The Arkansas Reporter
The WEEK THAT was APRIL 7 – 1 3 , 2 0 1 0
Phone: 501-375-2985 Fax: 501-375-3623 Arkansas Times Online home page: http://www.arktimes.com E-mail: arktimes@arktimes.com ■
It was a GOOD week for …
DON DAVIS. Only hours before his execution was scheduled to take place April 12, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a stay. The stay will remain in effect at least until a Pulaski circuit judge rules on a lawsuit challenging changes that were made last year to the state law on executions.
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Two readings of Pulaski school decision Union sees solid victory for its side. By Doug Smith
HEALTH CARE. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel rejected a proposed ballot measure aimed at thwarting health-care reform. McDaniel said the proposed name and ballot title were vague, partisan and misleading.
UNION SCHOOLTEACHERS. A Pulaski circuit judge ruled invalid the Pulaski County School Board’s vote to discontinue recognition of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers as the bargaining agent for the school district’s teachers. It was a bad week for …
WILLARD PROCTOR JR. The former Pulaski circuit judge’s constitutional challenge to a law that prevents him from ever again holding judicial office was dismissed by a former colleague, Judge Mackie Pierce. Proctor was removed from office by the Arkansas Supreme Court for ethical violations. THE ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER. Giving no specific reason, Ellen “Nan” Plummer announced her resignation as executive director of the Arts Center, a job she’d held since November 2002. Attendance has been much less than hoped for the expensive “World of the Pharaohs” exhibit now at the Arts Center for a long-term run. SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION. Over the objections of the Marion School District, the state Board of Education ordered the consolidation of the 256-student Turrell School District with the 4.028-student Marion District. For the last two years, the Turrell district’s enrollment had fallen below the 350 minimum required by state law. The Marion superintendent said his district already had absorbed one smaller district, Crawfordsville in 2004. 8 april 15, 2010 • ARKANSAS TIMES
brian chilson
CIVIC IMPROVEMENT. The federal Economic Development Administration made a $2 million grant for conversion of the old Rock Island Bridge into a pedestrian/bicycle bridge.
nix: Wants striking teachers’ pay restored. n Since they disagree on everything else, it’s not surprising that Pulaski County teachers and Pulaski County school board members disagree on the meaning of a circuit court decision last week. The teachers’ union, the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers, sees Judge Timothy D. Fox’s ruling as a total victory for their side, forcing the board to resume negotiation with the union. Board President Tim Clark and his lawyer, Jay Bequette, interpret the decision to mean that the Board has only to tie up a few loose ends, and then it can proceed to kick the union out of the Pulaski County School District, which is what it was trying to do when the union hauled the board into court. There’s no disagreement that Judge Fox sidestepped the question of whether teachers and other public employees can legally strike in Arkansas. Judges have dodged the issue before. Arkansas judges are elected, and a decision either way on the question of strikes by public employees could alienate a substantial number of voters. Fox, who’s a candidate for the state Supreme Court, said in effect that other judges hadn’t decided the issue, so he wouldn’t either. The school board and the union were negotiating a new contract last December when the board suddenly voted to stop recognizing PACT as the bargaining agent for teachers. Several hundred teachers walked out for a day in protest, and PACT filed suit, saying that the old contract between the union and the school board
was in effect until a new one was signed, and the contract didn’t allow the school board to stop recognizing the union. The school board filed a counterclaim, saying that the teachers had broken the contract by engaging in an illegal strike. Fox ruled that a school board has the authority to terminate a union contract if certain legal requirements are met. Those requirements include the adoption of written personnel policies, and the creation of a committee on personnel policies. The Pulaski County School Board had not met those requirements, and therefore had exceeded its authority in terminating the union contract, Fox said. According to Clark and Bequette, Fox’s order appears to say that the Board could adopt personnel policies and create a personnel committee and then vote legally to end recognition of the union. “That doesn’t mean we’ll do that,” Clark said, “but it appears we have the authority.” No such thing, says Marty Nix, president of PACT. Personnel policies and personnel committees are for school districts that don’t have a teachers union, she said; they’re intended to take the place of a union. PACT has an existing contract in the Pulaski County District, she said, and the school board can’t abrogate that contract by adopting personnel policies and creating personnel committees. “PACT’s negotiation team is the equivalent of a personnel committee,” Nix said. The proper course of action for the school board is to
vote on the proposed new contract that’s already been approved by the teachers, she said. “If the board votes it up, that’s fine. If they vote it down, we go back to the negotiating table.” Nix sent a letter to Clark on Monday asking the school board to meet and ratify the proposed contract. Fox ruled that the one-day walkout by the teachers was indeed a strike. The teachers had argued that it wasn’t. But Fox also ruled that the existing contract between PACT and the school board “provides that no reprisal will be taken against any teacher for participating in a strike.” Teachers who participated in the strike/protest were docked a day’s pay. Nix sent a letter to Acting Superintendent Rob McGill on Monday asking that the teachers’ pay be restored. As to whether a strike by teachers or other public employees is illegal, Fox said that neither the legislature nor the Arkansas Supreme Court had resolved the issue. He ruled that “absent limiting legislative action, the bundle of negotiable contract rights available to public employees with respect to strikes is no different than that enjoyed by non-public employee in their collective bargaining agreements.” Pulaski County teachers struck in 1996, and a group of taxpayers filed suit challenging the legality of a teachers’ strike. A chancery judge ruled the plaintiffs hadn’t proved that a teachers’ strike was illegal. The case reached the Arkansas Supreme Court, which upheld the chancellor’s ruling without deciding on the legality of strikes by teachers and other public employees. Justice Tom Glaze dissented strongly, saying that the Supreme Court should have ruled on the merits of the case. He wrote: “This issue concerning the validity of striking school teachers has now occurred at least twice in Pulaski County since I have served on this court. [Little Rock teachers had struck a few years earlier.] Teachers, students, parents, and taxpayers should be apprised concerning the validity of such strikes, so when a dispute arises again, the participating parties can pursue what they know is a lawful course of action and Arkansas citizens can predictably measure its outcome. Until this court grapples with and decides whether teachers may strike against their public employer, confusion and uncertainty will continue to prevail in the management of our schools.” Clark said the school board hadn’t yet done anything in response to the court ruling. The vote to end recognition of the union was 4 to 3, and some board members were strongly opposed to the action.