WBCSD begins teacher negotiations for 2020-’21

PRIEST RIVER — West Bonner County School District held a negotiations meeting on May 28 where Board Chairman Sandy Bower, Trustee Nicole Butler and Superintendent Paul Anselmo sat with teacher representatives and considered changes for the 2020-2021 school year.

No formal decisions were made at this time.

Teachers will meet separately and discuss their terms in private before bringing their proposal to the school board.

The main topic of the night was whether or not removing policy from the negotiations agreement was fair for both parties — the teachers and the school board. Teacher representatives expressed a concern in removing policy from the negotiations agreement because it would leave them with less material to reference, should they find themselves in threat of losing employment benefits or even their job altogether during their career with West Bonner County School District.

However, Bower suggested removing policy in order to keep the document clean and follow legal counsel in their recommendations.

“From a legal and government standpoint our policy really should be left to policy and our negotiated agreement leaves policy out but references policy,” Bower said. She said that referencing policy would make more work for the board of trustees, who would then have to amend the negotiated agreement before they can amend the policy, if a policy requires any change or removal in the future.

“If there is an option to change policy we would take public comment,” Bower said. “We wouldn’t do anything to harm you, that’s not our intention at all, we want a successful pool of teachers and make successful students. There is probably a trust issue there for sure, but I don’t think we have ever had a policy that has harmed you in the past.”

Some examples where Bower would like to see policies removed from the negotiations agreement include Article 16 which is the Grievance Procedure which is defined in Policy 5250, Sick Leave Bank which is defined in Policy 5401 and Bereavement which is defined in 5400.

Another controversial topic discussed at the meeting was the school’s block schedule, which defines a school day as 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m., which was later proposed to 3:30 p.m. Teacher representatives were not comfortable with the holding teachers half an hour past the dismissal bell and explained that when other schools and staff are not getting the same work day then compensation should match the amount of time invested.

Superintendent Paul Anselmo expressed his frustration with the request, stating that it seemed unfair to compare a teacher’s hard work as a high school, junior high or elementary teacher based on the extra minutes spent before school and after the dismissal bell. He suggested that members of the teachers union be surveyed to get perspective from other high school teachers and identify a solution to the problem.

Anselmo brainstormed other ways to make sure teachers were protected and applicable for state funds. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, he said all of the region’s superintendents were discussing how state funds could benefit their employees. He said encouraging teachers to have an extensive portfolio can be the difference of whether or not a teacher receives statewide support.

“Maybe that’s something we can work on even outside of this process is what is the evidence we can provide and give people to distinguish … How can we advance the checklist we have?” Anselmo said. “Because eventually the state always comes back and they want credible evidence to, ‘Why did you mark for that?’ Show me.”

The remainder of the night was spent discussing potential salaries for coaches next year, in an attempt to make West Bonner County School District more competitive. This proposal will be brought to discussion at the activities meeting, and then voted on at the negotiations meeting. The board will approve or disapprove a lump sum and then the representative will negotiate where it goes, how it’s divided up. This proposal will affect between 30 to 40 people and the goal is to start high school head coaches at $3,900 and max at $5,400 as opposed to their average salary of $3,200 last year.

“We tried our very best to make it dependable and equitable for all,” Anselmo said.

Aly De Angelus can be reached by email at adeangelus@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @AlyDailyBee.