Fort Atkinson teachers’ representatives press district for CPI raises, updated additive schedule and payouts

Representatives of the Fort Atkinson Education Association asked the Fort Atkinson School District negotiations committee on multiple labor and compensation items during a meet-and-confer session.

The association sought several changes to how the district calculates and documents pay and work conditions. "The FEA suggests the CPI be...applied to each of these positions each year," said Justin, who identified himself as working at the high school and led the association's presentation, calling for the consumer price index to be applied to base wages, summer-school pay, curriculum-pay and additive-schedule pay.

The association also asked the district to update its additive schedule to reflect current inside- and outside-of-school duties. "We are also requesting the formation of a district committee, maybe modeled after the 2017 DLAT committee, to thoroughly examine teacher extra duties and recommend where additional compensation is warranted," Justin said, stressing that many club adviserships and enrichment activities now require significant out-of-hours work.

On preparation time, a representative for the association requested that the employee handbook explicitly define uninterrupted prep periods for teachers, restoring language that existed in the district's 2012 handbook. "We just like teachers to be able to have, prep periods put into the handbook, and that they're continuous uninterrupted minutes," the representative said.

The association requested a payout system for unused reimbursable absences for certified staff upon retirement or leaving the district, noting that "models exist in many districts for this type of language to be considered." The group said this item has appeared on meet-and-confer lists for several years.

The association also asked that midyear salary adjustments account for contract midpoints (for example, counting a January hire as a half year). Mandy Turnbull, the district's director of human resources, explained the district uses a 187-day calendar and a fixed date for service-credit and midyear adjustments: "February 1," she said, adding that prorating on a floating calendar date would be administratively difficult.

Finally, the association asked for guaranteed staff and community input on substantial changes such as the district calendar. District counsel Jana Lewis asked for clarification on the scope; participants agreed the immediate example under discussion was the calendar and said broader engagement on items like the strategic plan had been well received.

No formal motions or votes were taken during the meeting; board leadership thanked attendees and said the association's seven requests would be reviewed and addressed at a later date.