By ALICIA LEONARD
DeFuniak Springs, Fla – Representatives for the Walton County Education Association and representatives for the Walton County School District entered into round five of ongoing negotiations the evening of Aug. 25, 2016.
Both sides are still negotiating requests outside of salary as numbers needed for those items to be discussed will not be available until September.
Items on the table in this round were teachers being able to enter district sporting events without admission being charged. This item is something the teacher’s group said was standard for educators in Okaloosa County.
The district offered some compromises on the item, such as teachers being able to pick one school each year to follow and have admission waived for those events. Union reps asked how that might be used by teachers that have children in more than one school.
Other items discussed were teachers being able to use or access personal email and phones during school hours. One representative said they were unable to use their phone to access Google quickly when doing research. Teachers said that many of the rules made them feel more akin to students due to many of the restrictions.
Another issue over communication was phones in classrooms. One representative said during A.L.I.C.E. training, trainers were surprised to learn teachers could not communicate with other classrooms during an event.
Background checks are also an item that teachers must pay out of pocket; most average around $75 to run.
Another issue discussed was the district giving notice in a timely manner to teachers about their future employment, before they leave for the summer. Most teachers do not get notification that they will be returning to their jobs until a short time before classes resume.
Time considered to be transition time between classes was discussed. Time for teachers to plan, as well as the medium those teachers use to communicate with parents, were also discussed. Teachers said that the planning time easily gets eaten up with parent/teacher conferences being counted in as part of planning time.
Representatives stressed that they felt many of these items were very small and not expensive to implement, and that they did not understand why the district was making them points to argue during negotiations. They said that the need to be treated as adults and professionals was behind many of their requests. They added that some of the items are standard for schools only a county over, and that those schools often draw teachers from Walton due to improved benefits and salaries.
The next agreed-upon meeting is scheduled for Sept. 29 at 5 p.m. with the location to be announced.
To see more about the Walton County Education Association go to waltoncountyeducationassociation.weebly.com.