(a) Experience has shown that efforts to confer, consult, discuss, and to exchange information, opinions, and proposals on terms and conditions of professional service are most efficient and effective when conducted by participants who are selected and authorized to represent individual professional employees or groups of employees. It is the policy and purpose of this part to ensure the rights of professional employees to participate in collaborative conferencing with boards of education through representatives of their own choosing. No professional employee, group of professional employees, or professional employee organization shall be denied the opportunity to represent themselves or groups of professional employees in discussions authorized under this part.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 49-5-605

  • Collaborative conferencing: means the process by which the chair of a board of education and the board's professional employees, or such representatives as either party or parties may designate, meet at reasonable times to confer, consult and discuss and to exchange information, opinions and proposals on matters relating to the terms and conditions of professional employee service, using the principles and techniques of interest-based collaborative problem-solving. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
  • Management personnel: means those professional employees certified by the local board of education to represent the board in the collaborative conferencing process. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
  • Memorandum of understanding: means the written document that memorializes and records the understanding reached by the board of education and its professional employees, or their respective representatives, if so designated, as to the terms and conditions of professional services set forth in this part. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Person: means one (1) or more individuals, organizations, associations, or their representatives. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
  • Professional employee: means any person employed by any local board of education in a position that requires a license issued by the department of education for service in public elementary and secondary schools of this state, supported, in whole or in part, by local, state or federal funds, but shall not include any member of the management team, as defined in this part, or a retired teacher who is employed as a teacher in accordance with title 8, chapter 36, part 8. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
  • Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
  • Representative: includes any person, or group of persons, organization or association that is designated and authorized by professional employees or local board of education to act for the professional employees or the local board, respectively, under this part. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
  • terms and conditions of professional service: means those fundamental matters that affect a professional employee financially or the employee's employment relationship with the board of education and that are specifically designated as such under this part. See Tennessee Code 49-5-602
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b)

(1) Upon the submission by fifteen percent (15%) 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 shall 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 as provided in subdivision (b)(2).
(2)

(A) The confidential poll shall be by secret ballot and shall require the employee to respond to two (2) questions. The first question shall request the employee to respond “YES” or “NO” to the question:

Shall the professional employees of this LEA undertake collaborative conferencing with the board of education?

(B) If the employee responds “YES” to the first question, then the second question shall request that the employee indicate which organization the employee prefers to represent the employee in collaborative conferencing by checking the box related to one (1) of the professional employees’ organizations having a presence in the LEA. The second question shall 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 shall request the employee to express a preference for one (1) of the professional employees’ organizations. The second question shall 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.
(3) No board of education shall have 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 under subdivision (b)(2) respond “YES” to the first question.
(4) 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 shall appoint at least seven (7), but no more than eleven (11) persons, to serve as management personnel. The professional employees shall be entitled to the same number of representatives as the number of management personnel selected by the board of education. The professional employee representatives shall 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 fifteen percent (15%) or more of the responses to the second question shall be entitled to representation. The category of “unaffiliated” as a response to the second question, but not the category of “none of the above”, shall be considered a professional employees’ organization for the purposes of this subdivision (b)(4).
(5) If fifteen percent (15%) or more of the professional employees polled indicate a preference for an unaffiliated representative, then the special question committee shall 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”.
(6)

(A) 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 shall be three (3) years. If a vacancy occurs on the panel, then the appointing body which appointed the member to the position that became vacant shall appoint a replacement for the remainder of the term. Prior to expiration of the terms of the members of the panel, a new poll shall be conducted under this subsection (b) to determine whether the professional employees want to continue to engage in collaborative conferencing.
(B) Notwithstanding subdivision (b)(6)(A) 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 (3) years. The term of the members selected for the panel after such poll shall be the length of time specified by the memorandum of understanding between two (2) polls.
(c) Each professional employees’ organization receiving fifteen percent (15%) or more of the responses shall select and appoint the appropriate number of persons to serve as representatives of the professional employees preferring that organization. The board of education shall select and appoint its representatives. Representatives shall be appointed no later than December 1.
(d) If a majority vote to conduct collaborative conferencing is not secured, then during any subsequent year, the professional employees may again seek to engage in collaborative conferencing pursuant to subsection (b).
(e) The results of the confidential poll and the names and positions of the appointed representatives shall be transmitted to the board, professional employees and professional employee organizations prior to January 1 next.
(f) Those persons or organizations initiating the poll shall be assessed the reasonable costs necessitated in conducting the poll by the chair of the special question committee.
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