The Geary USD 475 Board of Education has requested fact finding. It is the next step in the teacher contract negotiations process.

The negotiations on 2015-16 teacher contracts have been at impasse for some time.

Brian Field, Board of Education President, stated after an executive session on Monday that the Board took no action, and that they were meant they were moving forward with the Professional Negotiations Act process. “The next step is fact finding. There was a 10-day window where the fact finding had to be filed. JCEA did not file for fact finding. ” Field added the Board didn’t want the 10-day window to close so they filed for fact finding Friday afternoon.

Cathy Rankin, Junction City Education Association President, said, “The Association doesn’t have an attorney at the table that we’re paying to do all the work for us. The teachers will have to do the work to prepare for this. We still need to put our students first, because we’re teachers. And we work on to get the job done. So we’re looking for what looks like a lot of work in the next few weeks. ” Rankin added she did not know how long the fact finding would take.

Fact finding includes a hearing involving presentation of witnesses and evidence, and a recommendation is then submitted to the Board of Education.  It is then followed by a required negotiating session between the two sides. Currently, the teachers are working under the contract that was in effect for the 2014-15 school year.

A date for the fact finding session will have to be set.