NEW ALBANY — Without a single vote against the measures, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp.’s Board of Trustees canceled the contracts of 38 teachers Monday night.
But if an agreement is struck, negotiations with the NA-FC Education Association could lead to saving many of those positions, the exceptions being federally funded Title 1 positions..
Mark Kessans, president of the Education Association, said there are a couple of hitches in the negotiations.
He said the board has asked for significant changes to teachers’ insurance plans for employees and post-July retirees. After presenting two counter offers to the board, the bargaining team and the administration are still at a stalemate.
The Education Association is also seeking a four-year extension of its contract. Otherwise, it would expire in 2012.
“Being one of the few corporations in this area that will not have bargained an extended contract,” Kessans said in a prepared statement, “our school corporation will likely lose quality current teachers who will shop open positions elsewhere and likely lose quality new teachers who are not willing to work in a corporation that has little contract language in place for its teachers.”
Superintendent Bruce Hibbard said extending teacher contracts isn’t a feasible option for the school corporation.
“Financially, we can’t afford a long-term contract without major concessions,” Hibbard said.
He said if the corporation agreed to the contract extension, they’d be back in the same place next year trying to make cuts to save the budget. He said he wants to avoid that. Hibbard said any if employees retire, some of the positions eliminated will be hired back.
Kessans said the teachers union has made “significant movement” toward accepting the insurance proposal made by the school corporation. The corporation’s current plan pays for a percentage of employee insurance. The new plan would shift the corporation’s commitment to a fixed dollar amount.
Also, Kessans said the association presented a modified version of the corporation’s proposal for insurance to retirees. The corporation wanted the terms for retirees to change if they retired after July. Kessans said the proposal the Education Association rebutted with was less divisive and made the benefits the same for all retirees. He also said the association agreed to the terms of no step raises for employees.
But without an agreement on the contract extension, he said the union isn’t likely to agree to the corporation’s terms.
“People don’t pay union dues and belong to a union to give up everything,” Kessans said after the meeting.
Under the current cancellations, all art, physical education and music positions have been eliminated.
Bill Briscoe, assistant superintendent, said the discussions aren’t over and if an agreement is struck by Thursday, the board will call a special session to recall some of the canceled contracts.
“Both sides are continuing the conversation,” Briscoe said. “I think it’s in both of our interests to understand each other and our points of view.”
Chuck Freiberger, a teacher at Highland Hills Middle School, said he was disappointed with the board’s decision.
“I’m hoping to extend our contracts,” Freiberger said. “We’re still talking. Our goal is to provide a good educational experience for our kids, that’s it.”
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