Negotiations Update

Negotiation Update

RGNEA Members,
We met again last Monday, August 20th and discussed making changes to the ground rules. The number of copies of the video taped recording of the sessions was the primary focus Monday and after 90 minutes of discussion, the issue remained unresolved. This was a surprise to us, as we were expecting to continue negotiating the Monday Meeting/ Professional Development issue. The administration team indicated at this session on Monday that they would no longer be interested in negotiations due to the teacher's team not moving enough to meet the administration's one option proposal. After conferring with the administration on Friday, August 24th, the administration team has agreed to return to the table this Monday to continue working toward an agreement on the Monday Meeting/ PD situation. It has been agreed that after this meeting, whether we find compromise or not, negotiations will be postponed until the administration team attends bargaining training on the Meet and Confer format. Hopefully, this will resolve the administration's stone-walling tactics that have been used thus far. The invitation for training has also been extended to the teachers' team. Some of our team has already agreed to attend these training sessions.

The next negotiation session is this Monday August 27. I want to extend the invitation to all of the membership to attend. Your attendance shows the unity of our association. Remember, our association is only as strong as our members. Your negotiation team is representing you
and your views. Please come and hear what is being fought for.

After 4 negotiation sessions, at 90 minutes each, no agreements have been reached. The administration team has taken a, seemingly, unmovable stand on both the Monday Meeting issue and clarifications of the ground rules. Hopefully, the training will open the lines of communication to help the administrative and teacher teams come together and reach a resolution to the issues. I am TRYING to keep a positive attitude.

If you have any questions, feel free to call.

Richard Thies
RGNEA President
314-518-4305

Negotiations Update

Thank you to those who came to Monday's negotiation session! Hopefully something positive will come out of it. To those of you who were unable to attend, we were unable to discuss the "Monday Meeting" issue due to the administration raising a groundrule issue that had to be resolved, involving the videorecording of the session. You may say, "That certainly couldn't have taken 90 minutes!", but you would be incorrect. We are confident that both of these issues will be resolved to our satisfaction, but only time will tell. We will again be asking our membership to make its presence felt at some of the upcoming sessions. The turnout was decent, but we must do better. We know that we are asking a lot by requesting your attendance, but it is necessary to show the solidarity of our membership so that we cannot be accused of representing our own individual desires.
We will be posting more specific information about the last session once the 72 hour "gag" on written distribution of the meeting contents has expired. In the mean time try to talk to a member who did attend if you are interested.

Problems with the poll

I have heard that several people are having problems voting, or seeing the new poll question. So I am going to put the question here. If you can't vote please email Rich: rthies@rgsd.k12.mo.us, and let him know. Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend, good luck on your first day tomorrow.

A Call to the Membership

We need a huge showing at our negotiation session on Monday, August 20th as we struggle again with the issue of Monday Meetings. We need to show this administration we want change on this issue. Without the member support Monday, your negotiation team will give up the fight for this issue. A lack of attendance sends a message to the administration, and us, that the membership doesn't care about this issue. We can not fight a battle like this without member support. Pass along this message after you read it and get as many teachers as you can to come support us at the negotiation session on Monday. Administration says this is an issue that only a few members care about. I'd like 100+ members in the board room on Monday that feel the past practice of large amounts of PD on Mondays is too much. We need a large member showing to drive the point home. You don't need to stay the entire time. Just show up for a short time. 10 members showing up won't do it. If you want change, be there. Here is the information for the Negotiation Session on Monday:

August 20, 2007
Central Office Board Room
5:00 - 6:30p.m.
Subject: Monday Meetings and maybe Money Issues

The administration's minimum at this point is 18 Building Business / Professional Development meetings per year at 60 minutes each. That totals to 1080 minutes (18 hours) of non-contractual time.

Your RGNEA negotiation team has set the maximum at 8 Building Business meetings per year at 45 minutes each and 4 Professional Development meetings per year at 60 minutes each. We've also allowed flexibility to give the principal the option of using the allotted minutes in whatever way they chose. Shorter meetings, more days or longer meetings, less days. This option is not to exceed the maximum time of 600 minutes (10 hours) per year of non-contractual time.

At this point, I am aware of Gibson and Danforth having their Open House on this day. Unfortunately, this puts more pressure on the other buildings to cover for the negotiations. Keep informed by checking this web page for any changes made by the adminitration the last minute. There could be a cancellation due to unknown school factors like the air conditioning or the excuse of just being the first day of school. Otherwise, we'll see you there Monday.

Richard Thies
RGNEA President

Two announcements

RGSD Closed:
The Riverview Gardens School District will be closed to students on Thursday and Friday, August 16 and 17, 2007. This decision was made due to hot temperatures and several building air conditioning systems not functioning, or running at less than 100%.

Dr. Williams' Hearing:
Dr. Williams' hearing takes place at the County Courthouse in Clayton, MO. at 9:00am on Thursday, August 16, 2007. Because of RG classes being canceled, this could allow teachers to attend this hearing. Any interest?

Negotiations

Attention RGNEA members, tomorrow, August 13, 2007 your negotiation team will again be meeting with the district to discuss our issues. You are encouraged to attend and listen to the discussion. The more active our membership becomes, the stronger we are as an organization. We hope to see you there, and remember to email Joda about your thoughts on planning time.

Planning Time

In an effort to fully represent our membership's concern in the contract negotiations, I am asking for your input concerning planning time. Specifically, what are your concerns & the reasons behind them, as well as reasonable suggestions. Please email me with your responses so that we will be better prepared to represent all members. My email is "jfogerson@rgsd.k12.mo.us." Thanks!
Joda FogersonRGNEA Secretary

Ok, a slight change from last night's post. I will not be posting a new poll yet, but I am going to post the options that we are considering concerning "Monday Meetings." Your building rep. should be talking to you about this in the next day or so, but I wanted those of you keeping up with the blog to be aware of what is coming.

Option A
There will be no more than . . .
-2 building needs/staff meetings per MONTH maximum
-each lasting no longer than 45 minutes
-held on Mondays only
-beginning no later than 15 minutes after the official student dismissal time
-to address building concerns
AND
-1 meeting per QUARTER for professional development
-lasting no more than 60 minutes
-chosen w/ teacher input in conjunction with the building level PDC

Option A - Summary of the Time (non-contractual hours)
16 staff meetings per year x 45 minutes = 720
4 quarterly PD meetings per year x 60 minutes = 240
TOTAL 960 min/60 min. = 16 non-contractual hours
16 x $25/hour = $400.00/teacher compensation that is not paid.
___________________________

Option B There will be no more than . . .
-2 building needs/staff meetings per QUARTER maximum.
-each lasting no longer than 45 minutes
-held on Mondays only
-beginning no later than 15 minutes after the official studentdismissal time
-to address building concerns
And
-1 meeting per QUARTER for professional development
-lasting no more than 60 minutes
-chosen w/ teacher input in conjunction with the building level PDC

Option B - Summary of the Time (non-contractual hours)
8 staff meetings x 45 minutes = 360
4 quarterly PD meetings x 60 minutes = 240
TOTAL 600 min/60 min. = 10 non-contractual hours
10 x $25/hour = $250.00/teacher compensation that is not paid.

Negotiations Update

Hopefully everyone had a pleasant first day back! On this first day back from summer break, your RGNEA Negotiation Team met again with the District Negotiation Team. There was a lengthy discussion concerning "Monday Meetings." After this meeting, two options for a resolution were devised. We want your input as to which one we will propose. Your building rep. will have these proposals soon. They will also be posted on the website, replacing the original poll, within the next 24 hours.

Welcome

Thanks for checking out the new RGNEA Blog! We are very excited to be up and running. We will be posting a lot of information here, so make sure to check it out regularly. Also, please let us know what you think. We want to make this site and the homepage as functional for you as we can, so we need to know what you want to see. Post it as a comment to this post or send me an email mawilliams@rgsd.k12.mo.us