WeHa Teachers' Grievance Shot Down By School Board

WEST HARTFORD, CT — School officials have shot down a complaint by West Hartford teachers alleging several union contract violations on the part of district administrators and officials.

The West Hartford Board of Education and the West Hartford Education Association, the district's teachers union, conducted a so-called "grievance hearing" on Nov. 30 at West Hartford Town Hall.

According to hearing minutes, the WHEA "provide 11 exhibits" claiming violations of several aspects of the current teachers' labor pact.

Those include allegations of violations related to salaries, assignments, vacancies, transfers, promotions, class sizes, teacher workloads, and extracurricular assignments, among other issues.

Administrators, however, provide three exhibits "refuting the claim of any contractual violations and providing evidence of greater than 10 years of past practice," the minutes read.

Following the hearing, board members met with attorneys and administrators and deliberated the matter.

Ultimately, the school board voted to deny the WHEA grievance allegation on several grounds, including that the dispute doesn't meet "the contractual definition of a grievance," among other issues.

For the minutes of the Nov. 30 West Hartford Board of Education grievance hearing/meeting, click on this link.