Union chief gets his time restored

The president of the St. Landry Association of Educators will be paid for a day and half he was docked for after attending a conference.
School Board members voted 8-3 at Thursday’s meeting to give Jamal Taylor his time back.
In May, Taylor made his case to the Board’s Executive Committee, which recommended the day and half be restored.
Superintendent Patrick Jenkins during that meeting argued that Taylor did not follow policy by getting approval from his supervisor prior to attending the conference.
Taylor said the school system’s policy is he is to get Board approval for absences for union meetings.
At Thursday’s meeting, administrators remained quiet about Taylor’s time issue.
Donnie Perron, a Port Barre Board member, said nothing was done correctly about the absence. Taylor, he said, has criticized the Board and the superintendent and “... now he is going to makes us look like a bunch of fools ...”
Mary Ellen Donatto, Board president, objected to Perron’s comment as personal and accusatory.
Joyce Haynes, an Opelousas Board member and former Louisiana Association of Educators leader, said, “The real problem is once again we have problems with policy.”
She motioned, seconded by Eunice Board member Albert Hayes Jr., to restore Taylor’s time.
In the past organization leaders have been afforded the courtesy of having their leadership to be exempt form formal requests for time to attend their functions, he said.
Voting to restore Taylor’s time were Hazel Sias, Donatto, Hayes, Raymond Cassimere, Randy Wagley, Denise Rose, Haynes and Myron Guillory.
Voting “No” on the issue was Perron, Josh Boudreaux and Kyle Boss.
In another personnel issue, several Board members questioned the elimination of the supervisor of foreign language and social studies position from an organizational chart approved in April.
Robert Hammonds, a Board attorney, said while Act 1 gave many powers to the superintendent over hiring and firing, school boards retain the power to approve or delete job descriptions, and act on organizational charts.
Most of the time organizations charts are accompanied by new job descriptions and job descriptions that are being abolished or changed, Hammonds said.
Wagley, an Opelousas Board member and the lone attorney serving on the Board, said the organizational chart was approved without any special discussions about deleting positions.
“I don’t think that a Board that just voted not to demote two principals when we closed their schools would have demoted a lady who is out on sick leave,” Wagley said. “I think that we want to undo that if we did it.”
The issue was on a work session agenda, which was discussed prior to the regular Board meeting. The item was not on the regular session’s agenda.
Jenkins said it was decided the person would come back to a tenured position and that their duties had been split up among other supervisors.
Sias said the position was questioned and the superintendent said the employee would get the job back.
“I don’t have a problem ... when a person resigns or retires,” Wagley said. “We do everything else by attrition and all of sudden we have this...”
In another personnel issue, which arose first at the work session, reassigned principal Elsie Semien brought her case to the Board.
Simien was principal at South Street Elementary, but has been reassigned as principal at Plaisance Elementary. At one point, she had been assigned as an assistant principal, she said.
Hammonds said, without naming Semien who was present, that she had gone through two steps of a grievance process. The third step, according to Board policy, involves her going before the School Board.
But Hammonds said state law forbids the Board from acting on the personnel matter.
The next grievance level is court, he said.
Semien said the Board has failed to provide her with an effective grievance procedure and said her job change is retaliation on the part of the superintendent.
“You need to hear my truth in its entirety,” she said.
In a vote during the regular meeting the Board voted 7-4 against putting the issue on the agenda.
Voting to put it on the agenda were Sias, Donatto, Cassimere and Rose.
Voting against putting it on the agenda were Perron, Hayes, Wagley, Boss, Haynes, Boudreaux and Guillory.
Board members Anthony Standberry and Milton Ambres were absent for the vote.