Professional Problems Committees

Each school shall establish a Professional Problems Committee to discuss school operations, contract enforcement issues and any new BOARD instructional program or joint BOARD-UNION initiative prior to or at the time of its implementation at the local school level.

Its chairperson is the school’s head teacher delegate. There can be between three (3) and five (5) members, including PSRPs, elected by the faculty. The committee members’ names must be submitted to the principal within 48 hours of their election. The PPC should meet at least monthly. Each party should submit agenda items 48 hours before the meeting.

The PPC’s purpose is to give the staff and the principal a chance to discuss and resolve issues about implementing the contract in the school. The committee also oversees implementation of new CPS instructional programs at the school level. Both teachers and the principals can bring in resource people to discuss particular agenda points where they have expertise.

The PPC can be an excellent way of resolving potential grievances in an informal way. The PPC’s new added muscle allows it to discuss and resolve potential grievances.

The PPC also gives its members an opportunity to get information, which they can then disseminate to the faculty as a whole either in writing, on the CTU bulletin board, by e-mail, or at monthly union meetings. It is also a way of bringing concerns of the faculty to administration’s attention on a collective basis, making it harder for administrators to single out individuals as ‘complainers.’

Download below a toolkit which includes forms to assist you in setting up the PPC, electing its members, establishing a meeting schedule and agendas for those meetings and collecting and reporting back on the issues and problems in your building. In addition, there are forms for use in establishing your Professional Personnel Leadership Committee (PPLC), its agenda, and a sample of how to report back what was discussed to the membership.

Active PPCs and PPLCs will help empower your members and give voice to their ideas, problems and concerns. These committees can resolve many issues without having to resort to grievances and can help bring together and strengthen our members.