April 30, 2018

Colleagues,

As you know, Educator Walkouts created safety and supervision concerns and thus, Phoenix
Union High School District, had to close our sites Thursday, April 26, Friday, April 27 and
Monday, April 30, 2018.

As a result of the closure, both instructional time with students as well as contractual time for
certified employees came into question.

Upon closer review and working with the Arizona Department of Education, we have been able to
determine that for the short term, our requirements for instructional time with students may be met
in spite of the unexpected closure. Our contractual time for certified employees, however, will not
be met. This new information leads us to believe that we may not have to make up time with
students but creates a situation where certified employees have been paid for their time, but not
been present at work. This would constitute a gift of public funds.

In light of this, the District will report time for all certified employees for these three days (April
27'h and using both the AESOP and Visions systems. No action will be required by any
certified employee. Employees? personal leave will be automatically deducted for the days of the
Educator Walkout which necessitated school closures.

This action has the potential to create ?zero balances" or docks in pay for employees who did not
have the personal leave to cover these three days. As such, District and Association leadership are
working on creating a leave donation program to provide assistance for the first three days to
minimize financial impact to certified employees. Certified Staff will have the option of both
donating time and asking to receive time to offset the loss of compensation (ie: no pay status).
Requests for donation will be honored provided time donated meets the need.

Should additional days of Educator Walkout necessitate additional days of school closures because
of safety and supervision concerns, certified staff will be required to report their time using the
AESOP system. AESOP can be accessed at click on the Staff Tab and
select, ASEOP Absence Reporting. For these absences the Donation Bank will not be available. We
will continue to monitor staff absences and take appropriate steps for reporting of absences for
additional days, if needed in response to Educator Walkouts.

 

Ensuring student safety is our first priority. This is still a very fluid situation and it is unknown
whether school closures due to Educator Walkouts will continue. Additional communication about
next steps will be provided daily.

Sincerely,

CT A President Executive Director, Finance Executive Director, Talent
Resha Gentry-Ballance Mary F. Kober Laura E. Telles