ASHLAND CITY, Tennessee — Members of the Cheatham County School System changed course and will resume with collaborative conferencing, but School System Director Cathy Beck must approve a committee to that effect by next week.
Members of the county school board voted to make that happen at a special meeting Thursday night in Ashland City.
Beck had decided earlier not to continue with collaborative conferencing. This, after JC Bowman, executive director of the Nashville-based Professional Educators of Tennessee, contacted her.
“Bowman sent an email to Dr. Beck and inferred deadlines for the polling process back in the fall were not met. He suggested continuing on with collaborative conferencing may be unlawful,” said Rick Colbert, attorney for the Cheatham County Education Association — affiliated with the Tennessee Education Association.
“Based on those suggestions, Dr. Beck decided collaborative conferencing needed to be stopped for the time being. The only recourse we had was what the CCA did. File a complaint of unlawful acts.”
Bowman told The Tennessee Star before Thursday’s meeting that collaborative conferencing, in line with the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act of 2011, involves educators discussing benefits, working conditions, and leave, among other things.
“All I want is an acknowledgment they (the CCEA) haven’t followed the law,” Bowman said.
“So, I sent a couple of emails to that effect. They say I interfered with the process. But I didn’t do anything.”
According to its website, PET advocates for excellence in education.
At the end of the meeting, attorneys for PET, the CCEA, and the school system agreed to move forward so teachers could talk about salaries and benefits and working conditions, Bowman told The Star.
“However, there is a way to do this and people need to follow the law. It’s pretty clear that some group did not know how to follow the law. We wanted to work it out. The factor is there is a lawsuit that is filed and we want to avoid lawsuits. Lawsuits are bad for education and every time we get involved in litigation it hurts public schools,” Bowman told The Star.
“We go out of our way to avoid it. Other groups threaten. That was the thing I got angriest about. We don’t threaten anybody. Getting teachers back together and talk about their working conditions. Beck was right to cease it because they hadn’t followed the law. They did things right. We were glad they withdrew the petition.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
