Akron school board leaders, superintendent and union look at pre-contract talks committee
After contract talks last year nearly ended in a teachers’ strike, a joint committee could take shape as early as next week to give the heads of the school board, administration and union at Akron Public Schools a place to hash out differences as they arise.
The effort among the parties so far has been conducted behind closed doors with the highest levels of leadership. The agreement could be reached before the board meets again on Nov. 27 as President Derrick Hall would need to install the committee before he leaves office in January.
Hall said the near-miss on a teachers’ strike last year gave rise to the need for “a committee of last resort” to get ahead of issues that sometimes pile up in the three years between contract negotiations. The committee would be outlined in a memorandum of understanding that he envisions would last three to six months into 2024, at which point the next board could decide whether to continue, scrap or alter the effort.
Pat Shipe, head of the Akron Education Association, said she anticipates that the committee could be formed next week.
Akron Public Schools Superintendent Michael Robinson declined to comment on the preliminary discussions that are shaping the proposed committee and its scope.
Hall reiterated how he and board leadership stepped into the tense contract negotiations late last year to reach an 11th hour deal with the teachers’ union, which was demanding higher pay and the retention of tougher language on student discipline and school safety matters.
Hall said, for example, that the board had authorized administrators at the bargaining table to offer wage increases nearly two times higher than their final offer to the teachers’ union. And, facing years of criticism for above-average student discipline, the administration’s proposal to shift the definition of assault as contact instead of force had teachers openly rejecting the deal.
Hall and Shipe each pointed to the adversarial relationship between the union and former administrators as the impetus for the proposed committee.
“There's got to be a more collaborative way to approach any issues within the district that need to be looked at and not wait every three years to look at issues that are rising to the top,” Shipe told the Beacon Journal this week.
She said the AEA was “very, very concerned" that “we would come that close to a strike.”
Hall said the committee would not only address issues as they come up but work toward bringing the two sides together on a shared set of facts and mutual understanding of a philosophy for bargaining. One example, he mentioned, was comparable cost-sharing for health care coverage. He said he, like many in the private sector, pays 20% toward premiums but Akron teachers pay 8% or 9%.
When negotiations stalled last year, a fact finder examined the differences in arguments and the facts that each side used to support them. The report showed the two sides apart on 19 issues five months after the old contract expired.
Hall did not seek reelection this year to the school board. The Democrat, instead, is running for the Ohio House in the March primary. He said he as the board president, School Board Vice President Diana Autry, Superintendent Robinson and AEA President Shipe – the positions proposed to serve on the new committee – have been meeting for months on the initiative. His urgency on the matter is set by the limited time he has left in office.
“When you're elected to a term, you’re elected to the full term,” he said, “not three years and six months. You’re elected for four years. And I'm going to keep working until the end of my term to ensure that I've done everything I can to position us for the best moving forward.”
Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron school board, superintendent, teacher union propose new committee
