District Drops One of Contract Sticking Points

Publicola talked with Clover Codd and is reporting that the district has backed off on the issue of eliminating the weekly paid hour of collaborative planning for teachers. 

Codd told PubliCola this morning: "We actually withdrew that proposal. The hour of collaboration time pay. We’re leaving that in the contract. And they still get the 2.6 percent compensation for that."

Re: teacher pay, She added: "One thing I think is really important for the public to know is we’re actually offering a 4 percent increase in compensation over two years. It keeps getting published as 2 percent. Well it’s 2 percent in one year, and then an additional 2 percent the next year, for a total of 4 percent. In addition to the restoration of the furloughs, which is 1.3 percent. When you add all that up, it’s actually a 5.3 percent increase over two years."

The union is staying mum until negotiations are done but there is an SEA press conference this afternoon.  SEA President Jonathan Knapp said:

"I'm going to respect the confidentiality of the negotiations," he said, adding that he was "surprised" the SPS negotiators would give details about the ongoing negotiations. "That not how you reach a deal." He did say, "movement in one certain aspect of negotiations doesn't mean there's a deal on the table."

On the issue of the teacher evaluations, Codd said:

"It’s really puzzling to us, to be quite honest," she said. "SEA, right after the last contract was negotiated, touted this version as if it were their idea. We’ve got several videos with Jonathan Knapp and Glenn Bafia talking about this wonderful system that we have collaboratively designed that’s so different than what’s going on in DC and New York and Chicago and the rest of the nation. Here we come to 2013, and their message has changed."

Codd added that changing from the current, local evaluation model would jeopardize school funding because the state model doesn't meet federal standards.

Interesting last statement from her:

We’re actually really hopeful. Yesterday went well; we’ll be at it again today. We think that after today everything will be on the table. I’m sure there will be more negotiation as the week continues, and maybe into the weekend. But at the end of the day, we will definitely reach an agreement that meets the needs of teachers, educators and the students. And of course the district.

 So it may be down to the nth hour, after all.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Those who were "touting" this cutting-edge, state of the art, mind-blowing, orgasmic CBA more than SEA were LEV and the Alliance. It's THEIR contract, listening to them yammer about it. Codd is being disingenuous but she's a reformie anyway.

And what was that about school funding? The State will deny school funding because SPS eval system conforms with state law? "That's really puzzling, to be quite honest"

hardworking teacher
I think she is referring to the threat of losing the NCLB wavier because the state is not conforming to the regs about teacher evaluations. How tied this is funding is unclear to me.
Anonymous said…
How can Jonathan go on about confidentiality when he was the one who went to the media two weeks ago about the class size issue? NOW he wants to be confidential? Whatever.

Just sayin'
Just Sayin', I did ask him about that and he shrugged, saying they wanted parents to know about the class size issue.
mirmac1 said…
BTW, if you agree with the concessions made for teachers, I urge you to tell the board and the &(#%@ Seattle Times/A4E-LEV propaganda machine. I have a strong suspicion they will spin this as Banda "caving" to status-quo, union special interests.

thx
Kristin said…
I'm confused about the exact details that are being bargained. It sounds from what Cobb said that the district is withdrawing the proposal to eliminate an hour of pay for professional development, but does that mean it would still add an extra unpaid half hour? As for the student growth measure, Cobb doesn't seem to be looking t the big picture that the state is likely to add some changes to get the NCLB waiver, and so a mandated Seattle District test would be one test on top of that. Am I right or ???

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