By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

The “Legal Question of the Week” is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short,
law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an
answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues.
We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors.

Please submit your questions to: legalmailbagcasciacorg. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Legal Mailbag:

I have always prided myself on my ability to get things done. As you know, life in an elementary school can be complicated; and, I figured that it would be good to have a person to back me up when I am out of the building. Given that my stand-in may be called upon to make administrator-type decisions, like suspending students or investigating teacher misconduct, I identified one of my teachers who has her 092 intermediate administration or supervision certificate. She was enthusiastic about this opportunity to gain administrative experience, but she did ask me how she would be compensated.

As you well know, the last few years have been lean for school districts throughout the state, and I don’t have any extra money to give her for being my stand-in. But I do want to be fair, and she and I agreed that in recognition of her new responsibilities, I would schedule her class for specials at the end of the day so that the specials teachers can take care of her students at dismissal and she can leave school early on those days. Now the crybaby specials teachers are complaining about these “new responsibilities” and even the union is on my case. Help!

Signed,
A Deal is a Deal, Right?

Dear Deal:

You have a problem of your own making. Your brainstorm has changed working conditions for a number of teachers in your building, including your designated stand-in as well as all the specials teachers. You can’t do that on your own.

Wages, hours and conditions of employment are mandatory subjects of negotiation with a unionized workforce, including the teachers at your school. The concept of a “teacher-in-charge” is not unprecedented. However, the creation of this position and the related negotiations are above your pay grade, and you should have talked to your superintendent and human resources director before you started making deals. You are going to have to restore the status quo ante and, with the agreement of your superintendent, approach the union with this proposed new position.

Interestingly, it is not just the burden on the specials teachers that triggers the duty to negotiate. Any time a school district significantly changes working conditions, it must negotiate with the union, either over the decision or over the impact of the decision (when the change itself is a management prerogative). Thus, you may not cut a deal with an individual teacher to do X and receive Y benefit, even if no other teachers are involved. That would be individual bargaining, an unfair labor practice.

Finally, the fact that the proposed responsibilities are administrative in nature does not get you off the hook. The teachers’ bargaining unit includes teachers whose job responsibilities require intermediate administration or supervision certification as long as such administrative or supervisory duties are not 50% or more of their assigned duties. Thus, you had a duty to negotiate here with the teachers’ bargaining unit, not the administrators’ bargaining unit. Now go back and do it right.