Bargaining Session #7

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.