Teachers, school eye next round of mediation

While the teachers’ contract for the Colfax school district will remain the same until the end of this school year, the teachers Colfax Education Association (CEA) is still in a mediation mode with the school district.

The CEA is considering another mediation date with the school district’s representative in mid- May.

Union president Cary Cammack told the Gazette the union is waiting to see the district’s ideas for the 2011-12 teachers’ contract on paper.

“We’re just asking for language that will go with those ideas,” Cammack said.

At stake in the mediation is the way teachers at the Colfax school district are laid off through a Reduction in Force policy.

The teachers’ union and the school district have been in negotiations about the contract most of this year. Because they failed to reach an agreement, the current contract will be in effect when the May 15 deadline for RIF notice to teachers arrives. While the current contract technically expired last August, a clause in the contract states the agreement stays the same unless any further negotiations are agreed upon.

Because no agreement was reached between both sides at the March 16 mediation session, the teacher’s current contract still stands.

The teacher’s union wants staff layoffs to only be based seniority the number of years a teacher has worked.

The school district had a proposal on the table that called for any teacher layoffs to first be categorized by subject area and then by seniority.

Of the 42 teachers in the school district, 39 signed a letter addressed to the school board asking to keep layoffs based on seniority.

Supt. Michael Morgan told the Gazette the district is anticipating making some layoffs on the May 15 date, but due to the fluidity of the state budget, does not yet know how many.