Court arguments set for Thursday

Representatives for Jay School Corporation and Jay Classroom Teachers Association will appear before Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday.
They and Indiana Education Employment Relations Board, which is also involved in the long-standing contract dispute, will make oral arguments in front of the court from 10:30 to 11:10 a.m. Thursday. A decision on the case is not expected for several months.
The lawsuit dates back to 2013, when the school corporation and JCTA could not reach a contract agreement by the Sept. 30 deadline. That started a process that has included arguments in front of a fact-finder, IEERB, Marion Superior Court and Indiana Court of Appeals.
Of eight issues that were originally in dispute, only two remain. They involve salaries for employees hired after the start of the school year and compensation for regular teachers who serve as substitutes for other classes during the school day.
The fact-finder, IEERB and Marion Supreme Court all ruled in favor of the school corporation before Indiana Court of Appeals in November sided with JCTA on the two remaining issues. The school corporation and IEERB then appealed to the supreme court.
The school corporation has contended that the superintendent should be allowed to determine salaries for teachers who are hired after the school year begins.
“We’re still of the opinion that we’re on very solid legal ground with that,” said Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long on Monday. “We do not have a salary scale anymore … After the legislature changed … in 2011, we then went to a range. We feel the same as we did day one, that we have the ability to do that.”
JCTA disagrees, saying that allowing such a policy hurts the ability for it to collectively bargain salaries for all of its teachers.
“The salary issue was a big one from the get go because it opens the door to unilateral decision-making on salaries,” said Paul Szymczak, president of JCTA. “We’ve always held that collectively-bargained salaries are the fair way to go.”
The state court of appeals agreed with the teachers’ argument in its November ruling.
“We find that this provision unambiguously, impermissibly conflicts with the Association’s statutory right to collectively bargain to establish salaries,” said Chief Judge Nancy H. Vaidik in the ruling.
The other issue involves IEERB’s striking of a provision in the teachers’ contract that would have provided additional compensation when assigned to cover another teacher’s class as a substitute.
The school corporation and JCTA had agreed on the issue, but IEERB ruled that doing so was improper because it amounted to additional compensation for time worked during the regular school day. JCTA’s stance was that a teacher who gives up his or her prep period to serve as a substitute then has to do additional work outside of the school day.
In its decision in favor of the teachers’ association, Indiana Court of Appeals said such decisions should be made at the local level.