The LNEA bargaining team wants to update you on the situation
with negotiations. You have probably noticed (unless you’re brand new to the
district) that you have not been asked to ratify a new agreement or sign a new
contract, nor did you receive a raise in your September 20 paycheck. That is
because we have yet to settle with the district for this year’s negotiated
agreement.
Why is that? Well, any raise, even movement down and/or over
on the salary schedule has to be agreed upon through the bargaining process.
LNEA feels strongly that teachers should be paid for their years of service to
this district as indicated in the salary schedule. So far the district claims
it does not have the funds to pay for movement down on the salary schedule (i.e.
step movement, or pay for your years of service) for all teachers. If you read
our August 12 blog post (lneanews.blogspot.com) then you know that their special
education cooperative budget is the reason they cite for their reluctance.
They asked us to wait until after the enrollment numbers were
in for all the co-op districts. Now we’ve been asked to wait until after they
ask the co-op superintendents for the additional money needed to pay for step
movement. They will meet with the administrators of the other districts in the
co-op on October 21. We should have more information then.
In the meantime, LNEA will be meeting with budget experts
from KNEA to discuss the situation.
We feel it’s important to remind you that you will pay an
extra 1% into KPERS beginning in January.
As part of the settlement, we will advocate for back pay for
any increases, but that is another negotiable item; it is not automatic.
The negotiations team,
Dennis Dickson, Bryan Walker, Ginger Riddle, Michelle Smalls,
Kay Smith, Ruth Striggow, Robin Crim
This was originally sent by email to the members of the bargaining unit on October 8, 2013. If you are a teacher (not previously retired) in USD 453 or Leavenworth County Special Ed Cooperative and did not receive this message, please email lneanews@gmail.com. We highly recommend that Co-op teachers working in districts outside USD 453 set up their district email to forward automatically to an email address they use regularly.
This was originally sent by email to the members of the bargaining unit on October 8, 2013. If you are a teacher (not previously retired) in USD 453 or Leavenworth County Special Ed Cooperative and did not receive this message, please email lneanews@gmail.com. We highly recommend that Co-op teachers working in districts outside USD 453 set up their district email to forward automatically to an email address they use regularly.