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Tuesday, March 22, 2005
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Cass judge to preside at C-I injunction hearing
Senior Reporter A Cass County judge will preside during a Wednesday hearing when the teachers' union seeks a temporary injunction against the Crosby-Ironton School District.
The civil lawsuit was opened in Crow Wing County District Court late Friday. Harley Ogata, Education Minnesota general counsel, said Crow Wing County judges thought it would be better if the matter was taken out of this jurisdiction and taken up in Cass County.
Cass County's court administration office confirmed Judge John Smith will preside during the hearing set at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Walker.
In its civil suit, the union alleges 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 C-I Superintendent Linda Lawrie committed unfair labor practices under the state Public Employment Labor Relations Act by favoring replacement teachers through an 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. The union alleges replacement teachers are being paid $300 a day compared to the probationary teacher rate of $153.75 per day and the regular substitute teacher rate of $95 per day.
Ogata said although the union strongly believes it has viable legal claims, the goal is not to win a lawsuit but to get back to talking about the issues.
"What we really want is resolution to the collective bargaining," Ogata said, adding the union hopes the information sought will help them understand more fully what is going on with the district and help get them back to the table. On March 16, the school board declared negotiations were at an impasse and no further negotiations have been conducted or scheduled since that point.
Ogata said the union will ask the judge to compel the school district to give Education Minnesota the public information it has requested and to stop committing unfair labor practices related to payments for substitute teachers. Ogata said Education Minnesota has been waiting 10 days for the information and has not heard a reason from the school district's counsel regarding why the information was not forthcoming.
Lawrie told the Dispatch she declined to provide documentation for the eight replacement teachers whose certification was questioned by the teachers' union. She said that since the union announced plans to file a lawsuit regarding information it had not received, she would let the school board's attorney handle the matter.
Education Minnesota sought the court action based in part on the district's failure to respond to the data requests and the district's assertions replacement teachers are certified, Ogata said.
Ogata added the teachers' union was concerned about the ability of the replacement teachers to maintain a proper learning environment and classroom order as long as unlicensed people are teaching in the classroom.
Crosby-Ironton's 87 teachers went on strike Feb. 9. The main points of disagreement between teachers and school district officials are contract salaries, health insurance contributions for currently active teachers and health insurance benefits for retirees.
RENEE RICHARDSON can be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
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