Edited by author 08-04-2005 12:26 PM
All contracts are a series of compromises the bargaining team recommends and supports the proposed tentative agreement. We value member input and would like to know what you think of specific issues. Please feel free to give input using this discussion format in lieu of using district email for this purpose.

Thank you bargaining team. I support the T.A. I will vote yes.
But I may step down as a MS curriculum leader.

I have lots of concerns about the "Job Description for MS Curriculum Leaders". (A position I currently hold.) I am not aware of any similar job description for HS department chairs, though I may have missed it on my CD copy of the old contract.

I feel uneasy that my comments can be read by anyone who visits the annarborea web site, which is why I didn't use my name.

Could we get a clarification of the opening day, Monday, being a day of instruction. My understanding at the union meeting explaining the TA is that it constitutes an additional instructional day on the calendar, to replace 6 hours of out of school professional development requirements. is this so?

On the other hand, the total number of instructional hours (1098?) is unchanged, so I'm quite confused.

Edited by author 08-09-2005 12:18 PM
Re: Middle School advisory- I was surprised to see 7.524 modifications. The AAES has held steadfast to the "no required prep" for advisory since we lost our prep period for the advisory class. An interview with each advisee? And what would we do with the rest of our class while conducting what I would assume should be a private discussion with each advisee first semester, and then "as requested". "As requested" by whom? Parents? Student? Principals? Other staff? Requiring us to report units "addressed" (what are the expectations of "addressing" an advisor unit vs. "teaching" a unit?). Our advisory classes are really pretty short, when we include announcements, administrative buisiness & passing out whatever handouts are given to us by various groups, & attendance that must be sent in electronically before the end of advisory.

Edited by author 08-09-2005 05:27 PM
I feel that required lunch duty in the cafeteria for middle school staff should be reimbursed just as before and after school duty has been changed so that staff are now reimbursed. This regular assigned lunch duty is a vestige from the original middle school structure when we had more prep times. It would never fly with AAEA members at the elementary or high school levels- I do wonder if that is because middle school teachers are fewer in number (being only three grades of the thirteen grade levels), that this requirement (which is not mandated at elementary or high school levels) continues to fester. I understand (though I could be mistaken) that at some middle schools some teachers do before or after school duty in lieu of a required lunch duty day. Does this mean that they will now be reimbursed for their time, but not the staff who do lunch duty? I am only objecting to the ongoing, REQUIRED AND UNREIMBURSED nature of lunch duty at the middle school level. I, as well as many other AAEA members often use my lunch (20 minutes at the middle school (excluding the five minutes passing time)), to meet with students or to host a gathering of students in my classroom, or even to "hang" in the cafeteria. This is done on a voluntary basis, however. Mandating and scheduling it in, however, should require some type of reimbursement, just as before and after school duty now do.

This being the second contract in a row where we lose money, will there ever come a time when a raise is a raise?
Varsity bowling????

I agree with disheartened! When you look at our paychecks once school starts, our raise will be what, 10-20 dollars a check, depending on health care plan? Kind of a joke considering the money our district is spending on other things, lawyer fees, settlements, etc... In a world where professionals like doctors and lawyers are making it big, us teaching professionals are still struggling.

I would like all teachers to be issued a copy of the Community Blue insurance that we (I'm guessing) can all choose if we find that our CHOICE to keep our current insurance is too costly. I understand that we do have the choice to keep our current insurance but at the cost to ourselves - this is not a positive. I would also like to know when we can make changes to our insurance if we choose to make a change.

I am so grateful that Messa is still available. A good solid health plan that is NOT MESSA is perfectly fine for for most people most of the time. Get a rare condition or disease (and if you add up all the possible "rare" conditions there probably are a whole lot of them), and you might want/need more flexibility than a standard plan offers. I have two family members who had been diagnosed with a rare condition that was truly life threatening, and required major surgeries. So rare, that at the time my husband was diagnosed with it, there was no one in the local area at the U of M or St. Joes who knew a whole lot about the condition, or who had treated more than one or two people with this condition. The specialist who knew most about the condition in the area was at Detroit Medical Center, so that is where my husband went- no problem there- we had MESSA. Yes, the doctors at the U of M or St. Joes WOULD have treated him- no- they did not have much experience with the condition and were not up on the latest research. I once worked with a resident at U of M who was diagnosed with a bone cancer in her arm. She elected to have that surgery done in Boston because the surgeon there performed a couple of surgeries a month like the type she was having done, and she felt that the surgery would go more smoothly if it were done by a surgeon who was very familiar and comfortable with the procedure. The doctor who could/would have done it at the U had only done three of these procedures at the time. A teenage neighbor of mine has just been diagnosed this summer with a rare type of sarcoma. There are nine cases per year identified. He is heading down to Texas for a consultation at family expense because the family's usually very adequate health insurance won't cover it (even though his doctors here at the U feel that this consultation is a good idea). My OB/GYN is affiliated with St. Joes & not the U of M. She needed to refer me to a cancer specialist and felt the best person for me to see was at the OB/GYN cancer center at the U of M. Yes, if I had insurance through Care Choices there was someone there she could refer me to at St. Joes, but he was not her first choice for several reasons. Guess what- Turns out I'm a rare case- the specialists' specialist sees about one or two cases per year that present as mine does, but because he does groundbreaking research in this area, he knows the latest treatments and can explain ALL my options. It is a relief for me to know that all these options are available and that I don't have to go through red tape, arguing with the insurance company etc. at a time when I can least deal with red tape. I realize that MESSA is expensive, and that it is the Cadillac of our insurances. Some of us are willing to sacrifice some of our paycheck to have that insurance, so that we can be covered for treatment wherever, and by whomever we feel can provide the BEST medical care for our health issues. The flexibilty that MESSA allows is unsurpassed, and I have felt so fortunate to be able to have it. When facing life/death situations, I, personally, will fight to keep MESSA as my family's coverage, and will be willing to pay the additional costs to keep it. Thank you AAEA for supporting us on this one.

Thank you "keep the choices" I thoroughly agree with your thoughts. I too have been surprised with conditions not treated easily with conventional care and Messa pays for my DO who does acupuncture, massage by the chiropractor and various other not terribly expensive but very helpful treatments for my condition. I still pay some out of pocket expenses, but Messa is a blessing. Thanks to our negotiation team! Keep it for next year too, whatever the cost. Moi aussi

in the spring we went to a long meeting where we were given a sheet that compared care choices hmo, mcare hmo, messa supercare 1 and blue cross-blue shield ppo....now it seems that the blue cross blue sheild ppo has vanished and been replaced with messa choices II ppo...is the messa choices II ppo the same thing as blue cross-blue sheild ppo??? my questions:
1) are these one and the same?
2) is the blue cross-blue shield ppo an option for teachers?
3) what is the cost of the blue cross-blue shield ppo?

The ppo for BCBS is the one the district has where they monitor our every health care need. We did not want to have our psychotherapy monitored and then dropped because too may of us were using it...or to let people in our district or others perhaps have a chance to look to see who is getting what services. Mostly, though, we don't want to have services dropped because we use them and that is what they can do with that ppo. If you don't get sick and don't want to pay choose MCare, which I hear is terrible: you can get phyical therapy once in your lifetime on each part of your body. For instance, if you have carpal tunnel syndrome and go for 6 sessions, you can never go for that again and get any coverage. We are so lucky to be able to get MESSA because if you have some catastrophic disease or accident, it will pay for whatever you need. And you never, NEVER know what may happen.

I would gladly trade a raise for the best health coverage!
MESSA Super Care is the only choice I would consider!

Edited by author 08-12-2005 10:56 PM
I think it's great that we have MESSA available. We filled out surveys, and we got what we requested: a choice.

What I don't think is great is people jumping for joy when hearing that we get to keep these choices rather than getting a raise. We should not be satisfied with no raise. I will go so far as to say that if this is the best we can get, so be it.

Please remember that as all of our cost of living expenses are going up (not only health insurance), our salaries are not going up. This is not reason to be happy. This is reason to worry for our future as workers.

One big problem that we have is that we are fighting with our district over health insurance plans. Unfortunately, neither the teachers unions nor the AAPS administration has any power to change the cost of health care. I think what we need to do is band together to make our elected officials change the way we take care of our citizens. Education works best when it's not-for-profit, we need to start thinking about our health care the same way.