Teachers rallied outside the Center for Academic Achievement ahead of a board of education meeting in November to lobby for a new contract. They’re planning a similar demonstration tonight.
Shawnee Mission teachers are planning to gather outside of the Center for Academic Achievement tonight to demonstrate as the board of education meets to discuss a possible unilateral three-year contract strongly opposed by the teachers union.
“There is no time for ambivalence…SHOW UP! Bring signs! Wear red,” reads the notice teachers posted on Facebook Wednesday. “Grab your friends and family and SHOW UP at the CAA. Make every board member look you in the eye when they vote AGAINST YOU!”
The administration says that the offers it put on the table for the union to consider would have allocated the vast majority of the new money that the district is likely to receive under the new K-12 funding formula to teacher pay, and that it can’t commit to larger teacher base salary increases without harming the fiscal health of the operation at large.
However, Cox had suggested the district put an offer on the table for the current year that was “relatively, slightly more than the District left on the negotiating table at impasse” and encouraged the parties to work toward a two-year agreement. The district never moved from the proposed 1% base salary increase it had on the table for the current year in any of its subsequent offers, and only put three-year offers on the table Tuesday.
Kansas Families for Education issues statement in support of teachers
Chris Cindric (center, speaking) currently president of the Kansas Families for Education board, at a rally for increased K-12 funding at the state capitol in 2016.
In a statement released Wednesday night, Chris Cindric, the KFE board president and a former Shawnee Mission employee, said the move “will have long term consequences and devastating effects to a community built around its schools.”
“Our members couldn’t be more discouraged,” Cindric said of the development. “As a former educator for 31 years in Shawnee Mission there has never been a 3-year unilateral contract enacted by the Board of Education of which I am aware. It’s a decision that says it’s our way or the highway.”
Cindric also said that the district needed to move to address the fact that secondary teachers have a workload of six sections per day as opposed to the five sections standard in other Johnson County districts.
“We ask our members and the patrons of the district to continue to let their board members know their disappointment in the process and the result,” said Cindric. “We may not have a vote tonight, but if necessary, we all have votes to change course in the next election.”
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