Some of you may remember that in March 2004, CCEA obtained a very favorable grievance arbitration award regarding the seven period day.  That decision resulted from a seventh period being implemented at O'Callaghan Middle School in the 2000-2001 school year.  The arbitrator determined that this was in violation of the negotiated agreement and ordered the District to cease and desist from violating the contract.  Although there were other pending grievances regarding the seven period day, the District took the position that the March 2004 arbitration decision did not apply district wide but only to O'Callaghan.

This school year, the District sought to implement a seventh period day at Fremont Middle School without obtaining a contract waiver.  The District argued that the March 2004 decision only held that you could not reduce the existing six periods to make the seventh, thus the District could take time from passing periods, and before and after school time to make up the seventh period without violating the March 2004 decision.  CCEA sought a temporary restraining order in the Eighth Judicial District Court in August to prevent the seventh period day schedule from being implemented at Fremont.  Although the Judge stated that CCEA had a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, the temporary restraining order could not be granted because of the undue hardship it would cause to the District in having to redo schedules for students.

After the temporary restraining order hearing, the District agreed to consolidate and schedule all pending seven period day grievances and the arbitration was held on September 27, 2007.   Fremont had two grievances filed for two different school years, 2001-2002 and 2007-2008.  Woodbury also had a grievance filed for the 2003-2004 school year.  After the evidence was entered, the Arbitrator requested written closing briefs in lieu of oral argument.  Upon receipt of the transcript of the proceedings, the parties will have 30 days to submit the closing brief to the Arbitrator and the Arbitrator will then have 30 days to render a decision.

Significantly, the District conceded that it had violated the negotiated agreement at Woodbury for the 2003-2004 and the 2004-2005 school years.  The only issue that the Arbitrator will decide is what the appropriate remedy will be for teachers who had to teach a seventh period day at Woodbury for those two school years.  Teachers should be reminded that a seventh period day is a violation of the contract unless a contract waiver has passed at that school.  It is up to teachers to enforce the contract by notifying CCEA of possible contract violations.  Please remember that there are timelines in which grievances must be filed and, therefore, it is imperative that you call immediately when you think a contract violation has occurred.