Teacher contract negotiations remain at impasse in Geary USD 475.
Teachers voted 355 no and 113 yes in favor of a contract proposal submitted to them.
Cathy Rankin, Junction City Education Association President, said teachers care a great deal about the quality of education their students receive, and they demonstrate that by working on beyond an 8-hour day or 40-hour week. “By spending hours every week grading and planning at home in the evening and weekends, coming in early to prepare classrooms, staying late to assist students who need help, meeting with or calling parents, and supporting students in their extracurricular activities.”
Rankin stated, “Instead of recognizing teachers effort with an increase in pay, the District has presented an offer that conditions the raise on an additional 10-minutes under the school roof, removal on the limit on the number of meetings held on a weekly basis, which then contractually obligates teachers to a 43-hour and 45-minute work week and has removed protections for the teacher’s preparation time during the school day.”
On the subject of teacher plan time Rankin said that time is student centered. Teachers use the time to research, plan or adapt lesson plans, modify assignments to meet individual student needs, grade and prepare feedback, communicate with parents, collaborate with other teachers, counselors and social workers regarding best practices for individual students, get the necesssary materials for the classroom. And whether we have 25 students that we teach four to five subjects, or 150 or more students that we teach a single subject, this individual plan time is essential to providing our students a quality education.”
Rankin said JCEA hopes that the school board will return to the negotiating table and collaborate on a resolution to the impasse. State statute calls for fact finding as the next step in the process, but the JCEA hopes the District will negotiate at the bargaining table.
District officials have indicated the latest contract proposal included a 7.23% average pay raise for teachers. Rankin would like to see verification on those numbers. She stated Sunday that 11-days ago she had asked the District to provide the JCEA team with information on how they calculated that percentage amount. “But we were told that it was not complete, and not in a format that was easily shared, so we still do not have any information that would authenticate this claim. ” Rankin would like the district to provide detailed numbers proving that there would be that type of pay raise for teachers.
The Board of Education is expected to discuss the situation during their meeting on Monday.