Unite Summit and the SPS bargaining team held their third contract negotiation meeting today.
As part of the meeting, Unite Summit continued to advocate for 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 proposed calendar from Unite Summit. Today we asked SPS to generate a counter proposal by Friday, April 10. Here is the letter we sent outlining our legal reasoning for bargaining this proposal as a separate issue from the rest of the contract.
There were several new proposals and counter proposals presented today.
Unite Summit introduced the following contract proposals:
Unite Summit also presented the following counter proposals (in these documents, you can see the line edits made relative to Summit’s latest proposal on these articles):
- Management Rights (counter proposal)
- Savings (counter proposal)
- Assignability (counter proposal)
SPS introduced the following contract proposals:
- Employment Status (proposal) – the SPS proposal keeps the status quo of at-will employment; our counter proposal will include provisions to ensure that teachers are not fired without just cause
- Negotiation Procedures (proposal)
SPS also formulated counter proposals to three of the proposals Unite Summit presented at our last meeting.
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 Tuesday, April 21. If you have questions, please reach out to your site rep or contact us at unitesummitteachers@gmail.com.
Happy almost Spring Break from your Bargaining Team! We are enjoying the opportunity to use Zoom to advocate for y’all, and we look forward to the chance to unplug soon : )