California Labor Management Initiative Fall 2015 Regional Convening

November 16, 2015 Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce

Los Angeles, CA

Presenters: Dr. Mary Sieu, Superintendent-ABC Unified School District Ray Gaer, President-ABC Federation of Teachers Maynard Law, President-ABC Board of Education Rebecca Michel-Macias, President-ABC CSEA

ABC’s Collaborative Labor Management Partnership

q  Located in southeast corner of Los Angeles County

q  Serving the communities of Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, portions of Lakewood and Norwalk

14%

40%15%

15%

0%11%5%

Artesia

Cerritos

Hawaiian Gardens

Lakewood

Long Beach, LaPalma, CypressNorwalk

Out of District

QUICK FACTS OF ABC UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Ethnic Breakdown

0%

40%

10%

42%

8% American Indian/ AlaskanNativeAsian/Pacif ic Islander

African American

Hispanic

White

QUICK FACTS OF ABC UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

q  Student Population: 32,469 (PreK-Adult) q  30 Schools – 19 Elementary Schools; 5 Middle

Schools; 5 High Schools; 1 Adult School; 10 Preschools

q  Low Income Families – 51% q  English Learners – 20% q  Attendance Rate – 96% q  Graduation Rate – 93.7% q  District’s Drop Out Rate - 2.3% q  Total Number of ABC Employees - 3,446

QUICK FACTS OF ABC UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

q RELATIONSHIPS

q COMMUNICATION

q TIME

q COMMON VISION

q  From strife to stability (1993) q  Harvard School of Management Conference-”Labor

Management in the Public School System” q  New leadership (1999)

§  New superintendent and new board commit to collaborate with the teachers’ union toward goal of student achievement

q  Creating a new partnership between labor and management

q  Creating new strategies, structures, and systems for collaboration (South Side Schools Reading Collaborative)

The ABC Partnership is a collaborative effort to improve student achievement and to enhance the teaching and working environment for faculty, staff, and administration through the institutional partnering of colleagues in the ABC Unified School District and the ABC Federation of Teachers.

Faculty and administration should have a voice in those decisions that reflect the collaborative efforts and goals of the partnership emphasizing a common understanding of the issues, joint research, sharing of information, mutual respect, and working together to ensure each others’ success.

The Partnership’s Mission Statement

q  All students can succeed and we will not accept any excuse that prevents that from happening in ABC. We will work together to promote student success.

q  All needed support will be made available to schools to ensure every student succeeds. We will work together to ensure that happens.

The Partnership’s Guiding Principles

q  The top 5% of teachers in our profession should teach our students. We will work together to hire, train, and retain these professionals.

q  All employees contribute to student success. q  All negotiations support conditions that sustain

successful teaching and student learning. This is the MAIN THING!

q  We won’t let each other fail!

The Partnership’s Guiding Principles

q  We will work hard to understand the core of each other’s job.

q  We will respect each other. q  We will be honest with each other. q  We will not “sugar coat” difficult issues. q  We will disagree without being disagreeable. q  We will reflect on each other’s comments,

suggestions, and concerns.

The Partnership’s Guiding Principles-Behaviors

q  We will seek clarification until we understand. q  We will maintain confidentiality. q  We will both “own the contract.” q  We will solve problems rather than win

arguments. q  We will laugh at ourselves and with each

other.

The Partnership’s Guiding Principles-Behaviors

Academic Services

•  Transitional Kindergarten

•  CA Common Core Standards

•  SMARTER Balance Assessment

• PROPS (Proactive Problem Solving)

Superintendent’s Office

• Weekly meetings

• Shared principles; beliefs

• PAL Council

Business Services

• Insurance Benefits Committee

• Budget Workshops

• Finance and Audit Committee

School Services

• Liaison with Principals – Training (COMPASS)

• Problem-Solving

• PAL Survey Committee

Human Resources

•  Negotiations

• Recruitment and Retirement Fairs

•  New Teacher Orientation

•  Personnel Issues

District

and

ABCFT

Collaborations

ABC-ABCFT District Level Collaborations

Board of Education

Superintendent Union President Chief Financial Officer Chief Negotiator Asst. Supt. HR Union President and Chief Negotiator Asst. Supt. Academic PASS Coordinator and VP Elem. Curriculum and P.D. VP HS and VP MS Special Education VP Special Education

Special Ed Advisory Committee Information Technology Union President Coordinator of Child Dev VP-Child Development ABC Management All Labor Unions District Cabinet ABCFT Executive Board Principals Site Reps

q  Attend budget workshops together

q  Chief Business Officer and Chief Negotiator meet and compare numbers

q  Budget overview meetings with all unions and management led by the superintendent

q  Greater understanding of expenditures and revenues

q  Hybrid: Traditional with interest based feeling tone

q  Guiding principles are considered

q  Pre-negotiations’ conversations frequently occur

q  Rational for proposals are clear and reasonable

q  We understand each others’ political realities

q  Trust has been built over time

q  We won’t let each other fail

q  Ability to collaborate in a union partnership is a criteria used when selecting new administrators

q  Union representation is present on all administrator interview panels

q  Union’s point of view and input is valued and considered when making major District decisions

q  New principal training and orientation

q  Annual full day P.A.L. retreat with site administrators and site union reps

q  Created in 1999 q  Collaborative planning group q  Focus on team building, communication, staff

development q  P.A.L. Retreat has been replicated in other districts

Our Partnership Story: q  ABCFT invites CSEA to their PAL Retreat q  Dr. Sieu asked if CSEA would be interested in

creating a partnership? YES!

Why a Partnership? A Partnership would: q  Improve Communication q  Build positive relationships q  Create change q  Help us focus on a common goal

The Planning Begins q  Monthly meetings with the Superintendent q  Ongoing meetings held with HR Administrators q  Together we decided on the common goal of

providing Professional Development for classified staff

q  We proudly named our partnership PAL 2 q  Assembled a PAL 2 Advisory Committee:

Director-HR, CSEA President, CSEA-VP, a secretary from elementary, middle, and high schools, and District Office classified staff

q  Surveyed classified employees and administrators

Professional Development q  This first workshop began with 175 employees,

“Hidden Keys to Personal Success” (June 2012)

q  Adopted the motto “World Class Customer Service”

q  Last four years we have offered a full menu of Professional Development opportunities

q  Customer Service, Building Positive Relationships, Technology Workshops, Common Core, PBIS, Empowering Conversations

Through this partnership we have: q  Built mutual trust q  Improved communication q  Improved employees’ skills q  Created a positive working environment for our

employees q  Worked together to resolve conflicts and employee

issues q  Developed a better understanding at the negotiations

table q  Made a commitment to the overall success of our

students, staff, and the community we serve Everything is awesome…when you are part of a team!

q  Partnerships are about RELATIONSHIPS and trust that are established over time

q  Practice PAL with fidelity, authenticity, and open COMMUNICATION

q  Working together takes TIME and commitment

q  Keep the focus on student achievement…. our COMMON VISION

q Dr. Mary Sieu mary.sieu@abcusd.us

q Ray Gaer ray.gaer@abcusd.us

q Maynard Law maynardthelaw@gmail.com

q Rebecca Michel-Macias

rebecca.michel-macias@abcusd.us

ABC Unified School District