- April 19, 2024
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After months of negotiations, the School Board and teachers union have agreed to cut workdays and class time, while approving pay step increases for the 2011-2012 school year.
After almost four months at the bargaining table, the Flagler County School Board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Flagler County Educators Association, agreeinging to a reduction in workdays for the 2011-2012 school year.
All 261-day staff will see a four-day reduction, to be held during the week of the Fourth of July, the agreement stated. All 216- and 226-day staff will see a two-day reduction. Teachers will not be obligated to attend meetings on four of the six early-release school days, with the remaining two left to administrators’ discretion.
The biggest negotiation holdup, according to School Board Chairwoman Sue Dickinson, was moving high-school and middle-school teacher planning periods to outside of the normal school day, essentially cutting student class time. Now ratified by the teachers union, the period relocation could cut more than 10 teacher positions from the district’s salary roster.
But certain instructors protested.
“This amounts to 21 instructional days in the year being cut from these students,” said Warren Sanson, teacher at Flagler Palm Coast High School. “Tell me how one student will be benefited by taking this time away from them.”
Board members didn’t disagree.
“I think a reduction is detrimental to (students’) education,” John Fischer said. “But unfortunately, there are hard decisions that need to be made … Maybe (this) can be changed in the future.”
“None of us ever wants to do anything like this,” Dickinson said. “(But) we have to do what we have to do to maintain a budget.”
“I didn’t agree with the cut in the schedule (at the beginning of bargaining) ... and I don’t agree with it now,” Colleen Conklin added.
The motion passed 4-1.
According to Superintendent Janet Valentine, the class-time reduction will save the district about $2 million.
The board also approved the equivalent of 2% pay-step increases for instructional and professional staff contracts, as well as increases for all support staff.
A motion to approve a similar increase for administrative staff died for lack of a second, which Dickinson apologized for at the end of the meeting.
“I just want to apologize to all of you,” she said. “I wish we would have at least talked about it.”
In summary, the deal reduces school days and staff and class time, for a savings of $2 million. The deal increases pay, for a cost of $1 million. That makes for a net reduction of $1 million in the School Board’s 2011-2012 budget.
Contact Mike Cavaliere at mike@palm coastobserver.com.
