507 Employee Complaints and Grievances 

I.  PURPOSE
 
The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to school district employees as to the appropriate manner in which staff may participate in community activities.
 
II.  GENERAL STATEMENT OF POLICY
 
A. The School Board will encourage the administration to:  discover and practice effective means of resolving differences that may arise among employees and between employees and administrators; reduce potential areas of complaints and grievances; and establish and maintain recognized channels of communication between the staff, administration, and School Board.
 
B. The administration will establish and the School Board will approve procedures for the prompt and equitable adjustment of grievances. 
 
III.  DEFINITIONS
 
In this context, a grievance will be defined as:
  ...a disagreement involving the work situation in which an individual or group of individuals believes that an injustice has been done because of lack of policy, or because of a policy that is unfair, a deviation from or misapplication or misinterpretation of a policy or contract. The development of a new salary schedule is not a grievance.

IV.  PROCEDURES
 
A. Such procedures will provide for the resolution of grievances at the lowest possible administrative level and for ultimate appeal of any unresolved grievance to the School Board.
 
B. Hearings at all levels will be:
 
1.  Conducted in the presence of the administrator who made the ruling which is the subject of the grievance and in the presence of any other staff member personally involved.
 
2.  Held only after due written notification to all persons concerned.
 
3.  Free from interference, coercion, restraint, discrimination, or reprisal.
 
4.  Held in private, with only the persons involved and/or their representatives present.
 
C. At all levels, the employee group, or the administrator involved will have the right to be represented by an organization and/or by legal counsel.  Either party to the dispute will have the right to call and cross-examine witnesses.
 
D. Reasonable time limits, as set forth in the procedures for implementing this policy, will be observed by the person or group presenting the grievance, by the administration, and by the School Board.
 
E.  No employee or staff group or organization will suffer a reprisal or reduction in status as a result of having presented a grievance for review or of having represented an employee in a grievance.
 
  
Adopted:  November 10, 2008                                                

School Board
Independent School District No. 15
St. Francis, Minnesota