2024 ACSA Personnel & Negotiations Symposium

Public school employees have the protected right under the Educational Employment Relations Act (“EERA”) to engage in union activity, which includes but is not limited to, speaking out about contract negotiations and/or a labor dispute, and criticizing the employer and its administration regarding matters related to working conditions. The Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) has, and continues to, provide employees with wide latitude to engage in such protected speech, including some leeway for impulsive, intemperate, abusive and inaccurate conduct and statements. Employers have to carefully balance the employee’s right to engage in protected conduct with the employer’s right to maintain a professional and respectful workplace. During this presentation, DWK attorneys Candace Bandoian and Ellen Wu will discuss, through actual case scenarios, the parameters of protected and unprotected activity and the potential consequences for taking adverse action against an employee deemed to have engaged in protected activity.

Before negotiations begin, there are key steps to take. With years of experience at negotiating tables in circumstances both good and bad, these presenters provide keys to more promising bargaining interactions and outcomes. They will describe the necessary steps to take and even provide a checklist!

AALRR

Today, more than ever before, administrators are confronted with complex issues threatening the academic success of students and the daily operation of schools.  As we continue to adapt and respond to these challenges facing school districts, it is important now, more than ever, that we embrace a new mindset for how we lead and govern.

Although statutes, case law, and workshops commonly address the various legal parameters underlying school districts’ duty to bargain, the basics of the psychology of bargaining are typically not considered. Dr. Jack Lipton, Chair of Burke, Williams & Sorensen’s Education Law Group, who is an attorney with a Ph.D. in Psychology, will team up with Mark E. Wilson and John R. Yeh, experienced labor negotiators, to go beyond the traditional workshop parameters to discuss practical approaches to negotiations informed by the psychological aspects of human behavior, as well as using psychology to respond effectively to union bargaining tactics.

3 Key Audience Takeaways:

1. Understanding the fundamental principles of human psychology that come into play at the bargaining process.
2. Learn how human psychological reactions can both impede and facilitate the bargaining process.
3. Hear about specific bargaining techniques and approaches that are informed by psychological principles.

Bullying among students in the K-12 setting is hardly a new phenomenon but the increasing number of employee complaints about bullying is new. School district human resources professionals often face hurdles in investigating and analyzing employee bullying allegations. Most school districts do not have stand-alone bullying policies that pertain to employees, yet the complaints still come in and need to be investigated. It is often challenging to define bullying and distinguishing bullying from unlawful hostile work environment, unprofessionalism or legitimate business behaviors. This presentation will help HR professionals sort the wheat from the chaff by reviewing common bullying behaviors and find definitions in District policies, even when there is no separate policy. The training will provide tips for gathering relevant evidence and a framework within which administrators can analyze that evidence, make clear findings and ultimately determine what, if any personnel action is required as a result.

The 2024 Title IX regulations have caused districts to re-evaluate, adjust, and implement various Title IX policies and procedures. This workshop provides attendees with an overarching legal and practical framework for implementing the new Title IX regulations. Representative topics and areas of focus include:

Is your workplace infected with stereotypes, cronyism, and favoritism? Does it value workplace “culture” over inclusivity and skill? If so, it might be a victim of implicit bias. This workshop will review cases where courts have (and have not) recognized implicit bias as a form of discrimination.

3 Key Audience Takeaways:

1. Learn about the psychological basis for implicit bias.
2. Review how implicit bias can affect personnel decisions through court cases and workplace scenarios.
3. Hear about how to implement a specific standards-based hiring and evaluation process to counter the impact of implicit bias.

The time to think more strategically about how we recruit and retain new teachers as well as leverage their experience in our schools is here. As budget shortfalls and declining enrollment converge with heightened calls for our teachers to make massive advances with their students on both academic and social-emotional fronts, our old practices are simply not enough—nor are they sustainable.

More and more districts across the nation are turning to strategic staffing approaches as a way to work smarter. Strategic staffing helps districts build new teacher pipelines for critical subject areas, like special education and STEM. At the same time, they enable schools to better support their students’ academic learning needs in classrooms. It all starts with being more strategic with our existing budget dollars.

In our session, you will learn how Corona-Norco USD developed a reciprocal partnership with our regional educator preparation program (EPP), designed a teacher residency model together to elevate our paraeducators, and then leveraged their instructional experience and expertise to deliver top-notch and cost-effective academic interventions for our students along the way.

An interactive presentation which dissects and reviews the many leaves available to classified and certificated employees, including those provided under the PWFA and the ADA, and how to manage and coordinate leaves in full compliance with the law. We will explore common and the more challenging scenarios, including navigating the interactive processes and “reasonable accommodations,” under both the ADA and the PWFA, and also how best to maneuver the complex web of leaves A through Z.