Left to right: NW ESP Co-president Sylvia Brock, D21 Ed Association president Jodi Ketchum, and NW ESP Co-president Sonia Schatz present a joint report at the North Wasco County April 25 regular school board meeting.
Left to right: NW ESP Co-president Sylvia Brock, D21 Ed Association president Jodi Ketchum, and NW ESP Co-president Sonia Schatz present a joint report at the North Wasco County April 25 regular school board meeting.
THE DALLES — On April 25, representatives from the District 21 Education Association (D21 Ed Association) and the North Wasco Education Support Professionals (NW ESP), presented a joint report to the North Wasco County School Board during the regular school board meeting regarding the district budget, bargaining transparency, supporting fellow district employees and classroom behaviors.
The report was presented by NW ESP Co-presidents Sylvia Brock and Sonia Schatz and D21 Ed Association President Jodi Ketchum. Brock started off the report thanking the union, family and community members who attended the meeting both in-person and virtually for their support.
“Thank you for coming and supporting … each of us in this advocacy for continuing to better our schools, having safe schools for all and to support out administrators, our teachers and ESPs in their efforts,” Brock said. “As many of you know, the district has some issues that we need to address; we have brought them up many times, yet they remain unresolved.”
In Brock’s report, she stated that the district has spent funds on investigations into an administrator that has reportedly held no findings, and that classroom behaviors remain a serious concern inside the schools. “Lack of consistency, expectation, consequences have resulted in an extreme, difficult learning environment,” Brock said, “Students and teachers are getting punched, hit, kicked, students are allowed to wander around the rooms, halls, campuses and interfere with learning. We have asked and we will continue to ask for your support with these issues. Please listen to us.”
In her presentation, Ketchum implored for transparency and collaboration with the district regarding contract negotiation and bargaining, stating that the district was warned that the budget was “headed off a cliff” by the previous CFO.
“In our opinion and what has been done in the past would be for the district to come to both union leaders with the facts of the financial situation and allow us to come to the table and negotiate fairly in a collaborative, problem solving way,” Ketchum said. “Instead of the district coming to us with this issue, we were served with a letter that stated they would be opening bargaining in a manner that would violate our bargaining rights. We were told verbally what three things they wanted to impose on us, and with this form of bargaining, after 90 days, if we did not reach a mutual agreement, they could impose cuts to our contract. Both unions responded with a letter that we would not like to bargain in that way, and that we were willing to open bargaining in our usual manner, and willing to start very soon. We were served with another letter that stated we had missed our 14-day period to respond, and that we waived our rights to bargain. And they could unilaterally change the terms of salary, insurance benefits and other costs out of our negotiated agreement.
“We categorically reject the district’s attempt to take away our bargaining rights,” Ketchum said. “The attempt on the district’s behalf since April 1 to verbally inform us of what they wanted to impose and then serve us with the letters about taking away our rights has severely damaged trust … we asked that the district team stop the madness. Be transparent, honest, respond to our requests to bargain in good faith and truly hear our ideas. Consider them. Let us be a part of the equation to come up with solutions to our financial crisis that has the least impact on students and our lowest paid employees who desperately needed pay raises this year, not pay cuts.”
During the board sub-committee reports, Board Vice Chair Judy Richardson made a statement while giving the OSBA Legislative Policy committee report. “I want to unequivocally state the depth of my gratitude for teachers and staff in this district. I’m a graduate of D21, my husband’s a graduate of D21, our daughter was a graduate of D21. I cannot repay the depth of gratitude I have for individual teachers as well as teachers collectively. I won’t speak for the board, but I can easily say the sentiment is likely unanimous across the board. That being said, we welcome collaboration to figure out how to bridge the gap in funding.”
Columbia Gorge News spoke with district officials, who stated that the district has asked to reopen the bargaining process with both unions, which will begin on May 15.
“Our goal was to have a to have it be a rally ...” Jodi Ketchum later told Columbia Gorge News, “It was a rally to show support. We cheered the board members as they came in, cheered the superintendent as she came in, we were trying to keep a positive vibe.”
Columbia Gorge News will continue to provide ongoing coverage for this story, including further responses from both district and union representatives. Visit columbiagorgenews.com for further updates as this story develops.
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