This is a public hearing on the Teacher Collective Bargaining Contract, and we're all standing, so we
can do it. Pledge of Allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for
which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all
very much. Please be seated.
And so I will turn it directly over to Dr. Sanders to present the collective bargaining agreement. Yes,
so we have obviously we have a very talented and dedicated group of teachers that work for Edgewood
schools and
So when we come to bargaining, we really have already established a good working relationship. And Brandy,
who's the new president of the Teachers Association, has really worked hard this year to be proactive,
get a lot of information ahead of time. And so really when we went to our bargaining meetings,
went very well and. We we kind of wish we do wish that that we could have done more given the economic
circumstances that the state legislature legislators has put have put the school corporations in has
put us in a really difficult situation. So we we the whole time we had two goals. One is to try to.
recognize the hard work of our teachers, but also make sure that we kept our school corporation in a
good spot financially. And so I think we came up with an agreement that accomplishes both those goals.
Before you, you have a summary of the tentative agreement and you have the red line version of the teachers
contract. I'm just going to go over the summary.
and talk about that for a little bit. On page three of the contract, there was a change in language
on ECA guidelines and definitions, and it now reads, the parties agree that a committee will be formed
to review the ECA schedule proposed by the association. This committee will make a binding recommendation
no later than January 1st, 2026.
The positions will be added to the ECA schedule at that time and bargaining unit members holding those
positions will be compensated for performing these duties retroactive to the beginning of the 2526 school
year. So we wanted to take our time to look at the ECA positions
and make a good decision and a collaborative decision. And so rather than to kind of rush into it during
bargaining sessions, we decided to work on this over the next couple months. And then page eight, section A.
We have the, when a teacher takes off, they, before a holiday like Labor Day, fall break, Thanksgiving
break, winter break, spring break, summer break, and other holidays, that if they take off either before
or after they're charged two days for every one that they take off,
We wanted to put more specific language in there for teachers who might just take a half a day. And
so if they take a half a day instead of being charged two, they will only be charged one of those days.
And also, we wanted to do a little better job. Last year was the first year we did this, and it was
kind of a trial year.
So, we want to become more timely on getting the appeals approved and communicated back to the teachers.
So, we added the language that these appeals would be responded to within
10 school days of the date of the appeal But we've come up with a way to to do this that it's just going
to be immediate So we're not going to have any problems meeting that 10-day period We increased the
next one of the page 14 section and for teachers who Need to take paid parental leave we
increase that from five to 10 days. And then on the back of that page, that summary sheet is appendix,
if you look at appendix A, this salary grid, we agreed that there would be no base salary increases
for the 25, 26 school year. We agreed that the teachers
who have earned their early literacy endorsement would receive a $200 base increase and the parties
agreed that each teacher will receive a one-time stipend payment in the amount of $2,000 for the 25-26
school year and that stipend will be paid in a special check probably
a little after Thanksgiving for end of November 1st of December. So that's it. I don't know if Brandy,
do you have anything you want to add to that?
I just want to say that it was really a great opportunity to have this new experience. We had a brand
new team. We had one returning member on our bargaining team. And then, of course, we have a brand new
Uniserve director. And so she was navigating nine different school corporations, but was able to honor
the dates that we had established. We sent out after last year, and last year was my first year, but
I was more just an observer, but realizing we needed just
have more transparency, more communication, and so our team sent out several surveys to our members
just gathering information, what was their input, what
did, what were their priorities? And again, I think everybody knew this year after last year, it was
going to be a leaner year. But again, going into next year, I feel like we have a better plan for next
year. Again, the two for one is a top priority for members, but we are, Dr. Sanders and Mrs. Barrett,
they're going to give us data to let us see
you know, how are those days being utilized before this came into the contract? What is happening now?
So at least, you know, there's still negotiations to happen, conversation, but we also want to be able
to tell members, hey, this is why this is in place. And so, you know, we'll be gathering that data over
the next year and, you know, be able to, you know, refine that or,
explain why that is in play, but thank you. And yes, we ratified, we had the majority ratified it, so
that was good news too. So thank you. And this is a public hearing in case anybody from the public wanted
to ask a question or speak to the issue.
and so we don't have anybody who signed up to talk, but we'll have the special board meeting October
29th for the school board to approve the contract. Well, if there's no visitor comments, I will close
the public hearing on the teacher collective bargaining tentative agreement, and we thank you all for
being here.
and we will have a building corporation meeting in about three minutes and then back to our regular
board meeting at six.