By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
A proposal by the Hays USD 489 Board of Education to add seven days to teacher contracts, increase daily hours and increase students contact time was presented at Tuesday’s contract negotiations meeting to members of the local Kansas National Education Association.
The board presented graphs comparing USD 489 with 17 other school districts suggesting Hays teachers worked less hours and had fewer hours of student contact time than other schools across the state.
“You can see right now that Hays is ranked in lower quarter compared to all these other schools and that is what is concerning to us,” board member Sarah Rankin said. “With our proposal, it moves us up much higher on that graph.”
The board’s proposed contract calls for teachers to work 7.75 hours per day instead of the current 7.25. It also would require teachers to arrive to school 40 minutes prior to the start of school and stay 35 minutes after the end of school, adding an overall 30 minutes to the current teacher work day.
Board member Greg Schwartz said the arrival and departure times of each day could be negotiated with the principal.
“There is probably a lot more room for discussion as far as what the appropriate time will be. … When we looked at it we looked at lots of factors — daycare, dropping (kids) off at school, a lot of things that would factor in,” Schwartz said. “Our focus is to add more plan time and student contact time and get us to where others are at.”
Related: Union questions board proposal to cap sick, leave time.
Hays KNEA negotiating team members questioned the accuracy of the information, pointing out some schools showed higher contract hours because student-contact hours were low.
“These colorful bar graphs … is that all we have to work?” Schneweis asked. “Nobody works that schedule. … You say we work the minimum and we only work these hours. Nobody is working that schedule.”
“If that is the case and everybody is working these hours, then what is the big deal in adding more contract hours and contract days?” Schwartz asked.
“Because if you are going to expand that, then that is going to expand the extra time out of us,” Schneweis said. “From what I can tell, you are asking us to do that for free.”
Board member Lance Bickle said the proposal is not “set in stone” and will be discussed further.
The next KNEA negotiations meeting is May 6 at 5:30 p.m. at Rockwell Administration Center.