Key OKs pact
2015-16 teacher agreement by LR schools, union effective Sunday.
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key has given his approval to a Professional Negotiations Agreement worked out earlier this month by leaders of the Little Rock School District and its employees’ union.
Key serves as the School Board for the state-controlled Little Rock district.
His signature was needed to finalize the one-year agreement that will go into effect Sunday and will be good through Oct. 31, 2016. Union members ratified the agreement at an Oct. 15 membership meeting.
The new agreement collapses five previously negotiated contracts for employee groups — including a 93-page agreement for teachers — into a single, 10-page document for teachers and nonadministrative support staff.
Key said in an interview that he did ask as a condition of his approval that the district and Little Rock Education Association set a date on which the association will certify that more than 50 percent of employees covered by the agreement are union members.
The certification, last done March 31, will be done again on April 30, 2016. That is according to a letter written by Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus on Wednesday and
signed by both Kurrus and Cathy Koehler, who is the president of the association.
The contract states that the school district recognizes the association as the exclusive contract bargaining agent for the employees. The district will negotiate in good faith with the association on economic conditions of employment pursuant to the district’s policy on negotiating practices.
That policy requires a majority of employees to be dues-paying members to the union if the union is to remain the sole bargaining agent.
The new agreement includes no across-the-board employee raises for this school year, and it reduces the district’s current $357.70 per month contribution of an employee’s health insurance premium to $300 a month starting in January. That will generate savings of $850,000 for the district this school year and $1.7 million next year, Kurrus has said.
Despite the reduction in the contribution, the district will continue to pay more per employee than is required by the state. The district’s cost of employee insurance — now at $13.4 million a year — is expected to decrease to $11.6 million.
The document states that employees will be paid according to current salary schedules and that compensation for the upcoming 2016-17 school year will be negotiated.
Eligible employees this school year and last school year received step increases for their additional years of work experience. The district’s most veteran employees who are at the top of their salary schedules are ineligible for the step increases.
The beginning salary for a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree on a 9 ¼-month contract will continue to be $35,232 — the same as last school year. The top salary for a Little Rock district teacher with a master’s degree plus 30 additional college credit hours and 20 or more years of experience is $68,634.
The new contract for the employees is made up of 12 provisions. It specifically reserves management rights for the district administration and School Board, which is currently Key.
Another provision deals with the association’s obligation to refrain from any work stoppage, such as a strike.
Leave for association business, sick leave and two days of paid personal leave are provided for in the agreement.
The agreement sets up a grievance procedure that calls for an employee and immediate supervisor to attempt to resolve problems at the lowest possible administrative level within five days of the incident on which the problem is based.
But if the grievance is not resolved to the grievant’s satisfaction through informal discussions, the grievant may initiate a formal grievance. That is to be done by the employee submitting the grievance to the association. If the association decides that the grievance has merit, then the association will file the written grievance with the appropriate supervisor with a copy sent to the superintendent.
The Little Rock district has been under state control since Jan. 28. The Arkansas Education Board voted to assume control of the district by dismissing the locally elected School Board and placing the superintendent under the direction of the state education commissioner.