Turlock teachers prevail in grievance over mass grade switches at Crowell Elementary

A labor arbitrator has sustained contract grievances filed by the Turlock Teachers Association over six teachers who had their grades switched last year at Crowell Elementary School.

“According to the advisory arbitration decision, the Crowell reassignments were based on the educational needs of the district; however, the arbitrator concluded that the district did not clearly explain those educational needs during the reassignment process,” said Heidi Lawler, Turlock Unified School District assistant superintendent of human resources, in an email.

“It is always the district’s intent to follow the collective bargaining agreement, and the district believes that it is in everyone’s best interest to learn from these types of situations in order to move forward while refining practices and procedures.

“Following receipt of the advisory decision, TUSD administration met with each of the teachers who were included in the decision and offered to return them to their 2013-2014 assignments,” the statement said.

The six were among a dozen teachers, roughly one-third of the teaching staff, reassigned in spring 2014 by then-Principal Linda Alaniz. Alaniz said at the time the changes were routine, and teachers throughout the district were being reassigned.

But Crowell teachers took their protest to the school board in May 2014. Teacher Pattie Langpaap told the board said she spent two years getting fifth-grade lessons ready for Common Core but would be sent to a new grade for 2014-15. “We are out of time, money, energy, effort and, most of all, passion for our careers,” she said.

After the meeting, teachers said they were told the changes were to have a better balance of teachers in each grade level, to facilitate the by-grade preparation for Common Core lessons.

Wednesday’s announcement from the union said arbitrator John F. Wormuth found there were no permissible grounds for the involuntary transfers.

“It was a bad move for students, having teachers arbitrarily flip-flopped from one grade level to another. This rights that wrong,” said Turlock Teachers Association President Julie Shipman.

Shipman said the mass reassignments moved teachers to grade levels they had no experience teaching, and all had already prepared lessons to be ready for Common Core State Standards.

“It was disruptive academically and professionally,” she said.

The TTA statement said the decision means administrators will need to comply with the negotiated agreement and base personnel decisions on sound educational basis. “And that means teacher experience needs to be factored in,” Shipman said.

After eight years at Crowell, Alaniz moved in December to a new post as assistant principal at Turlock Adult School. Margaret Osmer became principal at the campus, which sits at Geer Road and North Avenue.

This story was originally published June 4, 2015 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Turlock teachers prevail in grievance over mass grade switches at Crowell Elementary."