Centralia School Board Approves Teachers Contract

The Centralia School District Board of Directors voted to approve an agreement with the Centralia Education Association in a special meeting on Tuesday, a one-year contract that includes approximately $241,000 in additional costs.

Assistant Superintendent Matt McCauley said the cost of the agreement is an estimate within 10 percent of the amount of money the district will spend.

The 4-1 vote to approve the agreement ended a bargaining process that began in April, later spurring teacher rallies after school employees worked since Sept. 8 without a new contract. 

According to McCauley, the money comes from many different revenue streams, but most of it will come out of the fund balance and new state money awarded to the district this year.

The one-year contract includes changes to the amount of bereavement days teachers are allotted, an increased health care pool and professional development pay.

McCauley said the district does not feel that it will have to cut any services for the coming year or reduce any programs, stating the contract was one the district was able to afford.

Changes to the contract included a new system for evaluations, getting rid of the standard long-form evaluation process.

The district will provide a $500 annual bonus on a prorated basis for full-time equivalent staff members with 20 years of experience, and will provide $20,000 to offset costs associated with professional certification activities.

Each classroom will be provided with $200 for classroom supplies, the health insurance pool increased from $75,000 to $150,000 and bereavement days increased to the potential total of eight days.

The district will provide opportunities for teachers to get flu immunizations at three school sites and will reimburse staff members $25 if they decide to get the shot elsewhere and the cost is not covered by insurance.

For the special education staff, there was an increase from 7.5 hours per year paid at per diem, to 22.5 hours to help with large caseloads.

Summer school improvement planning projects increased by $600 in the 2014-15 school year to $15,600 for this year.

Also included in the contract was a requirement to convene a work study team by Nov. 2 to review and analyze class sizes and special education caseload issues in the district. The superintendent and CEA president are responsible for putting together the work team. 

School board member Neal Kirby was the only one who voted against the contract, citing a concern about diminished services provided to the students and a decrease in district or building directed days.

Kirby said the district did not find the proper balance to fund programs and expand on them, while providing teachers with additional money. 

The 2015-16 contract increased additional work days by one to 16. Included in that change was an increase from 7.5 days to 10 days in the 2015-16 school year available for employees for responsibilities outside of the regular work day. That includes preparation time for parent teacher conferences, the first day of school and report card preparation, among other responsibilities. 

Kirby said he is concerned because the prep work is not organized or directed by a building or district.

Under the new contract, five days were made available for strategic plan work or School Improvement Plan implementation, a decrease from 6.5 days in 2014-15. As a former principal, Kirby said the decrease can be problematic because those days are needed to create a successful team and build trust.

“Those days are critical to that, that’s what bothers me,” Kirby said. “I think those days are critical to improving academic performance and we are giving them up — that’s a problem.”

Jami Lund, a policy analysis for The Freedom Foundation who has studied teacher collective bargaining and is currently seeking a seat on the board, was also disappointed with the contract.

“The resources available for services to families were reduced as a result of this contract,” he said.

Lund is a school board candidate in the Nov. 3 general election and runs on the platform of providing and increasing services to both students and their families. 

CEA co-chair Lauri Johnson said she is happy with the contract because teachers now are required to take on more responsibilities than in the past. She said the CEA was “extremely conservative” in what they asked for. 

“The teaching industry has changed dramatically,” she said, adding that she is in her 28th year of teaching. “We’ve had to change with the times and unfortunately our wages and our benefits, those things that help us survive and help our families survive, has not caught up with what is being asked by us. The responsibility is tenfold of what they used to be.”

Kerri Kite, the other CEA co-chair, said she was most pleased with the professional development money, and an increase for classroom supply money. 

Despite the hopes of reaching an agreement for a multi-year contract, the bargaining process will begin again during the spring, most likely in April. 

Kite said she believes this time around a contract will be awarded to teachers earlier than in the past two years.

“I’m absolutely sure with (Superintendent Mark) Davalos at the helm this year that we will find a lot more forward progress and have a contract hopefully earlier like in July or August,” she said.

Davalos thanked both teams for their hard work during the bargaining process and said he was in full support of the contract. 

McCauley said the bargaining process will likely create difficulties again, something typical of the traditional bargaining process. He said he did not see that changing unless the state rectified the funding systems and rules in parameters around dollars it provides to districts.

“We are eager for the day when the state will provide appropriate compensation for our professionals and it won’t need to become a local funding issue for salaries,” he said.