Blog Archives - REYNOLDS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

Bargaining Update #9

5/28/2024

REA brought counters for Article 26A: SPED Services and 26C: Social-Emotional and Wellness Support Services. The district had struck language around serving unhoused youth from 26A stating it wasn’t relevant to SPED services, so REA moved that language to 26C to ensure it will be addressed by our Social Emotional and Wellness committee. Both sides agree that the language in 26C works and this article will likely be tentatively agreed to soon. In 26A REA had proposed that SPED staff receive an 8% stipend up 6% from where it currently is at 2%. RSD came back and proposed that SPED staff receive just 5% and removed language that staff can use the special compensation form when they need extra hours to complete their duties. REA does not believe 5% is enough if the district is going to take away members' ability to also use the extra compensation form, so this article will still need more work before we are willing to agree to it.
RSD created a financial presentation that showcased what our current proposals would cost them. The presentation was, frankly, underwhelming and left REA with more questions than answers. Here is a link to that presentation: RSD Costing of REA Proposals.pdf RSD then presented their proposal for Article 22: Employee Compensation. They countered our 13%, 12%, 11% with 5% in year 1, 1% in year 2 and 1% in year three. This is only an overall 1% increase from their initial proposal of 3%, 2%, 1%. These numbers do not keep up with inflation and will keep us near the bottom in terms of pay among the Metro 14 districts. They maintained that they wanted to strike January 15th as an opportunity for column movement which would decrease the number of times members can submit paperwork to move on the salary schedule. They also struck language we want added concerning honoring years worked in the district by classified staff who move into certified positions citing they need to research labor laws. REA feels strongly that we should honor folks who have spent time and worked hard in RSD as classified staff and will not allow this language to be removed. The district and REA had a discussion concerning REA’s language changes regarding credits earned subsequent to a master’s degree. Clair Thiel guest spoke to share how current contract language impacted her movement on the salary scale and how REA’s language change would have made a difference for her and others in her same position. Thanks Clair! The district agreed to changes made by REA to the years of experience coaches need to move up on the salary schedule but did not agree to our changes concerning assistant coaches moving into head coaching positions. There was also an interesting exchange between the district's lawyer and Brian Jay regarding outside organizations paying for staff to run clubs. REA wants to ensure staff are paid at our rate for their time running clubs, rather than whatever the outside organizations rate is. The lawyer did not seem to understand our position and argued that we cannot control how outside organizations pay and run their programs.

REA and the district have agreed to an additional all day bargaining session on Saturday, June 1st. This session will be held in the RHS library from 8:30am to 4pm. It will be open to the public and members are welcome and encouraged to show up! We are really getting down to the wire and it’s clear the district is trying to rush the process in order to wrap up bargaining by the end of the school year. REA, we have got to put the pressure on to keep the district in check and remind them that quality bargaining requires time and thoughtfulness! We will not let them push us to finish if we aren’t ready solely because they do not want to spend the time creating a solid contract with us.

Bargaining Session #8

5/8/2024

The continued turnout at our bargaining sessions is proving successful! The district has agreed to many of the things REA has proposed or countered in some of our previously opened articles. However, we need to continue to put the pressure on as we begin to tackle some of the more financially dependent pieces of our contract. Please check out the summary of this week's bargaining session below.

REA and RSD tentatively agreed to the following articles:
Article 4: Association Rights and Privileges
Article 5: Employee Rights
Article 8: Emergency Closure
Article 10: Professional Development
Article 19: Tuition, Project and Workshop Reimbursement
Appendix E: Tuition Reimbursement
Article 21: Dues and Payroll Deductions
Article 25: Reduction in Force
Article 26-B: Student Services - English Language Development

REA presented initial proposals for the following:
Article 22: Employee Compensation
Article 23: Fringe Benefits
Article 14: Paid Leave of Absence
Article 27: Class Size and Caseload Workload

REA’s OEA representative Bruce Scherer gave a financial presentation this week. The link to that presentation is here: 2024-05 REA Finance Barg Presentation.pdf The bargaining team also shared RSD’s counter to Article 18: Student Discipline with members who came. We are looking for feedback on whether or not the changes that have been made are adequate or if anything is still missing or seems off. Please review it and email Brian Jay ([email protected]) with any thoughts. RSD Amended Article 18-Student Discipline.pdf

RSD didn’t counter any of REA’s articles this session. Rather, they will bring a counter for Article 3: Miscellaneous and 23: Fringe Benefits at our next session. They also plan on sharing their own financial presentation as a counter to what Bruce Scherer shared this week.
REA will be bringing a counter to the district's initial proposal for Article 22: Employee Compensation, as well as counters to Articles 26 A (Special Education) & C (Social Emotional and Wellness Support).

RSD wants REA to meet with them for another all day session and has offered up some dates. REA wants to avoid another meeting where members won’t be able to attend, so offered Saturday, June 1st up as a date when we could do an all day meeting, but would make it open to the public so members could attend. There will be an update on that if and when anything is decided by the teams.

Our next bargaining session is May 23rd at 5pm in the RHS library. See you there!

Bargaining Session #7

5/8/2024

On May 2nd, the REA Bargaining Team met with the district’s team in an all day session where we worked on refining the language in some of the articles we had opened in previous bargaining sessions. Many of these articles had been “set aside” at previous bargaining sessions as being very close to agreed upon by both parties. A few others required more work and collaboration. Below is an update on each article we discussed.

Articles ready to be tentatively agreed to:
Article 4: Association Rights and Privileges RSD agreed to REA’s counter to keep our right to a Union 10 once a week.

Article 5: Employee Rights REA and RSD came to an agreement that members will be allowed three plans of awareness in one domain of the teacher evaluation tool per evaluation cycle. REA was also able to secure new contractual language around instructional program/model changes. If the district plans to make such changes, members will need to be notified 90 district work days in advance if the change is to be implemented in that school year. If the change is to occur the following school year, members will be notified no later than February 15th. The only exception to this would be if it were a state mandated change.

Article 8: Emergency Closures REA and RSD came to an agreement around adjusting the calendar to meet state required minimum seat time if we were to have emergency closures during the school year.

Article 10: Professional Development RSD agreed to our counter which included a one hour lunch break on PD days as well as the accounting for prior training and background knowledge when planning PD for members.

Article 19: Tuition Reimbursement RSD agreed to allow ALL members access to 6 credits of tuition reimbursement. This cleans up language around which classes those credits can be used for and clarifies what qualifies for tuition reimbursement. REA and RSD also agreed on language around national conferences. Members will be able to attend one per contract cycle and can use all 6 of their credits to fund it, if they choose. Conferences in Oregon and Washington will be exceptions to this and will not be considered “national” conferences.

Article 21: Dues and Payroll Deductions RSD agreed to REA’s counter to keep our pay date as the 20th of each month. Article 25: Reduction in Force REA and RSD agreed to add language concerning retaining employees with cultural and linguistic expertise to reflect state law.

Article 26-B: Student Services - ELD The district agreed to remove the language suggesting REA would cover compensation for committee meetings as all committee members are volunteers.

Articles that need more work:
Article 17: Substitute Teachers and Student Teachers REA and RSD still have a lot of work to do on this article. RSD claims there will be large financial implications if they agree to the terms of this article. REA disagrees and has requested information regarding the supposed financial implications they claim.

Article 18: Student Discipline RSD worked to change the way this article was written to make the process clear for what to do if students attempt to harm themselves or others. The Bargaining Team feels that the changes do a good job of clarifying the process for implementing Article 18, but want to bring it to the membership to ensure membership agrees with the language changes and understand the process as it reads in changed language.