Earlier today, Thursday, Oct. 29, the McMinnville School District negotiations team provided a new comprehensive proposal to the McMinnville Education Association (McEA) in an effort to settle the contract negotiations.The contract has been in negotiations since April 23, 2020. The purpose of this offer is to achieve a settlement agreement between the two parties and provide McMinnville School District educators with improved compensation and benefits this year and for the subsequent two years that follow in the proposed 3 year offer.

The settlement offer includes some of the contract language that McEA proposed, resulting in a larger overall contract.

What does the District’s October 29, 2020 proposal include?

 

The MSD October, 29th proposal expires on 11/12/2020 at 5:00pm.  This time frame will provide McEA and its membership time to consider the elements of this offer.  The district would like to settle the contract and make salary adjustments for employees in time for the December 2020 payroll.

Year 1: 190 day contract, 3.5% COLA increase (the District’s original offer was 1%), removal of the first step to increase new hire salaries and an additional step at the top of the salary schedule which results in a step and COLA increase for all educators. 

COLA increase  3.5%

Average Step Increase 3.0%

Average % increase in salary 6.5%

Year 2: 192 day contract, 2% COLA increase plus step and two additional paid days which include two days of professional development/collaboration time (one district directed day and one educator directed day).
COLA increase 2.0%

Average Step Increase 3.0%

Add 2 contract days 1.0%

Average % increase in salary with step 6.0%

 

Year 3: 192 day contract, 2% COLA increase plus step and still includes the two days of professional development/collaboration time (one district directed day and one educator directed day).
COLA increase  2.0%

Average Step Increase 3.0%

Average % increase in salary with step 5.0%

Salary examples based on the 10/29/2020 MSD proposal are included in the chart below.  The examples assume a step each year after 19/20 unless the employee is  at the end of a column in 21/22 or 22/23, in those years longevity and COLA apply:

Sample Educators

Salary 19/20 

 

Salary 20/21

Salary 21/22

Salary 22/23

Jane Smith an educator at BA Step 2 in 19/20

$40,587

$43,467

$46,308

$48,769

Tom Jones an educator at MA Step 5 in 19/20

$52,262

$55,835

$59,347

$62,368

Sally Miller an educator at the MA+24 Top Step in 19/20

$73,535

 

         $392*

$77,812

$80,203

 

        $836*

$81,807

 

        $853*

John Brown at the MA+45 Top Step in 19/20

$77,492

 

$392*

$82,029

$84,549

 

        $836*

$86,240

 

       $853*

* In years 21-22 and 22-23 educators at the top step of their column will receive a 2% longevity bonus.  This is an increase from the 19/20 1% longevity in the current contract. 

 

View the proposed salary schedules here

 

Health Insurance Benefits: Increase of 2% per year resulting in the following benefit amounts:

Year

Increase

Monthly Benefit

Annual Benefit

20-21

2%

$1567

$18,804

21-22

2%

$1598

$19,176

22-23

2%

$1630

$19,560

 

Collaboration

 

McEA has emphasized throughout the bargaining process a need for additional collaboration. More collaboration between McEA and the District and more collaboration time between professional educators. MSD has consistently involved licensed educators in textbook adoption recommendations, standards alignment and development of common formative assessments, school level PBIS committees, site council and school leadership meetings, department meetings and more. McEA, during this process, has communicated that the representation they are looking for is the appointment of McEA members to committees and school teams. The district initially found this to be confusing, because professional educators and McEA members are on committees; professional educators belong to McEa. McEA represented that it is important to them that McEA association-trained educators be appointed by McEA to the various committees the district has in order to  have association interests represented in these settings.

 

The District agrees with improved collaboration and has offered a new article entitled “Collaboration” which provides for the two teams (McEA and District) to participate in annual training to improve collaboration and communication.The district believes it is important for the two teams to work well together in support of students and professional educators.  This new article demonstrates MSD’s commitment to continued collaboration with McEA.

 

To meet the needs of McEA, the contract provides  opportunities to collaborate in specific areas, where McEA would appoint designated McEA members. You will find some examples of this in Article 1 (Agreements and Recognition), section M; Article 4 (Association Rights), sections D,E,F,and H; Article 5 (Work Year), section A; Article 13 (Insurance), section B-1; Article 18 (Instruction), section A-1 and section C; and Article 21 (Evaluation), Section B. 

 

To further support collaboration MSD has proposed two additional non-student contact work days for professional educators beginning with the 2021-22 school year.  One of these days will be allocated for district directed professional development and collaboration. The other day will be allocated for staff directed professional development and collaboration time. 

 

Safety

McEA has emphasized safety as a major concern and prior to COVID-19 proposed extensive language associated with student discipline in revisions to Article 18 (Student Discipline). The district agrees that safety is imperative for the whole school community, and for that reason agreed to several language additions, addressing student discipline procedures. The district will follow the law when it comes to protections for adults and students in the school community. 

 

An effective plan to keep students and staff safe from inappropriate behavior in the classroom is much larger scale than collective bargaining contract language. It is also broader than exclusionary discipline practices. The district recognizes that current research, referenced in this recent article published by the National Education Association, and practice clearly demonstrates that the path to behavior reduction is to provide training and proactive systems to help prevent student behavior. The reliance on strategies such as suspension and expulsion has resulted in negative outcomes for students including loss of learning, dropping out of school and contact with law enforcement and the juvenile justice system. 

 

To increase safety for all, the District is providing additional resources to schools including full-time elementary student management TOSAs, increased mental health resources, additional middle school counselors. The District has invested in Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) training and Recognize Understanding Labeling Expressing Regulating (RULER) training, and developed an Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) between the WESD, Yamhill County Mental Health, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and MSD.  We are piloting this ISF program at two of our schools, the pilot includes a half-time mental health provider as well as family access to outside mental health providers. The District will continue to review and refine schoolwide practices, including social skills training, universal interventions, early screening tools to identify lagging self-regulation skills, and restorative justice practices in order to identify and  implement supports for the benefit of students. 

 

COVID-19

Included with this proposal is the District’s CDL Memorandum of Understanding offer, which includes educator directed time one day per month during the time district instruction is delivered through CDL.  This time may be used for educators’ professional development, collaboration, lesson preparation, and office hours in lieu of providing synchronous instruction. Professional educators are still expected to post asynchronous/applied learning activities for students on these days . The dates are: Oct. 28th (first quarter) and if the district continues through CDL in the second quarter, the dates will be Nov. 25th, Dec. 16th and January 27th.  Except for the month of June, 2021, should CDL extend beyond the second semester the district will identify one day per month for the same purpose during February through May.

 

Students need to see and engage with their teachers in person. Synchronous experiences are most important (outside of limited in-person instruction or brick and mortar schooling) for relationship development, the ability to exchange ideas in real time, the opportunity for students to ask questions without having to schedule time during office hours.  And this scheduled time is predictable, which is very important for the purpose of setting engagement expectations for students.  MSD has provided these days to support the need for planning time voiced by educators while trying to maintain as much in-person teaching time as possible (albeit over zoom) to meet the learning needs of our students.

 

District directed professional development was cancelled on September 30th (full day) and November 20th (half day) to provide professional educators time to further develop lessons for CDL. The remaining professional development dates will take place as approved on the District’s adopted calendar for 2020-21.  These include February 8th (half day) and April 16th (half day). The district will conduct an employee survey to determine the most applicable professional development topics to be offered on those dates.

 

The District’s package proposal addresses CDL as well as a three year successor agreement.  The District remains committed to continuing to negotiate MOU language for hybrid learning with McEA leadership. 

 

The District is following all COVID-19 safety protocols outlined in OHA and ODE guidance documents. The district does and will continue to adhere to all safety regulations vital to keeping staff and students safe.  The District has already implemented safety practices related to COVID-19 including but not limited to the following:


Retrofitted drinking water fountains with water bottle filling stations.
Provided plexi-glass barriers to improve safety.
Provided cloth masks, paper masks, and face shields for student and staff use.
Added hand sanitizer stations at all entrances and exits throughout the buildings.
Added hand washing stations to school buildings as needed.
Purchased UVC disinfection equipment.
Replaced HVAC filters with MERV 13 filters throughout the District.
Instituted and trained staff on building use protocols for staff working in buildings.
Partnered with Yamhill County Public Health and MSD School Based Health Clinic.
Added limited outdoor learning space.

 

To read the comprehensive proposal, click here. In addition to the COVID-19 safety protocols outlined in the proposal, the Operational Blueprints for reopening schools are posted by building under “Quick Links” on each school’s home page. 

Note:  Today’s update, and an earlier one, are posted on the Collective Bargaining Updates page (under “Quick Links” on district home page).

Oct. 29, 2020