A decision by the McAllen ISD Board of Trustees to award a $3,000 settlement to a Morris Middle School teacher last week is inspiring others at the district to consider filing a grievance for payments they say the district owes them for performing extra work through an online learning program last year.
The McAllen American Federation of Teachers chapter says it’s considering filing a grievance on behalf of at least six other teachers at Morris who say they taught through the district’s medical extenuating circumstances program during the 2021-2022 school year with the understanding that they would receive two $3,000 stipends for the work. But they never received the second of those payments and weren’t told the district wouldn’t be paying it.
On the advice of legal counsel, the district declined to comment on what led to the apparent misunderstanding between those educators and administration on the stipend payments. It’s unclear how many employees that took part in the program feel that they’re owed another $3,000.
About 15 educators at Morris taught through the program last year. Districtwide, it was about 220 employees.
Nidia Canales, McAllen AFT treasurer and grievance officer, said so far the union has only been contacted by teachers at Morris about the stipends. She said the successful grievance of non-union member Lindsay De Leon, who district materials describe as an English language arts teacher in Morris’ extenuating circumstances program, justifies the complaints being voiced by the union’s members at the school.
“They paid her, but they didn’t pay the other teachers,” Canales said. “So we’re gonna put in a grievance for our AFT members.”
A coronavirus-spawned initiative, the medical extenuating circumstances program allowed students with a recommendation from a physician to apply to continue online learning last year while the majority of students returned to campuses.
At Morris, six students participated in the program. When the program began in the fall, about 142 students took part in the program districtwide, a number that shrank to 90 by the end of the school year.
Canales says the union’s members who taught in the program would use their free time to educate those students virtually.
“They would do it throughout the day, like whenever they didn’t have any classes, and then they would also do it after school,” she said. “They would stay after school, so it would be like tutoring after school but not getting paid for it.”
The source of the misunderstanding isn’t abundantly clear.
Attempts to reach De Leon were unsuccessful, and it’s unclear what swayed the board in her favor.
Documents provided to The Monitor by the AFT point to some sort of communication mishap.
An undated email from Morris Middle School Principal Alenn Garza notes that a $3,000 stipend for the program would be paid at the end of the fall semester and a stipend for the second semester would depend on approval. A document on Morris Middle School letterhead dated August 26 of last year lists the school’s medical extenuating circumstances educators and describes pay as $3,000 per semester.
In June, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources sent an email to the AFT about the stipends, writing that the district “was operating in a very fast paced and fluid environment” in the fall of 2021 while developing post-pandemic teaching strategies.
According to Miller, a human resources communication in November of 2021 “clarified” communications about the stipends from August.
“Any miscommunication was unintentional, as the operational environment at that time was very fluid,” he wrote.
Miller wrote that the Morris Middle School team was informed of that clarification via email in April and May of this year.
Canales, the AFT grievance officer, says her union’s members at Morris were relying on that second $3,000 payment.
“One of the teachers, her daughter had some medical procedures and she needed to pay the hospital, and she was hoping on that money,” Canales said. “That she would get it so she could pay the medical procedure that was gonna be done on her daughter. And she didn’t get it.”
It’s unclear whether McAllen AFT’s grievance push will be successful. The website of Texas AFT notes that grievances must typically be filed within 15 business days.
McAllen ISD declined to comment on whether the union has filed a grievance or on the feasibility of any potential grievance.
