Unite Summit and the SPS bargaining team held their second contract negotiation meeting today. We are still collecting perspectives through our input survey at tinyurl.com/USMarchSurvey, so please fill that out if you haven’t yet!
As part of the meeting, Unite Summit sought a counter proposal from SPS regarding our position on the calendar and schedule for the 2020-2021 school year. Here is the formatted proposal and calendar that we presented last week. We bargained over the schedule for this school year in the summer, and we believe it would be appropriate to negotiate over next year’s schedule and calendar now, knowing that the full contract will likely not be ready for next school year.
The position of Summit Public Schools’ bargaining team is that they do not wish to bargain over calendar or working hours for the 2020-2021 school year separately from the overall union contract. They did not present a counter proposal.
We will continue to push SPS to negotiate regarding next year’s schedule because they are legally required to do so. We know that this is an issue that is important to our members, and we want to push for steps that will address teacher burnout and help improve retention.
There were also several new proposals and counter proposals presented today.
Unite Summit introduced the following contract proposals:
- Intellectual Property (proposal)
- Facilities (proposal)
- Assignments, Transfer, Reassignments (proposal)
SPS introduced the following contract proposal:
- Leadership Rights (proposal)
SPS also formulated counter proposals to two of the proposals Unite Summit presented at our last meeting.
Here are the original proposals and the counter proposals:
- Assignability: original proposal / SPS counter proposal
- Savings and Separability: original proposal / SPS counter proposal
The following Unite Summit Bargaining Team members attended today’s meeting: Liz DeOrnellas, Expeditions; Sarah Rivas, Denali High; Amber Steele, Denali Middle; Hillary Odom, Shasta; Fuchsia Spring, K2; Dan McClure, Prep; Evan Anderson, Everest; Douglas Wills, Tahoma; and Isela Mosqueira, Rainier. Ona Keller and Daryl Hemenway from CTA also joined the discussion.
The following Summit Bargaining Team members attended: Diane Tavenner, CEO; Kelly Garcia, Chief of Staff; and Jimmy Zuniga, Everest Executive Director.
Our next bargaining session will be Thursday, April 2. We are planning to present proposals related to Professional Development and Technology and Resources. If you have questions, please reach out to your site rep or contact us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.