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The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has issued a “significant guidance document” on Title IX and sexual violence. A copy of the guidance can be found on the OCR website at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/qa-201404-...
A Michigan Employment Relations Commission (“MERC”) Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) recently held that a school district’s decision to unilaterally change from an 80/20 contribution to a “hard cap” during the term of a collective bargaining agreement, when hard cap was included in the agreement, violated the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act (“PERA”). Garden City Pub Schs, Case No. C13 K-180 (April 25, 2014).
PA 152 requires public employers to limit their...
This year marked the 28th anniversary of Thrun Law Firm's School Law Update annual spring seminars. The seminars, which were held in Mt. Pleasant, Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Livonia and Marquette, were offered at no charge to our retainer clients. Our attorneys provided the nearly 400 school administrators and board members who attended with the most current information available in the areas of: Labor & Employment; Finance & Elections; Tax Tribunal Issues; Special Education;...
MERC recently rejected an unfair labor practice (“ULP”) charge alleging that the Pontiac School District violated a collective bargaining agreement by requiring teachers to collect student questionnaires and involuntarily transferring a teacher. Pontiac Sch Dist, MERC Case No. C12 D-070 (March, 17, 2014).
After the collective bargaining agreement expired, the district required its teachers to participate in a student questionnaire program. The district stated that it would...
Recent changes to Section 47 of Michigan’s Campaign Finance Act require a communication (e.g., telephone call or television commercial) that references an election, candidate, or ballot question to contain a conspicuous statement identifying the person paying for the communication in certain circumstances.
Under prior law, only a communication containing express words of advocacy, such as “vote for,” “elect,” “cast your ballot for,” and “vote against,” was required to contain an...
Michigan law requires a school board to adopt its budget before the beginning of the fiscal year (July 1). School officials should be aware of budget adoption legislation that took effect in 1995 (PA 40 of 1995), which significantly altered a school district’s obligations for truth-in-taxation and budget adoption procedures. That legislation permits a school district to dispense with the truth-in-taxation process if it takes certain steps as part of the budget adoption process.
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Governor Snyder recently signed Public Act 12 of 2014, which modifies the frequency and recording requirements for school safety drills. The Act amends Section 19 of the Fire Prevention Code and is effective July 1, 2014. Under the new requirements, any school that operates “any of grades” kindergarten to 12 must conduct at least...
The U.S. Department of Education recently issued guidelines for schools on the use, storage, and security of data generated by technology-related educational tools. The guidelines are not binding federal regulations, but offer best practices for student privacy and security concerns.
Online educational tools often give...
Thrun Law Firm will present its annual seminar for school administrators and board members on current developments in school law. The alternative dates and locations are:
Wednesday, April 16, 2014, Marquette
Landmark Inn, 230 North Front Street
Wednesday, April 23, 2014, Mt. Pleasant
Comfort Inn & Suites, 2424 South Mission
Thursday, April 24 2014, Gaylord
Otsego Club, 696 M-32 East
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As we anticipate the end of a historic Michigan winter, a refresher on properly counting and allocating FMLA leave in connection with snow days is in order.
The FMLA allows 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period (for most qualifying reasons) if an employee: (1) worked at least 12 months for a covered employer; (2)...