TABCO

Summary of TABCO 2020-2023 Tentative Agreement


Jun 16, 2020

The full text of the proposed contract changes are available to review, along with the associated salary scales. The following are the proposed changes in plain language:

Proposed 2020-21 TABCO Tentative Agreements in plain language
Recruit and retain great educators through fair pay and benefits practices
  • 1% COLA (22.1.1)
  • 12-month pay option: BCPS & TABCO will create a committee to create a 12-month pay option not later than the 2022-23 school year (19.4)
  • No Furloughs or layoffs in 2020-2021(22.1.1)
  • Committee created to design new salary scale to maximize career earnings, create new lanes for increased pay for advanced education, and standardize step increases (19.2)
  • With permission of the Exec. Dir. educators can use personal leave within the first 5 & last 5 duty days (12.14.3)
  • Educators may use bereavement leave in a period of time not immediately following the death of a family member (12.4.3).
  • Clarifies use of academic leave to one year (12.11.2)
Provide World Class Instruction Through Proper Planning Time
  • 1 full planning day per quarter for special education case managers and related service providers. (10.13.7)
Create unique learning opportunities for students by reducing teacher Workload:
  • Establish that mandatory work nights include back-to-school nights. (10.7.3)
  • Special area teachers shall not be assigned more that 5 classes per day (10.13.13)
  • Exempt itinerant related service providers from duty roster supervision assignments.(10.7.5)
  • Guaranteed lunch & proportional planning for half-time employees except on delay or early release days (10.13 & 10.13.2)
  • Principals have to work with Educator Councils to determine number of non-emergency faculty meetings. Faculty meetings limited to one per week, except emergencies (10.14)
Make schools safe and orderly for students and educators
  • TABCO & BCPS will create an ad hoc committee to create a single digital discipline tracking document for all schools (19.5) due by June 20, 2021.
  • When a student has been referred from a classroom and is returning to their regular schedule, the teacher receiving them must be consulted with by the Administrator. (11.2.1)
  • Strengthens language requiring building Administrators to create discipline policies with Educator Councils in accordance with BOE policy (11.1). Behavior plans must be reviewed by Educator Council, reviewed for effectiveness, and revised as needed prior to start of school year (11.2)
  • Educators must be notified prior to a parent visit or for parent to observe instruction. (10.7.8.1)
  • Total ban on workplace bullying, and clear examples of what that looks like (Article 3.1.2)
  • Gave teachers absolute right to participate in union activity without retaliation, or arbitrary or capricious action (Article 3.1)
  • Strengthened language for educators to have clear and progressive disciplinary process (6.3)
  • Administrators have to notify teachers of right to representation before investigating matter of discipline. (6.3.3-6.3.4, 6.10)
Make school buildings safer for learning and teaching
  • Administrators must respond within 3 duty days when council raises health and safety concern. Work orders will be made available for all to see. Request for further information regarding physical plant questions shall be fulfilled within 15 duty days.(10.1.1)
  • Educators who are required to move classrooms because of construction or renovation will be given two non-teaching days to pack materials and establish a new classroom (10.1.6)
  • Educators required to pack/unpack their work areas after hours or on weekends will receive compensation. Educators will not be required to use planning/lunch to move classrooms. (10.1.6).
  • New category of Assault Leave (12.19) for educators who suffer assault on the job. Educators receive full pay, not charged to sick leave. Assault is defined (12.19.1).
  • Cleaned up and strengthened language regarding injuries educators receive on the job (12.18). Educators now will receive full pay for up to 12 months, without being charged sick leave.
  • Educators injured on the job for more than 12 months will be on leave of absence receiving workers’ compensation. (12.18.1)
  • Educators cannot be called upon to search for weapons hazardous materials or the source of a suspected fire (10.1.7)
Respect great educators by improving BCPS practices around leave and transfer:  

  • Multiple improvements to personal business leave: Only emergency use requires explanation. Ability to take consecutive days as long as doing so doesn’t unduly interfere with the course of instruction. Required timeframe for administrator responses to request for consecutive days. (12.14,12.14.1, 12.14.2)
  • Established a working group to bring sick leave language into the master agreement to increase fairness and consistency in how sick leave is granted and tracked. (19.1)
Address trauma’s role in teaching and learning
  • Mandatory Educator Council meeting to discuss significant disturbances in school, to identify causes, and steps to stop future recurrences. Council & Administrators determine together if mental health supports are required, and BCPS will provide. If educators are threatened, witness violence or the arrest of students, administrators will talk with them to determine if they need support. (9.4-9.4.2)
  • Continued collaboration between BCPS & TABCO to create guidelines on assisting worksites with educator trauma (19.3)
  • Increase reimbursement for lost or damaged property to $1,500 (from $650) (9.3.2)
Changes to observation & evaluation
  • Clarifies role of dept. Chairs, team leaders, PD teachers or other teachers in the observation process. (13.1.2, 13.1.3)
  • Teachers returning from leave of absence will now be considered effective and will be in the summative year of the 3-year observation cycle (13.1.6).
  • Clarifying timelines around post-observation conferences and post-observation reports. (13.5.5). Cleaned up language identifying teachers as ‘educators’ (13.5.9).
  • Probationary teachers coming to BCPS who were tenured must be rated ineffective, effective or highly effective (13.5.9.1)
  • All observations will require a conference with the observer. The written observation report must be given to the educator within 10 duty days. (13.6.6)
  • Clear timelines for tenured teachers to have post-observation conference and to receive post-observation write-ups. (13.8.8)
  • Clarification of signature requirements for written observations and timeline. (13.9.5)
Contract Cleanup
  • Clarified definition of supervisor (definitions section)
  • Created definition of educator council- changed from faculty council (definitions section)
  • Clarified definition of Extended Year Employment (definitions section)
  • Changed definition and references in the contract from ‘teacher’ to ‘educator’ to make it abundantly clear that when educators are referenced in the contract it is referring to all members of the bargaining unit.
  • Clarified definition of the term worksite (definitions section)
  • TABCO has access to the Staff Hub (3.12)
  • Cleaned up definitions of educator councils to include all the new definitions above. (4.3.1-4.3.2)
  • Cleaned up language around TABCO involvement in curricular matters. (4.7)
  • Clarified Union’s right to disseminate information to its members (6.5.6.1)
  • Cleaned up language identifying teachers (10.7.8)
  • Cleaned up language identifying teachers as educators (12.14.4)
  • Cleaned up language about unused personal business leave rolling over ot sick leave and being available for retirement credit (12.14.6-7)
  • Cleanup of language about extended year education (16.7.1) and priority of assignments (16.7.2)
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