Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 5, Part 6.

Under present law, upon the submission by 15 percent or more of the professional employees in an LEA of a written request to conduct collaborative conferencing with a board of education between October 1 and November 1 of any year, the board of education must appoint an equal number of its professional employees and board members to serve on a special question committee for the purpose of conducting a confidential poll of all eligible professional employees.<br /> <br /> The confidential poll must be by secret ballot and must require the employee to respond to two questions. The first question must request the employee to respond YES or NO to the question:<br /> <br /> Shall the professional employees of this LEA undertake collaborative conferencing with the board of education?<br /> <br /> If the employee responds YES to the first question, then the second question must request that the employee indicate which organization the employee prefers to represent the employee in collaborative conferencing by checking the box related to one of the professional employees' organizations having a presence in the LEA. The second question must also include a box for the response of unaffiliated, if an employee does not have a preference as to a professional employees' organization. If the employee responds NO to the first question, then the second question must request the employee to express a preference for one of the professional employees' organizations. The second question must also provide for a response of unaffiliated, if an employee does not have a preference of a professional employees' organization, or a response of none of the above, if the employee does not want to be represented in collaborative conferencing, if such conferencing should occur.<br /> <br /> No board of education has a duty or obligation to engage in collaborative conferencing with its professional employees pursuant to this part unless a majority of those eligible to vote in the poll respond YES to the first question. Upon receiving the results of the poll in which the majority of those eligible to vote respond YES to the first question, the board of education must appoint at least seven, but no more than 11 persons, to serve as management personnel. The professional employees must be entitled to the same number of representatives as the number of management personnel selected by the board of education. The professional employee representatives must be selected according to each organization's proportional share of the responses to the second question; provided, however, that only those professional employees' organizations receiving 15 percent or more of the responses to the second question must be entitled to representation. The category of unaffiliated as a response to the second question, but not the category of none of the above, must be considered a professional employees' organization.<br /> <br /> If 15 percent or more of the professional employees polled indicate a preference for an unaffiliated representative, then the special question committee must select and appoint a person or persons to serve as an unaffiliated representative or representatives according to the proportional share of responses to the second question in the category unaffiliated. The term of the members of the panel constituted as the result of a poll in which the majority of those eligible to vote respond YES to the first question must be three years. If a vacancy occurs on the panel, then the appointing body which appointed the member to the position that became vacant must appoint a replacement for the remainder of the term. Prior to expiration of the terms of the members of the panel, a new poll must be conducted under to determine whether the professional employees want to continue to engage in collaborative conferencing. Notwithstanding provisions to the contrary, a memorandum of understanding may provide for polls after a poll in which the majority of those eligible to vote responded YES to the first question to occur more frequently than once every three years. The term of the members selected for the panel after such poll must be the length of time specified by the memorandum of understanding between two polls.<br /> <br /> Each professional employees' organization receiving 15 percent or more of the responses must select and appoint the appropriate number of persons to serve as representatives of the professional employees preferring that organization. The board of education must select and appoint its representatives. Representatives must be appointed no later than December 1.<br /> <br /> This bill changes the term of the members of the panel constituted as a result of the poll to be based on a majority of votes for YES, instead of a majority of eligible voters, to the first question and changes the term to be for three years from the date one which a memorandum of understanding is approved. This bill also deletes the requirement that representatives must be appointed no later than December 1. <br /> <br /> UNLAWFUL ACTS<br /> <br /> Under present law, it is unlawful for a board of education or its management personnel to do the following:<br /> <br /> (1) Impose or threaten to impose reprisals on professional employees or discriminate against professional employees by reason of their exercise of rights guaranteed by the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act of 2011 (the "Act");<br /> <br /> (2) Interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed under law;<br /> <br /> (3) Refuse or fail to participate in collaborative conferencing;<br /> <br /> (4) Refuse to permit any professional employees' organization to have access at reasonable times before or after the instructional day to areas in which professional employees work, to use institutional bulletin boards, mail boxes or other communication media or to use institutional facilities as permitted by a local board's policy or procedure for community use at reasonable times for the purpose of holding a meeting concerned with the exercise of the rights guaranteed by the Act;<br /> <br /> (5) Encourage or discourage membership in any organization by discrimination in hiring, granting of tenure, or other terms or conditions of employment. The board of education or management personnel may express any views or opinions on the subject of employer-employee relations if such expression contains no threat of reprimand, discharge, or promise of benefits;<br /> <br /> (6) Discharge or discriminate against an employee because the employee has filed an affidavit, petition, or complaint or given any information or testimony under the Act; or<br /> <br /> (7) Dominate, interfere, or assist in the administration of any professional employee organization. <br /> <br /> This bill changes (3) to make it unlawful for a board of education or its management personnel to refuse to fail or participate in good faith in collaborative conferencing. This bill also applies the prohibitions above to the board's management team and its director of schools.<br /> <br /> MEMORANDUMS OF UNDERSTANDING<br /> <br /> If agreement is reached by the management personnel of the board of education and the representatives of its professional employees, then they must jointly prepare a proposed memorandum of understanding. A memorandum of understanding is binding on the parties from the date of its approval by the board of education as an item on the agenda of a regular or special called board meeting or at a later effective date that is explicitly stated in the memorandum of understanding. However, the Act does not require collaborative conferencing, agreement on any terms and conditions of employment, or, if agreement has not been reached between the board of education and the representatives of the professional employees, a memorandum of understanding.<br /> <br /> This bill adds that once a memorandum of understanding has been agreed to in the collaborative process, the director of schools must present the memorandum of understanding to the board of education within 60 days. If the board votes to disapprove the memorandum of understanding, then the parties must return to the conferencing table to continue to confer to try and reach an agreement. This bill also deletes collaborative conferencing from the list of things that the Act does not require.<br />