Director-level employees form newest union in Rochester Public Schools

Jordan Shearer, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Updated ·2 min read

Oct. 6—ROCHESTER — A group of director-level administrators have joined together to create a new union within Rochester Public Schools and is currently negotiating with the district to establish its first contract.

The union, formerly known as the Rochester Administrators Association, is composed of 11 individuals, including those who oversee areas such as research, communications and information technology, among others.

"We're all districtwide directors overseeing some major function or process who occupy the space between principals and cabinet on the (organization) chart," said Peter Wruck, the president of the new union.

RPS employees fit into one of three categories. The first is the collective bargaining unions, which in addition to the new administrators union includes groups for clerical personnel, education support professionals (which were formerly known as paraprofessionals), maintenance workers, principals, student nutrition workers and teachers.

During a

recent round of negotiations with the teachers union,

Superintendent Kent Pekel referenced the need to balance all the needs of the various unions within the confines of the district's budget.

"I have to think about how the contracts do connect to each other through time," Pekel said at the time. "We do have limits in how we can actually raise revenue, so of course we have to make this work within the revenues that we have."

The second employee category is comprised of non-unions. According to RPS Chief Administrative Officer John Carlson, the non-union employee groups are similar to the first category but don't contain "some provisions of a collectively bargained agreement."

Some of the members of the new union were previously members of other employee groups in the district including an administrators group that used to exist as a non-union unit.

That group includes groups for the cabinet, community education, mental and physical health professionals, and operations employees.

The third category is that of "individual contracts." However, the only employee in that group is that of the superintendent.

Carlson said there are some situations where employees don't belong to a particular group, such as the case for substitute teachers.