Dear Members of the Jefferson County School Board:
The JCEA bargaining team acknowledges and appreciates the work that has been done to improve compensation in our District over the last few years. However, after a difficult season of bargaining, we feel that it is necessary to respond to comments made by Superintendent Tracy Dorland to the public during a Channel 9 News interview on August 13th.
During the interview, Superintendent Dorland claims that all teachers were given a 4% raise which is simply not true. All administrators were given such a raise, however educators were not. They received a 1.5% COLA so that including steps, ongoing compensation for individuals increased between 1.5% for those on the top of the schedule to 4% for other educators not switching lanes. It was particularly distressing that Superintendent Dorland made this claim even though JCEA’s proposal including at least a 4% raise for all educators was pointedly rejected by District leadership during the July 31st session. It is also worth noting that since there was a 2% one-time stipend last year, actual, net change in educator pay will range from 0.5% lower than last year to 2% more for those not changing lanes. The JCEA bargaining team is upset that a false narrative was presented to the public which misstated the financial reality of the agreement.
The team was also concerned by the tone of the superintendent’s statement that, “I do need people to come to the table being solution oriented and respectful…” which many felt insinuated that those qualities were lacking from JCEA in the recent season of negotiations. We firmly believe that we came to each and every session prepared with ideas designed to address the challenges currently facing the District but were met by a constant barrage of “No” throughout the sessions in response to our proposals.
For example, last fall, a study team consisting of several JCEA bargaining team members and several District leaders met on a regular basis and came up with several ideas relating to Article 13 leaves language. JCEA presented language on March 6th that they thought was largely a joint presentation of ideas from these study sessions. Imagine our surprise when the District returned their counter-proposal of the article with virtually every aspect of the study team’s ideas crossed out, including at least one idea that had actually been initially proposed by a District leader. In short, we felt betrayed and that we had just been strung along by District leaders.
A similar story was seen with SPED language where the JCEA team presented a range of ideas on April 3rd. Week after week we awaited a response from the District team but the language wasn’t returned until more than a month later when nearly everything we had proposed was crossed out and reverted to original language without any attempt to address our underlying concerns. Because the District team essentially ran out the clock, the ability to have meaningful collaboration on the article was severely compromised.
There are a couple of situations that the team would like to highlight that illustrate what we believe is a lack of respect shown to the educators who volunteer their limited time for the JCEA bargaining team. First, the added cost of raises and benefit increases for the upcoming (now current) fiscal year were presented during a June 4th Board Meeting as roughly $2 M for all employees. However, during the July 31st bargaining session, the District team gave a combined figure of roughly $18.5 M for the JCEA unit alone. This massive difference felt very disrespectful to our team and illustrates why there has been such an erosion of trust between District leaders and educators.
Another example relates to the highest lane on the educator salary schedule. When this lane was established, the understanding was that the 2% increase between it and the prior lane would be expanded to 4% to match that seen between the other lanes. Each subsequent year, JCEA has proposed language to make that happen and each year this language has been rejected. At least once, the reason given for the denial was that the arrangement was made with an employee no longer working for the District leading the District team, and that somehow a change in personnel meant that prior agreements didn’t need to be honored. We repeat that a rift has developed with a lack of trust between educators and District leadership. Situations such as this illustrate why educators feel betrayed.
Taking the Superintendent’s quote about being solution oriented and respectful at face value, we look forward to the upcoming bargaining season and hope that such a dynamic from the District team occurs during it.
Earlier in this year, JCEA gave a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Dorland, expressing concerns revolving around a lack of shared leadership, a lack of transparency, and not addressing urgent matters at schools. On Channel 9, the interviewer specifically asked the Superintendent about concerns with communication and shared leadership. We are pleased that she expressed willingness to find avenues for shared leadership and hope that this will foster a better working dynamic in the District. Unfortunately, Superintendent Dorland brushed off concerns about communication with a remark about being at the interview. This ignores the heart of the matter, and somehow implies that doing a media tour on several TV news programs somehow equates to adequate communication between District leadership and educators and is disheartening at best.
We want to emphasize that though we have concerns about how the District and Superintendent Dorland engage in bargaining, the letter was about so much more than our bargaining season, and deserves to be taken seriously. For example, the Superintendent gave herself a perfect score when asked by the interviewer to self assess her performance. It is likely that Superintendent Dorland somehow thought that brushing off the question in this manner was humorous in some way. Unfortunately, dismissing real and serious educator concerns in such a manner makes many believe that not only is she unwilling to seriously address these problems, but that she’ll respond in a manner that belittles employees and their concerns. Imagine the response if a classroom teacher addressed student misgivings about their actions in the classroom in this way.
In the first week of the new school year, educators were told that District Leadership wanted to grow a sense of belonging both among students, and among staff of the District. Unfortunately, events this past bargaining season leading up to what was said in this interview and the manner in which it was said by the Superintendent accomplished exactly the opposite, with educators feeling betrayed and any sense of belonging perhaps irreparably harmed. We believe that the first step in any recovery would include the Superintendent acknowledging that there is a problem that needs to be addressed and then beginning work to solve those problems.
In closing, the JCEA bargaining team truly hopes that all parties will be open to solutions that move us forward in an environment of true collaboration and mutual respect to make our school system better for District staff, students, and families.
Sincerely,
The JCEA Bargaining Team:
Anna Bryant
Rob Cassady
Heather Goeddel
Anthea Justice
Stefanie Jones
Michelle Moehlis
Dale Munholland
Richard Sanchez
Mike Villanueva
Brooke Williams