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Fair Labor Standards Act Toolkit
Download a copy of Texas AFT's toolkit with information on overtime laws, including templates for tracking overtime and dealing with overtime issues. Click here to download (PDF 1.8 MB).
Texas AFT Affiliate Pressure Helps Win Shutdown of Mold-Ridden School
Texas AFT leaders in Houston won a key battle Sept. 19 when the city's school board decided to close a middle school with a mold problem serious enough to send a steady stream of staff to the hospital for the past few weeks.
The school system will move about 650 students and more than 100 staff members at Key Middle School to another building while an expanded investigation of the problem is conducted. The superintendent said classes would be held Sept. 20 and then he would inform parents about plans for relocating.
The move, which Houston Federation of Teachers president Gayle Fallon calls "a no-brainer solution," nonetheless required intense pressure from the union, parents, the school's principal, a parade of epidemiologists and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston). Areas of the school smell of mold, which is visible on walls.
The real soldiers in this battle, however, were custodians and teachers at the school who have fallen ill since Aug. 27, when five school employees filed workers compensation injury reports and the principal summoned the district to investigate mold in six classrooms. On Aug. 28, a teacher went to the hospital after feeling sick. That weekend, the district ordered custodians to clean the school and seven of them were hospitalized Sept. 2, at least partly for inhaling bleach-generated fumes during the cleanup.
On Sept. 10, two teachers were taken to the hospital, followed by numerous other instances of staff falling ill and going to the hospital.
Wretha Thomas, president of the Texas AFT-affiliated Houston Educational Support Personnel Union, points to broken and leaky air conditioners as a potential source of the problem. She is calling for surface samples to be taken of mold growing behind chalkboards and elsewhere. So far, tests have been conducted only for airborne microbes.
As of Sept. 17, Fallon adds, about 225 students had visited the school nurse, "and you can add 15 a day." School staff have been struggling to manage in the chaotic environment. Fallon says one parent told her: "If I keep my kids home, they don't get an education. If I send them, they get sick."
Within days of the initial incidents, the AFT's health and safety department sent detailed guidelines to Houston federation leaders, who distributed the guidance to local members, including a one-page checklist for symptoms of exposure to mold. Locals are reminded that they should ask their school district for a copy of any written policy on mold prevention and cleanup, including descriptions of any training it gives employees to do this kind of work. Preventive maintenance is the key to keeping students and staff healthy.
The AFT health and safety department offers training programs on mold and mold cleanup. The AFT also has a wealth of other resources on mold and "sick buildings," including fact sheets that can be distributed to members. Call 800/238-1133, ext. 5674 or 4365, or e-mail Darryl Alexander at dalexand@aft.org for more information.
Austin School Bus Drivers Assist with Dean Evacuation
Hurricane season runs from June to November, but some storms do not always adhere to the designated schedule. Hurricane Dean, the first major storm of the season, posed a huge threat to some Texas cities along the gulf coastline in the Rio Grande Valley. To help with evacuations from cities along the Texas gulf coast, about 140 Austin Independent School District bus drivers volunteered to go to McAllen, Texas, to help people in the hurricane’s evacuation path. The caravan of 68 school buses was led by a police escort.
One of the school bus drivers was Education Austin executive board member Bill Arteaga, who was raised in the Rio Grande Valley where McAllen is located. “I was aware that a lot of people were stranded during Hurricane Katrina, so when I was asked to volunteer, I gladly said yes,” said Arteaga.
Fortunately, Hurricane Dean missed the Texas coastline although it did do horrific damage to parts of the Mexican Peninsula. When the threat passed, Arteaga and the other school bus drivers made the 360-mile trip back to Austin in plenty of time to learn their bus routes for the new school year. “If the need arises again, I’ll go back,” said Arteaga. (Sept. 10, 2007)
