By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

Hays USD 489 teachers are in the middle of negotiating their contracts for the upcoming school year.

At Monday’s school board meeting, Superintendent Dean Katt said some issues with the local Kansas National Education Association have been “tentatively agreed on.”

Katt said the teacher salaries most likely will be “frozen” instead of reduced as first suggested.

He said other negotiations focus on the language of  “due process” or “fair dismissal,”  created to prevent  dismissal of a teacher without reason. In the legislative school funding compromise approved earlier this year, the state removed language offering blanket due process to teachers statewide, instead giving that authority to local districts.

The next negotiation meeting  is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at Rockwell Administration Center.