I.B.F.O. Number 5, )
vs. ) CASE NO. 75-142
Public Employer. )
A hearing was held pursuant to notice in the above styled cause on July 16 and 17, 1975 in Court Room E, Second Floor, New Wing, Sarasota County Courthouse, Sarasota, Florida before Stephen F. Dean, assigned Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings.
The matter arose upon the RC Petition of I.B.F.O. # 5 (hereinafter called the Petitioner) filed with the Public Employees Relations Commission (hereinafter called PERC) on or about December 12, 1974, for a unit consisting of all custodial, mechanics, drivers, end ground maintenance employees of the Sarasota County School Board, and excluding all clerical, instructional and managerial personnel as the last term is defined in Chapter 447, Florida Statutes; end upon the Petition to Intervene by Sarasota County School System Classified Personnel Association <hereinafter called Intervenor or CPA) for a unit to include all classified employees excluding only instructional and managerial personnel as the letter term is defined in Chapter 447, Florida Statutes.
For Petitioner: FRANK E. HAMILTON, JR., Esquire
101 E. Kennedy Boulevard Tampa, Florida 33602
For Respondent: PHILIP S. MORTENSEN, Esquire
MICHAEL D. LEE, President Sarasota County School System Classified Personnel Association 2512 18th Street E
Exclusion of instructional personnel from any unit.
act.
organization representing the employees sought to be represented by the Petitioner or Intervenor.
The Sarasota County School Board has not recognized either the Petitioner or the Intervenor, because neither has been certified as the collective bargaining representative.
Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all employees of the employer excluding clerical, managerial and instructional employees which unit would include custodial personnel, grounds and maintenance personnel, mechanics, and drivers.
Intervenor seeks a bargaining unit of all employees excluding instructors and managerial employees which unit would include all employees sought by the Petitioner and in addition, all clerical, and teachers' aides.
The Petitioner, while excluding managerial personnel, did not recognize any exclusion applicable to supervisory employees. The Intervenor would seek to represent supervisory employees "as defined" (see p. 13, Vol. 1).
The Employer's concept of the appropriate unit would include all employees excluding administrative, managerial, supervisory, confidential employees, and, as stated in the stipulation, instructional personnel which are represented by the Sarasota County Teachers Association.
The Petitioner objected to the intervention by CPA in that the record did not reflect that the Chairman of PERC had consented to the Intervenor. The Hearing Officer allowed the CPA to participate over the Petitioner's objection, preserving the matter for the consideration of PERC.
The Petitioner further objected to the intervention by CPA on the basis that at the time this cause was originally set for hearing and had to be continued because of the failure of the employer to be prepared (see record of proceeding), the CPA was not properly registered with PERC.
The hearing proceeded and testimony was taken from Dr. Pillot, Mr. Bayard, and Mr. Brown regarding the composition and organization of the classified non-instructional employees of the school system.
There are approximately 900 employees in the county's classified service who are all potential members of the employer group. This total number will be reduced because of lack of funds. Column A below shows the breakdown of employees by general job classification; Column B shows the number of employees after reductions are made. All figures taken from Exhibit 2.
A B
Secretarial/Clerical 174 167
Food Service | 157 |
| 157 |
Custodial/Delivery | 200 |
| 159 |
Maintenance | 75 |
| 67 |
Teachers' Aides | 12 | 1/ |
|
Data Processing | 12 |
| 12 |
Transportation | 93 | 2/ | 93 |
There are 716 employees in the aforestated classifications. Approximately 525 employees would be encompassed in the group sought by the Petitioner. The clericals, teachers' adies, and data processing personnel total
191 employees. The Intervenor seeks to represent all 716, however, a unit composed solely of clericals would represent roughly 27 percent of the total. The figures used above are not adjusted for employees who are managerial, confidential, or "supervisory".
ORGANIZATION
The complete and detailed organization of the school system is set out in Exhibit 20, however, the system is generally organized as follows:
| SCHOOL BOARD |
| |
|
|Superintendent | | Superintendent |
| | | | | | | Staff's | | | |
| |
|
| | | | | | |
| | Associate | | | Director | | | Associate | |
|Superintendent | | | | Data | | | | Superintendent | | |
| Business | | | | Processing | | | | Instruction | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
|Director | |Director | |Director | |Coord.| |Coord.| |School |
|Transpor-| |Facilit- | | Finance | | Food | |Purch-| |Prin- |
| tation | | ies | | | | Serv.| | asing| | cipals|
| | | | | | | | | | | |
|
| | | | |
| Bus | | Food | | Head | |Teachers'| |Clerical|
|Drivers| |Service| |Custodian| | Aides | | Staff |
| | |Manager| | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
The system is basically broken into two portions, one dealing directly with educational services and the other with support services. The Data Processing Unit reports directly to the superintendent and performs work for both education and support.
The support services branch contains the staff directors and administration for transportation, maintenance, food services, finance and purchasing.
However, bus drivers from transportation, custodians from facilities, and food service employees are under the direction, directly or indirectly, of the principal of the school to which they are assigned. Principals are also responsible for the supervision, directly or indirectly, of the clerical staff and teachers' aides assigned to their school.
JOB CLASSIFICATIONS AND DUTIES
Secretarial and clerical personnel are found throughout the school system's organization, at various levels of the administrative staff and at the schools. On the staff they perform regular office clerical duties and at schools they perform bookkeeping, secretarial, maintain records of registration and attendance, and operate switchboards. There were at the time of hearing 174 such positions, however, a reduction of 8 secretarial positions in the central office was programmed.
Note the stipulation by the parties and the positions expressed by the parties concerning exclusion of various secretarial positions at p. 398, Vol. II of Transcript. In brief this would exclude the superintendent's two secretaries, the secretaries of the two associate superintendents and the assistant superintendents. There were differences of opinion regarding whether the secretaries to the principals should be excluded. Based upon the testimony of Mr. Brown, who is a principal, it would appear that the duties of the principal's secretary are not clerical. According to his testimony, his secretary is solely in charge of specific administrative functions such as athletic ticket sales, registration and eligibility of athletes, etc. It would appear that she has broad powers and discretion in performing these tasks under the general supervision of the principal. Based on his testimony, a principal's secretary is more than a typist, and performs the functions of am administrative assistant to the principal administering specific programs under his direction.
DATA PROCESSING
There are 12 Data Processing employees. They perform various functions directly relating to the programming, operation, and analysis of the data processing function. The unit is under the control of a director, however, he reports to the superintendent as opposed to the associate superintendent for Business. Although the parties generally would exclude the other directors as managerial, they did not expressly agree to the exclusion of the director of Data Processing. The Hearing Officer cannot see any substantial difference in function which would warrant treating this position differently from the other directors. Because he reports directly to the superintendent, he actually holds a higher position in the system than other directors. The Data Processing Unit is located at the central office.
TRANSPORTATION
The Transportation Division is a part of the business branch, and is physically located adjacent to the central office. This division is responsible for school bus transportation and employs 116 drivers of which 93 are employed by tie system solely as drivers. There are 23 drivers who are also employed in some alternate capacity by the school system.
The division is responsible for route planning and driver assignments. Drivers work approximately five hours a day and may be assigned two to three routes for different schools. However, while driving a particular route they are responsible to the principal of that school. In that respect the principal has effective powers of discipline through the Director of Transportation.
In the director's office there are am assistant director, route coordinator, and assistant route coordinator for south county. There was mention of a chief mechanic who assigned work on the buses, however, there was no testimony relative to a mechanical section although the superintendent indicated that school system employees did perform the maintenance. P. 72, Vol. I.
FACILITIES DEPARTMENT
This is the largest department having approximately 250 employees.
The department consists of the Planning, Inspection, Maintenance, Signal Repair, and Custodial Sections.
The Planning Section consists of an architect, who is excluded from the unit by the parties, and two draftsmen. The draftsmen have the necessary training or experience to perform engineering drafting. They were sought by Petitioner and Intervenor for inclusion in the proposed unit.
The Inspection Section is actually one inspector who inspects all construction for compliance with specifications and applicable codes. The parties stipulated to his exclusion.
The Signal Repair Section consists of the supervisor, who was excluded by stipulation, and 7-9 repairmen who worked on communications equipment, office machine repair, and audio visual equipment. The section is divided into signal and office machine and audio visual repair subsections. The repairmen are not interchanged between the subsections.
MAINTENANCE SECTION
This section has the most complex organization and varied functions. It is supervised by the supervisor of maintenance. It is divided into three subsections: mechanical, structural and south county. Each subsection is under the direction of a supervising foreman. All of the aforementioned positions are excluded by stipulation of the parties.
Mechanical Subsection has 15-18 employees who work in one of the three trade arena found in the subsection: plumbing, electrical and air conditioning. Each trade area has a working foreman. A locksmith, who is a skilled worker, is normally assigned to carpentry.
Grounds, which was formerly a separate section, is now a subsection and the working foreman in charge of grounds does the work formerly done by the supervising foreman of grounds, and the same job performed by the other supervising foremen but he receives a lower salary rate. The Petitioner and Intervenor would not stipulate to his exclusion. There are 8-10 skilled and semiskilled workers in grounds. There are no specific job titles in grounds.
The South County Section employs 8-10 persons. This is a separate suborganization with one administrative secretary. There are no working
foremen. The employees represent the various skills found in the headquarters sections, performing all maintenance functions on school facilities in South Sarasota County.
The shop facility is supervised by the shop foremen who supervises 3-4 skilled and semiskilled employees who work on automobiles, welding, and steel fabrication.
There are 5-6 school mechanics who perform general repairs and are on the Facilities Division payroll but who rotate around to the various schools and work directly for the principals. They are assigned duties by and report to the principal of the school at which they are working. These employees have carpentry backgrounds.
CUSTODIAL SECTION
This section is comprised of supervisor, who is excluded by stipulation by the parties, 6-7 roving custodians, and about 175 custodians who are assigned directly to one of the 28 county schools. At each school, the head custodian supervises the custodians assigned at that school. The head custodian receives a higher salary. Although the head custodian does assign work, has the authority to effectively recommend discipline, and evaluates those under him, he also performs custodial functions. The Petitioner and Intervenor would both include the head custodians within the proposed unit.
TEACHERS' AIDES
Teachers' aides dare not sides to teachers in the truest sense, but perform various duties as assigned by the principal of the school to which they are assigned. These duties may range from clerical to library assistants to hall and bus monitors. They are rated by the principals for whom they work. These positions are apparently funded for a school term and the number authorized may vary; however, a principal may also elect to convert teacher positions into teacher aide positions in order to obtain a greater total number of positions. The number of teacher aides is dependent, therefore, in part on how much money is available for such positions and how many positions are converted by principals. There were no usable estimates of how many teacher aides would be employed in 1975-76. However, since the school year has begun at this time, this would be a valid area for staff inquiry to supplement the record.
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE
The Central Administrative Office of the school system is composed of the following sections or offices and personnel:
Superintendent's Office Superintendent
2 Secretaries
2 Associate Superintendents
2 Secretaries Personnel Office
Coordinator of Personnel Assistant Coordinator
5 Secretaries Coordinator of Planning
Coordinator
Secretary
Federal Project Coordinator Coordinator
Secretary
Vocational Adult Education Assistant Superintendent
Secretaries Evaluations Coordinator
Coordinator Secretary
Test Control Clerk Pupil Services Coordinator
Coordinator Secretary
4-5 Clerks Media Coordinator
Audio Visual Supervisor
Clerks
Book Processing Department
6 Clerks
Although those functional organizations differ somewhat from those depicted in Exhibit 20, they are included to indicate primarily the distribution and functions of clerical personnel within the central office. It should be noted that all of the proposed reductions in clerical staff were to occur at the central office, where 8 positions were to be eliminated. The parties would exclude nonclassified employees which would exclude the various coordinators.
FOOD SERVICE
Food Service Coordinator
This is a staff position within the superintendent's office staff which consists of the coordinator and assistants who are charged with coordination of purchasing and bookkeeping. The coordinator has no direct control supervision over food service personnel who work at schools.
At each school there is a food service manager and in some instances, an assistant manager, whose duties are to supervise the food program at that school. The manager is responsible for the financial management, assignment of duties, and has effective disciplinary control of the food service workers at the school. The assistant manager has essentially the same duties when the manager is not present. Because there are several schools without kitchens, food must he brought in for students. These are satellite operations, and have a satellite manager whose duties are similar but not as complex as a manager's duties because there are no cooking facilities.
The Petitioner would exclude all three of the foregoing positions, while the Intervenor would include these positions. The School Board has no position regarding these positions.
It would appear from the authority vested in the managers that they are solely responsible for the program at their school but report to the principal. The assistant managers and satellite managers have essentially the same duties, authority, and functions.
The food service workers work directly for tie food service manager and either cook or prepare food, serve food, or clean up the food preparation and service areas of the cafeteria. They are assisted to 50150 degree by custodial personnel in cleaning duties. There ore approximately 157 food service workers.
FINANCE DIVISION
Coordinator or Director is responsible for the internal audit functions. He is assisted by several bookkeepers. In addition there is the manger of investments, the payroll office and several special project bookkeepers.
PURCHASING DIVISION
The coordinator or director of Purchasing is responsible for ordering and warehousing equipment, materials, and supplies for the school system. He is assisted by an assistant who is a working foreman, 3-4 secretary-bookkeepers, a warehouse manager, and several warehousemen.
COMMUNITY OF INTEREST
In addition to the organization of the school system and the duties of the various personnel discussed above, the following factors also bear on the community of interest of the employees.
Clearly all the full time appointed classified employees have the same fringe benefits regarding holidays, retirement, insurance, sick and annual leave. All salaries are established by the same procedure, starting with a study by the staff, a proposal from the superintendent's office to the School Board, and concluding with board amendment, if necessary, and final approval. The five salary schedules in effect are all keyed to a base of the basic instructional salary. Some employees are paid more and some less than starting teachers but that salary range is the base from which non-instructional salaries are developed. Separate salary schedules exist for secretarial-clerical, supervisory, maintenance, custodial, and data processing personnel.
The hours worked by various personnel differ. Secretarial-clerical and data processing personnel work 371/2 hours per week, while all other personnel work 40 hours per week.
All members of classified service have the same basic right of employment regarding grievances and appeals of personnel action.
This report respectfully submitted this 22nd day of January, 1976.
STEPHEN F. DEAN, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings Room 530, Carlton Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304
1/ 12 teachers' aides were employed for the summer session, however, more are generally employed during the regular school year.
2/ 23 drivers were employed in other capacities by the school system, therefore there are 116 total drivers but only 93 "full time drivers"
Frank E. Hamilton, Jr., Esquire
101 E. Kennedy Boulevard Tampa, Florida 33602
Philip S. Mortensen, Esquire
Michael D. Lee, President Sarasota County School System Classified Personnel Association 2512 18th Street E.
