Terry’s Update

2 June 2021

1. Goodbye Grievance
2. FEA/NEA Retired or Pre-Retired
3. FRS/Local Elections
4. RAT Orders (From President’s Report)
5. RAT Tickets (From President’s Report)
6. Pay Increase (pay scale attached)
7. HCRC News
8. Time to Check
9. DPMAP from the start
10. Mark Your Calendar

1. Goodbye Grievance – If you are an Overseas employee who is resigning/retiring or moving to a bargaining unit outside of FEA’s Overseas bargaining unit, please remember to file and elevate your “Goodbye Grievance” before your last duty day. While it will be denied at every level it’s given, this will invoke your rights and allow FEA to represent you after you are no longer in the FEA Overseas bargaining unit.

2. FEA/NEA Retired or Pre-Retired — If you are considering retirement this school year (or in the near future), please join FEA-Retired (FEA Pre-Retired if you are not retiring this year). FEA Retired membership allows you to continue with all the benefits from NEA Member Benefits programs (neamb.com). It includes information resources from NEA and FEA-Washington as well as coverage by the Association’s liability insurance, which is helpful for those who decide to substitute teach in retirement. Your Retired Membership also supports NEA/FEA in their work to support and promote various issues affecting retirees, with Michael Priser and Trudy Pollard leading the way for all DoDEA retirees. Stay connected and involved! FEA Retired membership info

3. FRS Elections — Hopefully your local elections are now concluded or finishing soon. Please get the names of your FRS, FR, and FRHCRC as well as local presidents etc. to your Division Representative as soon as the elections are concluded. Should you have any questions or need anything please contact your Division Representative.

4. RAT Orders — (From the President’s Report) If you are an FEA member in the Overseas bargaining unit who has applied for RAT orders for this summer but you have not yet received those orders, please use the link below to submit your information to me via a Google form.

You can access that Google form here.

I will use the information members submit to follow up with DoDEA Resource Management about educators who are still waiting on their orders.

5. RAT Tickets — (Also from the President’s Report) We also continue to hear of numerous members who are experiencing difficulties getting tickets issued by the SATO Travel office at Sembach. If you have been experiencing a significant wait for SATO Sembach to issue your travel tickets for this summer, please immediately submit your information using this Google form.

FEA will be bringing the information we collect from this form to DoDEA Resource Management to raise their awareness of the problem and seek solutions.

6. Pay Increase — The retroactive part of our salary increase should be reflected in your LES for the pay day of June 11. If you do not see an increase in this check, please contact your salary POC. Thanks to all the hard work of so many, including our FEA/Washington staff, for helping get this raise accomplished. Attached is the pay scale for SY 20-21, which is the pay we would have received this year. It is one year behind and is what we will receive next year until again it is determined what we make, according to the other districts and law.

7. HCRC News — Please find the Europe Area’s Minority Affair Committee’s publication, Signal Boost!
SIGNAL BOOST VOLUME 1, Edition 1
Featured:
• Minutes from our recent meeting
• FR-HCR member portraits
• Articles on Equity from Membership
• Summer training opportunities
• Details on the newly adopted Ad-Hoc Leadership Opportunity Database
Special thanks to DiAnna Martinez (HCRC-EE1) for editing this quarter’s edition. Wishing all our members a restful summer. (From Europe HCRC Ms Patricia Hannon)

8. Time to Check — It’s this time of year when we begin to get RAT orders, start packing our rooms, and many things to wind down the school year. I would like to encourage you to check the expiration dates for your ID card, driver’s license, passport, and any other forms of ID needed to be renewed. It is also a good time to look at your DoDEA Certificate. All teachers have six years to get six credits in order to renew their certificates for six more years. This is becoming increasingly more important as DoDEA is becoming more and more stringent about meeting this deadline.

9. DPMAP Evaluation –An arbitrator sided with FEA recently in a grievance over DoDEA’s illegal implementation of the Defense Performance Management and Appraisal Program (DPMAP, also known as “New Beginnings”) in our Overseas bargaining unit in 2018. The arbitrator ruled DoDEA’s actions violated applicable laws and our Overseas Negotiated Agreement by disregarding a Memorandum of Understanding between FEA and management that designated the Educator Performance Appraisal System (EPAS) as the appraisal system of record for the Overseas bargaining unit. The arbitrator ordered DoDEA to reinstate EPAS and to make whole any adversely affected bargaining unit members. However, please understand that this has been appealed. Therefore we are still under the DPMAP system until all appeals are exhausted or a new system is negotiated.

10. Mark Your Calendar-
June 11 — Last Duty Day for Teachers for SY 20-21
June 14 — Flag Day

Terry McClain
FEA Europe
Area Director