The meeting attendees included representatives from the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association (CTA), district principals, and various department managers. The representatives reviewed the conflicting information in the collective bargaining agreement and discussed the necessity of the IPRC in light of existing processes within the CTA handbook. The conversation centered around streamlining the language of the contract to ensure an effective and fair resolution process for teachers whose evaluation procedures were not followed correctly.

It was noted that most procedural defects could be remedied at this level without needing to escalate to a formal committee. However, the importance of a proper resolution process was emphasized, particularly in cases where a teacher must point out a mistake made by a supervisor during the observation process.

The group agreed to work on refining the language of the contract to address these concerns and planned to propose new language for formal acceptance through negotiations. Additionally, the next meeting was scheduled for June 17th, with the agenda set to include updates to the Classroom Teacher Evaluation System (CTES) handbook and the discussion of virtual options for pre- and post-conference discussions related to formal observations.

The latter part of the meeting also touched on procedural issues, such as the option of conducting pre- and post-observation conferences virtually, a practice that was implemented during COVID-19 and is being considered for reimplementation with the choice left to the teachers’ preference.