McGraw introduced The Executive Director of the Douglas County Education Foundation who had taken over in January of this year.

Mr. Sean McGraw advised the membership that he was in the process of re-doing everything including the Teacher Awards program. He encouraged participation and said to look for changes in the future.

Ms. Slanovich addressed the group about the elementary planning

Pat made a motion to adjourn – Motion seconded. Meeting adjourned at 7:50 PM

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