The State Of Our Union....ASASP

Greetings ASASP Members,

On behalf of the Board of Directors of ASASP, I want to inform you that the current state of this Union is strong. Our finances are strong, our staff is standing strong and our resilience is unwavering.

The Board wants you to know that they are working diligently on your behalf to protect your rights as an employee and ensure that violations of your negotiated rights are addressed expeditiously.

The Board was quite busy meeting over the summer making this happen, and subsequently, it turned out to be a very productive time for ASASP.

New legal counsel, Alanna Casey, Esq. was hired to represent ASASP in August. Several meetings were conducted by the Board of Directors in June and July to make hiring legal counsel possible. Several interviews were conducted and a selection made based on the ASASP Executive Board’s votes and direction.

The Executive Board also met with an independent auditor/CPA out of Northwest Washington, DC over the summer. The auditor provided insight to the Board informing us that many of our processes, systems and structures were antiquated and that an overhaul was long overdue. Additionally, the auditor made recommendations, some of which have been recently implemented and others that the Board still has to consider. We will continue to work diligently to make the necessary changes for the financial health of our Union.

At the beginning of June, Union staff became engrossed in several cases where members had been "involuntarily transferred without cause due to the needs of the school system.” In other words, demoted without requiring any negative or ineffective evaluations. This interaction as you can imagine was very stressful for our members therefore, we filed grievances and appeals on behalf of our dues paying members. This was unprecedented in the Prince George’s County Public Schools System and kept us very busy. I am happy to report that because of our tenacity and endurance, we won some major battles and are still fighting right now for others.

During the same time the board was able to secure modifications to Administrative Procedure 4107, which requires “workshop” payment to our members for the following:

Workshop pay for teaching, attending, or facilitating professional development conducted after core business hours, including curriculum writing, shall be paid through the workshop pay element; only Prince George’s County Educators Association (PGCEA) and Association of Supervisory and Administrative School Personnel (ASASP) employees qualify. This pay element applies to ten (10), eleven (11), and twelve (12) month employees in the above mentioned unions.

Please read the entire Administrative Procedure 4107 HERE.

Finally, as the summer came to a close at the end of August, ASASP's President, Benjamin Pryor, Vice President, Tony Spruill and a third Board member missed at least three meetings during this time. Our Bylaws, which are the guiding principles for our Union, the rule-book of ASASP law, the document that governs our operations, states that:

ARTICLE XI SECTION 4

If a Board of Directors member is absent from three (3) scheduled meetings for other than an emergency or reasonable circumstances, his/her resignation shall be deemed to have been tendered and accepted.

When this actually occurred all three board members were notified and their resignations were tendered and accepted. However, Mr. Pryor and Mr. Spruill refused to accept the decision of the Executive Board and our ASASP Bylaws.

Therefore the Board took another step to bring clarity to the members. This Board voted in session in August overwhelmingly to uphold Bylaws Article XI thus creating a vacancy in the office of President, Vice-President and one other general Board member.

The primary objective of the Board is to be in compliance with the Bylaws and now the Board must administer Article 6 as a result of Article 2.

ARTICLE XI SECTION 2.

In the event of a vacancy in both the offices of President and Vice-President, the Secretary shall assume the duties of the President until an interim election to elect a President and Vice-President can be conducted by the Nominations and Elections Committee.

ARTICLE XI SECTION 6.

An interim election must be conducted within 60 days of a vacancy as described in Sections 2.

In the meantime, please be aware that both gentlemen made a “Review of Action'' to our national affiliate AFSA. The request for “Review of Action” in no way overrules the Board’s decision. The position of President and Vice-President remain vacant. That said, the Bylaws mandate that the Board Secretary will be the Acting President until a new President is elected. This means that Board Secretary Dr. Carlene Murray is your acting President.

Our legal counsel has been in contact with AFSA counsel and has established that although ASASP will allow AFSA to facilitate mediation, AFSA has absolutely no jurisdiction or authority to overrule the Bylaws of ASASP or a decision of the Board of Directors consistent with this Union’s Bylaws. While AFSA is a national union, they are essentially a customer of ASASP. The Union pays AFSA each month to maintain the affiliation in exchange for support.

Despite these minor distractions, our priority is to work for our members and continue to support your best interest each day. We are about the work because we work for our members!

Please stay abreast to what is going on by reading your ASASP Times that will be published twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month.

If you have any questions, please contact me directly at jeffery.parker@asasp.org

Thank you for continued support of ASASP,

Jeffery Parker

Executive Director ASASP