Shawnee Mission district, teachers finally agree on contract, but it won’t last long
It took nearly one year of negotiations, a ruling from the Kansas secretary of labor and a federal mediator — but the Shawnee Mission district and teachers union have finally agreed to a contract for the current school year.
The district and National Education Association-Shawnee Mission on Thursday reached a tentative 2019-20 contract agreement. Members of the bargaining unit will vote on whether to ratify the agreement March 9-11.
“Today’s process is an important step forward in the district and the association working together on behalf of our students, our staff and our community,” union president Linda Sieck said in a news release.
The announcement comes after the school board on Jan. 30 voted to impose a rare three-year unilateral contract, following months of negotiations that failed. The union challenged the legality of the contract, and last month, the Kansas Department of Labor sided with the teachers.
The department decided the district did not have the authority to issue such a long-term contract, saying the district was denying the union its right to negotiate terms for the coming school years. The ruling made the last two years of the contract unenforceable.
Before the ruling was made, hundreds of teachers had already signed the three-year unilateral contract, which provided a 1% bump to the base salary this school year.
If ratified, the new contract would be the sole contract for all teachers within the bargaining unit.
“This represents the first steps in a process of healing that will allow us to work together for the benefit of our hard-working teachers and the students we serve,” Superintendent Mike Fulton said in the release.
The district and union will return to the negotiating table this spring. District spokesman David Smith said notices should be sent out by the end of this month about talks beginning for next year’s contract.
This school year has been shrouded by school board meetings packed with angry teachers, student walkouts and even a teacher resigning in front of the board. That has led to some board members calling for a new negotiation process.
On Thursday, the district and union agreed to use a federal mediator during negotiations for the next contract.
“Today’s successful mediation and the commitment to the use of a facilitator for future negotiations were productive steps to support our work together, as we strive to serve the students we are all dedicated to,” said Heather Ousley, school board president.
Compensation increases and adjustments to teacher workload were two of the biggest sticking points during negotiation sessions, which included a state-mandated fact-finding session. Largely, the contract talks focused on how the district will spend $9.6 million in restored state funding.
The fact-finder report showed Shawnee Mission teachers earn more than $71,000 on average, a salary 30% higher than the median average of all Kansas districts. The district’s lowest starting pay is about $43,000, according to the annual budget. The union has said the majority of teachers earn less than $65,000 a year.
Teachers have also been pushing for lighter workloads, as many secondary teachers instruct six out of seven periods each day, compared to five out of seven in neighboring districts. They say they need more time for planning, advising students and grading papers.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 6:44 PM.
