The General Membership Meeting will be held Thursday, Nov. 12 at 4:30 p.m. at the DFT hall. Members are encouraged to attend for updates on DPS issues.

The district performed a Dependent Eligibility Audit in October for employees to verify their spouses and children to be covered for insurance. To maintain insurance, you must send required documentation of eligible dependents (not by certified mail) to Dependent Eligibility Verification, PO Box 3005, Arlington Heights, IL 60006-9923. For questions you may call 866-641-5651. The code is 1528. Click above to see the definitions for eligibility and the required documentation.

DFT President Keith Johnson respectfully insists that any DFT member who has received or downloaded the personal information from the DPS website delete that information from all systems and computers. The DFT will not be responsible for any act of impropriety regarding the use of another individual's personal information.

Yesterday evening DFT President Keith Johnson was advised that the personal income and work location of every DPS employee was posted on the DPS website. President Johnson immediately contacted Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb on behalf of DFT and all other affected employees, to express our concern about the availablity of such important personal information and how this information could potentially put district employees in peril. The information was immediately removed from the DPS website with sincere apologies from Mr. Bobb. He expressed to President Johnson that he did not authorize the input of this information on the DPS website and that corrective measures would be taken.

The Nov. 1 all-membership meeting at Cobo Hall has been postponed. The DFT and DPS bargaining teams have signed a 21-day extension to the current contract. The teams have made substantial progress and the negotiations have been productive. "The few remaining issues need to be driven by substance and not rushed to deadline," said DFT President Keith Johnson. The contract extension until Nov. 21 will give ample time to resolve those issues and the membership will meet at that time to review the new contract.

At the Oct. 8 General Membership meeting, DFT members voted to keep the fifth elementary prep period in the contract. The district's negotiating team proposed to pay each teacher $1,000 for the fifth prep period. The DFT team wanted to say no outright but not without feedback from the membership. A vote confirmed what the DFT team suspected: preps are not for sale. "The DFT leadership proudly supports that stand," said DFT President Keith Johnson.

At the Oct. 8 General Membership meeting, a bylaw change was submitted. A vote to approve the amendment will be taken at the Nov. 12 meeting. DFT membership has declined from 12,500 members a decade ago to 7,200 members. To save money, the executive board proposes a reduction in the number of delegates to the American Federation of Teachers Convention and the AFT Michigan convention.

Currently, the bylaws provide that the six officers, 11 Executive Board members, the retirement chapter chair, and 50 elected delegates attend the conventions. The proposed amendment would reduce the number of elected delegates from 50 to 20 and the number of alternates would be reduced from 25 to 10. These changes do not affect the number of votes cast at either convention because our delegation's votes are based on our total membership, not the size of our delegation.

Click above for the 2009-2010 Detroit Public Schools calendar.

The 2005-2009 Agreement between the DFT and the Detroit Public Schools is now available on the web. Click on Contract in the sidebar of this website to view the agreement. A two-year collaboration between the district and the union resulted in the first total revision since the agreement was first written in the 1960s. Since there are only three months left to this agreement, a print version will be available only through the DFT offices.

If a DFT member is served with a court summons or notice of a lawsuit regarding their employment, send it to the DFT immediately. These documents must be forwarded to General Counsel within seven calendar days of being served.

Approximately 100 DPS teachers lost their jobs at the end of the 2007-08 school year because they failed to meet the requirements for state certification.

Contact the DFT President, Vice President, Labor Relations Administrators, Financial Analyst, Business Manager, or the Editor.

The 2008-2009 Detroit Federation of Teachers salary schedule includes a 2.5 percent raise.