Grand Forks teacher contract negotiators discuss special educator workload tool
Apr. 9—GRAND FORKS — Much of a special education workload committee presentation to school district and union negotiators Tuesday focused on a new tool that committee members said could better balance educators' caseloads.
Administrators and special education teachers on the joint Grand Forks Public Schools-Grand Forks Education Association committee offered broadly positive assessments of the workload analysis tool, which is being rolled out in district schools as a result of the committee's research.
Until recently, special ed teachers' workload was based on a "weighted" system that only factored in the number of students assigned to a speech pathologist, occupational therapist, deaf and hard of hearing teacher or other special educator, and the minutes of the day spent with that student.
"A lot of things were missed because it only allowed us to look at a student and their minutes," Executive Director of Special Education Elisa Diederich said.
Diederich said the new system took into account additional factors like time spent in meetings, filing paperwork, or completing duties specific to an individual teacher.
The district and the teachers union agreed to establish a workload review committee after the 2023 negotiations season to investigate and propose solutions to a yearslong crisis of overwork and burnout among special educators.
The committee's report
was provided to negotiators for both parties at last week's opening negotiations session.
Diederich said the tool's better accounting of how special ed teachers spend their time could help "protect" teachers' designated prep and lunch time, which special educators often lose out on due to job demands.
Business Manager Brandon Baumbach told the Herald in October that special education teachers filed for some 1,288 hours of Teacher Coverage compensation last year, a figure that likely undercounts the additional hours that special educators put in throughout the school year.
Two special education teachers on the committee, Marie DeMarce Garner and Katie Wood, gave the tool positive reviews in their comments to the board.
"From my colleagues, I'm hearing, 'I like it, I'm feeling a lot more represented,'" Wood said.
The committee presentation also addressed the need for better paraprofessional training, more training for general education teachers and administrators on special educators' responsibilities, as well as designating "team leaders" to manage paraprofessionals in school buildings.
The committee's report did not call for hiring more special education staff, though Diederich and Assistant Director of Special Education Carrie Weippert obliquely acknowledged that may be necessary to address the burden on current special ed teachers.
"Special education teachers serve kids all hours of the day, except for prep and lunch. So I think where we're getting to is you're not going to serve (kids) all hours of the day," Weippert said. "We have to allocate time to designate for paras, which might mean there's less time to serve kids, which may mean we need additional staff."
The GFEA's opening proposal includes requests for pay bumps for special education teachers who take on additional responsibilities, like managing paraprofessionals.
Lead district negotiator Amber Flynn raised concerns about how efforts at the federal level to dismantle the U.S. Education Department could impact local funding for special education.
Funding from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act currently covers between 8.5% to 9% of district special education spending, Diederich said.
"I think all of us would say 'we'd love to open up the doors and hire more staff and more paras,'" Flynn said. "But how do we even begin to compensate (for) special ed or even think about what to do when we have no idea what's going to happen?"
Flynn later told the Herald her comments were not meant to preclude considering salary boosts for special educators, but said the district needed to balance serving students with changing federal circumstances.
Head union negotiator Melissa Buchhop told the Herald negotiators need to find a middle ground between those concerns and special ed staff's needs.
"There are a lot of unknowns and we can't really do the 'if, if, if, if, if,'" Buchhop said. "We have to look at 'how do you keep your staff?' Because if we don't do something, what are we going to do if all of our special education staff leave?"
Activities Director Mike Biermeier opened Tuesday's negotiations with another report, this one focused on staff compensation for overseeing extracurricular activities.
Biermeier's report, also requested by negotiators in 2023, focused on updating contract language, changing contract lengths to match current activities seasons, and adding several extracurricular positions that had not previously been included in the contract.
It also compared the district's current pay scale for activities with other large districts.
GFEA negotiators agreed to a district proposal allowing new hires to bring in 25 years of teaching experience onto the salary schedule, up from 15.
The School Board has issued an increased number of experience waivers in recent years, reflecting the limited labor supply for certain teaching positions.
The district agreed in spirit to a GFEA proposal calling for a pay boost for teachers who teach a sixth online course in addition to their five contracted courses, asking for a small change to the contract language.
It rejected a union request that would have boosted pay for elementary teachers teaching multiple grades at once and secondary teachers teaching hybrid classes, with Flynn saying the two were not comparable.
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