Independence School District adopts
new policy advocated by MNEA lawsuit
In a long
overdue move, the Independence School District Board of Education
changed its decision-making policy Jan. 10 to incorporate some
provisions advocated by local affiliates of the Missouri National
Education Association since March 2002. The board action permits
direct bargaining between employee unions and the Board of Education
over terms and conditions of employment and no longer requires
such groups first to go through an all-employee joint bargaining
team, called Team Independence, as required by the Collaborative
Team Policy enacted in April 2002.
MNEA-affiliated unions have been challenging
the Collaborative Team Policy in a lawsuit filed in 2003,
which is scheduled for a June trial in Jackson County Circuit
Court.
The board’s latest action effectively
reinstates components of the former bargaining procedures
that were in place before the enactment of the Collaborative
Team Policy. The board first proposed the Collaborative Team
Policy in March 2002. The proposal generated strong protests
from the custodial employees, bus drivers, teachers and paraprofessionals.
These MNEA-affiliated unions repeatedly stated that the adoption
of the Collaborative Team Policy was a violation of their
statutory and constitutional rights and a disruption of bargaining
procedures that had worked well in the past. A majority of
the board members ignored the unions’ positions and
forced them to challenge the policy in the 2003 lawsuit.
“We
are gratified that the Independence Board of Education finally
recognized some of the defects in its Collaborative Team Policy,”
says Missouri NEA President Greg Jung. “It is sad, however,
that the district has spent thousands of dollars of taxpayers’
money in court defending policy defects that we pointed out
to the board when the board first proposed the policy. We
reserve judgment about whether the district will implement
the amended policy in a lawful and good-faith manner.”
Jung also
explained that the lawsuit raises additional issues and will
proceed.
“It
is regrettable that the board did not rescind the entire Collaborative
Team Policy that was unlawfully adopted and still contains
defects,” Jung says. “The board should also decide
to reinstate and honor the agreements with the unions that
were unlawfully repudiated after the adoption of the Collaborative
Team Policy.”
The 33,000-member
MNEA represents teachers, education support professionals,
students studying to be teachers and those retired from teaching
in public schools and on college campuses across the state.
It is the Missouri affiliate of the 2.7 million-member NEA,
the largest education organization in the nation.
For further
information:
Debra Angstead
Missouri NEA Communications Director
573-634-3202
January
12, 2006
|
