By James Bell
Hays Post
Hays teachers voted Friday to accept the contract agreed upon during mediation last week giving USD 489 teachers six months of vertical pay-scale movement. It was the third vote during this year’s negotiations.
The final vote was 155 to 54.
“We weren’t asking for more money. We’re just asking people get to move into those steps,” said Kim Schneweis, Hays National Education Association Bargaining Committee(HNEA) co-chairwoman.
The vertical pay scale movement had been a contentious point during negotiations, as teachers cited the lack of movement during the first two votes as a primary reason to vote against the contract.
During mediation, the Board of Education ultimately offered six months of movement to teachers.
The vertical movement will be paid in June, but only if the Kansas legislature does not make any further cuts to K-12 education state funding.
Horizontal movement, however– agreed upon during negotiations– would remain in place even if cuts occur.
USD 489 has 12 steps of vertical movement in its pay schedule, based on years of service to the district. Horizontal movement rewards teachers for professional development, including additional college classes taken by a teacher.
A vote was held in each of the district buildings on Friday and while it passed, some teachers still had concerns with the mediated agreement.
Early feedback, Schneweis said, found teachers were unhappy with changes to early retirement benefits.
“That was an expectation and promise and it should have been honored,” she said. “We agreed upon the phase-out and that should have been followed through.”
But the lack of movement was also very upsetting to teachers, Schneweis said.
Even with the agreement, state cuts could derail the movement.
Kansas officials have made comments that there would be no further cuts to education, but recent cuts to higher ed make Schneweis feel that funding from the state is unpredictable.
“I think that is all in the air at this point,” Schneweis said.
Two state legislators suggested Tuesday that the State Board of Education should be in charge of school funding, rather than the legislature, following last month’s ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that school funding across the state is still unconstitutional.
The Board had been hesitant to offer the movement during negotiations in part because of the cuts the state has made to education during the last few years. Funding at least some movement was a way to show the Board wanted to fund the movement, even if money to do so was not available until the end of the school year.
“We’re trying to show you we are serious in giving you this money,” said Lance Bickle, Board president, during the mediation.
The HNEA had argued during negotiations that money from attrition should be able to fund the movement, but the administration disagreed.
A full step of vertical movement was expected to cost the district $115,764. Attrition was expected to save only $56,100.
“This is just a rotation that these younger people would get to move into these spots,” Schneweis said, adding that many teachers have already reached the top of the vertical scale and would not see movement.
The Board of Education is set to vote on the contract at their next Board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 21, in the Toepfer Board Room in the Rockwell Administration Center, 323 W. 12th St.