Sean C. Morgan
The District 55 School Board Monday tabled a proposed five-year master contract for administrators until the January board meeting.
The proposed contract changes little from the previous contract, said Chairman Jason Redick, who has been working with administrators on the contract.
The board approved a new salary schedule and step increases for the administrators in November, but it hasn’t approved contract language yet.
Chanz Keeney wanted to discuss further a “me-too” clause in the contract that gives administrators the same cost-of-living raises and insurance premium increases as teachers.
“Is there any reason this contract can’t be negotiated separate from the certified?” Keeney asked. He said the board should retain as much power as it could, the ability to freeze wages, for example, when necessary.
The only reason he could think of was that it’s one more discussion and one more contract to “hash through,” Redick said.
Mike E. Adams was concerned about the length of the contract, preferring a shorter period, such as two years.
The district doesn’t get five-year contracts with its union groups, Adams said.
The district does ask for the longer contracts, said Supt. Don Schrader.
Jan Sharp suggested simply putting in the percentages the teachers are getting and make a two-year contract.
The board also wondered why only one of three stipends was included in the master contract.
The missing stipends are included on individual contracts, Redick said.
Redick said he wasn’t comfortable moving forward with different details without talking to administrators, represented by Sweet Home High School Principal Keith Winslow.
The administrators attending the meeting indicated a willingness to accept a two-year contract.
Winslow asked if a board member had a concern about the contract if each one of those concerns would need to be negotiated out.
Dale Keene told him that the board would probably need to reach a consensus, like it does in bargaining with the unions.
“This right here is kind of why we were hoping for a five-year contract,” Winslow said. “We get ‘me-tooed’ in a lot of other things that benefit the district.”
Redick said he would collect concerns from board members and talk with Winslow and the administrators again, returning again next month with the proposal.
The board also turned down the Oregon State School Boards Association’s legislative policies and priorities.
The list was aggregated into a single document, and the board was unable to vote for or against particular policies or priorities.
Redick said he didn’t like it lumped together, and the other board members agreed.
Keene specifically said he had a problem with the OSBA’s goal in tax reform.
If approved by member districts, the OSBA would lobby for modifications of the state’s personal and corporate income tax kicker law to allow the kicker funds to be placed in a rainy day fund instead of returned to taxpayers for use during times of economic distress. OSBA would continue to support the authority of districts to seek voter approval for supplemental operating revenue from a variety of additional sources, including local option levies.
“I don’t know that everything is ideal, but it’s an 80 to 90 percent solution,” Adams said. He initially voted against a motion to deny the proposal.
Redick said he agreed with about 90 percent of it, but wanted the ability to pick and choose what to approve.
The board voted 4-1 to deny the proposal. The board requires at least five members to pass a motion. Only five members attended, so the vote had to be unanimous.
Without changing his vote, there would have been no particular decision by the board, so he told the board he would change his vote and did so on a second motion.
Present at the meeting were Adams, Sharp, Keeney, Keene and Redick. Mike Reynolds, David VanDerlip, Jenny Daniels and Kevin Burger were absent.
The board also approved the receipt of $25,000 in federal grant funds through the Oregon University system to the GEAR UP program, which promotes college for high school graduates. The grant will pay for computer hardware and software.