The Edinburg AFT leaders and building representatives will be meeting with the Dr. Rene Gutierrez, superintendent of Edinburg CISD on Wednesday, February 8th after school. The members will be direct in their questions and ask the superintendent that now that he has received a four-year contract can the teacher's two-year contract be reinstated? The reasons used to justify a four-year contract can be used to defend a two-year contract for teachers.
Other issues are a teacher's contract is now for 10 months and not for 187 days as stipulated by payroll. Employees are concerned that there is no language in district policy that protects educators from being given work on Saturday and Sunday, and that holidays are not listed as time off for contracted employees but are listed for hourly employees. If an employee runs out of sick leave will their check be deducted by 187 or by 294 to determine their daily rate? This at a time when the employee faces financial and medical hardships.
Finally, there will be questions on the employee clinic the continued high cost of the deductables and price employees are paying for their insurance. Can the monthly amount be reduced? When can the Employee Clinic begin to open.
There are many concerns and one more is the STAAR and the End-of-Course exams. If a student wishing to go to an Ivy League school is adversely affected by the test score (15% or more is used to figure GPA) will that student be able to retest? Why has the state make it valid to affect the student's GPA and it is not valid to score a campus or school district? Some questions will need to be answered by state legislators and not the superintendent but the concerns employees have are both as educators and parents.