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Saturday, March 19, 2005
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School district says replacements are licensed
Staff Writers Crosby-Ironton School District Superintendent Linda Lawrie has disputed the statewide teachers' union contention that eight of the 42 replacement teachers might not be licensed.
"The teachers are licensed," she said Friday in reference to the replacement teachers.
C-I school board chair Scott Kile said that just because the teachers in question might not be listed on a Department of Education Web site as licensed doesn't mean they aren't licensed.
"The charge of Education Minnesota is not true," Kile said. "All of the replacement substitutes are licensed."
Some of them, he said, have a short-call license that is designed to allow teachers to work in a particular class they might not be certified because of a teacher shortage in that area. All of the replacement teachers, he said, were hired through the normal, required process, which included background checks.
Harley Ogata, general counsel for Education Minnesota, said the statewide teachers' union has documentation verifying with the state Department of Teaching that of the initial list of 20 names of replacement teachers supplied by the district, three of the replacement teachers do not have teaching licenses. As of now, one of the three women has an application pending but was not licensed when she was hired by the district. Ogata said the union received a response letter from school district attorney Gloria Olsen about three weeks ago after the union requested proof of licensure.
Ogata said Olsen wrote back and said the teaching licenses were pending and would be received within a few days. Ogata said if this were true, the women would be listed now on the Department of Education's Web site or all three would have pending applications even if there were a slight delay in posts made on the Web site.
"It's a clear omission from the school district that they did not have a license," said Ogata. "Let's just say the state Board of Teaching is wrong, the (Department of Education) Web site is wrong and the school district is right. That still doesn't negate the fact that at the time they were hired, they were hired unlawfully. This is just really a hard and solid deal. We don't want to make an accusation unless we can really make it stick."
Ogata said the union has not yet been able to verify with the state Board of Teaching whether five of the 20 new names of replacement teachers provided by the school district Thursday are unlicensed because certain employees in the state office are out of the office until later. The five replacement teachers' names do not appear on the Minnesota Department of Education's Web site, the official resource used by school districts to verify teacher's licenses.
Ogata said the school district could resolve the entire issue if district officials released copies of their teaching licenses.
"They could prove Education Minnesota doesn't know what they're talking about by proving they have a copy of their licenses," said Ogata. "That's all they have to do. It's very easy. They can just produce it. If they have a license, great. Show it."
Kile said he was aware of a striking C-I teacher who taught in early childhood special education when that teacher did not have the proper certification. The teacher, he said, taught for two years before receiving a specialized degree.
"It seems to me that's the kettle calling the pot black," he said of the teachers' union charges concerning teacher certification. "For the union to cry foul, when in fact no one has committed a foul ...is hypocrisy."
Asked if the school district has documentation of the teachers' licenses he said he had not finished tracking that information but to the best of his knowledge, it did.
"I believe so," he said.
Kile said the board would have to discuss the situation with legal counsel if it was learned that a teacher was not licensed, but he noted the policy of the board was to hire licensed teachers.
Sandy Needham, a staff member for the state Board of Teaching, said if someone was teaching with no license the board would have no jurisdiction. Needham said that if someone was teaching with an improper or lapsed license the matter could be taken to a disciplinary committee.
"The opposite side of the coin is that it is a violation of the code of ethics for administrators to assign an employee to work in an area where they are not properly licensed," said Ogata. He said violations of this ethics code are punishable by suspension, revocation of an administrative license or discipline.
Ogata said that school districts may obtain a variance from the state if they demonstrated to the Board of Teaching that they have a specialized teaching position that has been difficult to fill but if this occurred, the state board would have the variance listed on the teacher's file.
Any parent who wishes to check on the licensure of any Minnesota teacher or substitute teacher may visit the Department of Education Web site at http://education.state.mn.us/html/intro_licen_lookup.htm and enter the teacher's name.
C-I teachers went on strike Feb. 9. On Wednesday the school board declared negotiations were at an impasse and no further negotiations have been conducted or scheduled since that point. Also on Wednesday Education Minnesota announced the union was suing the C-I school district and its superintendent in Crow Wing County District Court.
In its civil suit, the union alleges that the district and Lawrie violated state law by hiring some replacement teachers who are not licensed to teach and unqualified. The union also alleged that the district and Lawrie committed unfair labor practices under the state Public Employment Labor Relations Act by favoring replacement teachers through the excessive rate of pay and other actions; that the district has refused to promptly release public information about the replacement teachers, in violation of the Minnesota Data Practices Act; and that Lawrie acted unlawfully by hiring and setting wages for the replacement teachers on her own.
Lawrie and Kile said fifth-graders started school Friday and their return went smoothly. So far kindergarten through fifth-graders have returned to school and are being taught by replacement teachers at Cuyuna Range Elementary School in Crosby. Juniors and seniors returned to the high school Wednesday.
The school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday in a closed session at Ironton City Hall. During the closed session the board is expected to discuss negotiations strategy and exercise its attorney-client privilege.
According to Education Minnesota, the longest teachers' strike in state history occurred in the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted School District in 1981. That strike lasted 58 days.
The C-I strike has lasted 40 days as of Sunday.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858. MIKE O'ROURKE can be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.
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