Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
If the Sweet Home Education Association agrees to the language, Sweet Home’s elementary schools will no longer have early release days.
District officials have heard from parents who don’t like the early release days, and the District 55 board and the teachers union have reached a tentative agreement on the issue in labor negotiations on next year’s contract, Supt. Larry Horton said. To get the calendar into shape for next year, he brought the tentative agreement to the board for approval Monday night.
With the board’s approval Monday and union approval later, the agreement will go into effect immediately as a memorandum of understanding for the 2008-09 school year.
What will remain is a 45-minute prep period for elementary teachers scheduled at different times during the day.
Opportunities for simultaneous prep periods to allow collaborative work among teachers will remain available to teachers before and after students are in the building. When those times are scheduled as prep periods, the agreement limits the number of faculty meetings that may be called to one per month.
“I think it’s a win-win,” Horton said. The teachers, district and board “understand parents concerns, and we understand where you’re coming from.”
“I think everybody was happy with where it ended up,” said Jason Redick, a board member serving on the district’s bargaining team.
Last year, the district released students 45 minutes early every Wednesday, Horton said.
Horton did not know when the teachers union would meet to vote on the memorandum, he said, but “I’m hoping I’m able to notify parents (soon) they don’t need to have childcare for that period.”
If approved, prep times won’t all be held at the same time, he said. One to three classes will be released throughout the day for a variety of activities supervised by administrators and staff. Activities will include everything from PE and computers to library reading time.
The board and teachers have reached tentative agreement on more than half of the articles in the teachers contract as of the July 18 bargaining session, Horton said. Negotiations will continue into the school year.
Voting to approve the memorandum were Ken Roberts, Chanz Keeney, Jeff Lynn, Diane Gerson, Chairman Mike Reynolds, Leena Neuschwander, David VanDerlip, John Fassler and Redick.