By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
About 60 teachers crammed into the board room Monday night for the Hays USD 489 school board meeting.
Kim Schneweis, co-chair of the teachers negotiating committee, said the teachers wanted to show their strength following the district declaring on Oct. 9 they were at impasse with teachers in negotiating a contract for this school year.
The sticking point is over pay.
All other employees in the district received a 4.6 percent pay increase, but when the teachers looked at the pay schedule that was offered to them, the raise did not equal 4.6 percent, she said. Schneweis said the average increase per teacher was about 3.2 percent. The difference in the district proposal and the teachers’ request is $465 per person.
Although there was standing-room only during the meeting, no one spoke during the audience participation portion of the meeting. Schneweis spoke after the meeting.
“I think the teachers want the school board to know the teachers are paying attention and they feel fair is fair,” she said. “They are just asking for what everyone else in the district has been offered. I think they want the board to know we are paying attention and they care and they are watching and listening. It is not just the negotiations committee. It is the entire contingent of teachers that care about being offered a fair contract.”
The negotiations will now go to federal mediation, which is scheduled for Nov. 8.
Schneweis said the teachers still would be willing to come to an agreement locally and cancel the mediation.
Superintendent John Thissen, who is on the negotiations team for the board, declined to comment on the negotiations after the announcement the district had reached impasse two weeks ago.
He was not at the school board meeting on Monday.
ACT scores
The ACT scores at Hays High School for 2017-18 remained high.
The composite average for HHS was 22.8, which was the second highest in the school’s history and above the state average of 21.6.
The average English score of 22.6 was the highest in the school’s history. The average reading score was the second highest it has ever been at 23.3, down only .1 point from last year.
Shanna Dinkel, assistant superintendent, said although some of the scores were down slightly from the previous year, they are still among the best scores HHS has recorded and above the state averages.
She also noted HHS has a far higher percentage of students taking the ACT than the state average. Last year almost 83 percent of HHS students took the test compared to 71 percent statewide.
Dinkel said full school performance report cards are expected to be released in December.
Technology update
The school board has requested a pilot study to determine if Chromebooks could be used in classrooms as opposed to the current laptops or iPads the district is using now. That pilot launched early this month.
Students at the Learning Center, Gina Johnson’s students at O’Loughlin Elementary School and Nathan Purdue’s eighth-grade science students at Hays Middle School are participating in the pilot study.
Dinkel said it was too early to tell much about the pilot because the Chromebooks were late getting to the classrooms because of problems with the supplier.
The board requested the study to see if less expensive Chromebooks could be used in district classrooms with the same success as current technology. The district is also evaluating how difficult it might be to migrate from a Microsoft Office platform to a Google platform.
Scott Summers, technology director, also said he thought the roll out of new laptops at the high school was going smoothly.