Archive: February 1999

Bilingual/ESL

There were changes in two areas of Article 23 - Bilingual/ESL teachers.

Section 23.1 - Bilingual Assignments

Language was inserted to address the assignment of students of multiple levels in a secondary ESL classroom. "The District shall not assign more than two (2) ESL levels to a secondary ESL class, except in ceases of emergency." Emergency is not defined in the contract. It is defined in the dictionary.

Section 23.2 - Translation of Materials

The new contract clarifies what translation services are "unrelated to their classroom assignment and in addition to their normal responsibilities." Such translation services are to be compensated beyond regular salary. The new language reads, "The site administrator and the bilingual unit member(s) on site shall establish an annual understanding that any of the following services provided by the unit members unrelated to their assignment(s) shall be compensated as set forth herein: translation of parent letters, school site materials, newsletters, and materials with a school focus beyond the individual classroom; and interpretation at parent conferences for administrators and support personnel, other meetings with monolingual staff (i.e. IEP's, 504's, SST), and school wide activities (i.e. assemblies, parent meetings).

In addition a section was added addressing future assignments of bilingual interns and those hired on emergency credentials. Section 23.6 commits such unit members who are trained by the District and obtain bilingual certification to "remain in a bilingual assignment for a minimum of three (3) school years following certification." After this three year period such unit members would be free to accept any other positions for which they qualified.