Bargainers agree to table collaboration redesign; set two teacher collaboration days for this year

Negotiators representing the district and teacher bargaining unit agreed to delay a permanent redesign of collaboration time and instead asked the newly formed committee to study the issue during the coming year. The parties confirmed that October 16 will remain a two‑hour professional development day and that December 18 and March 12 will be scheduled as principal‑directed teacher collaboration or PLC days, subject to calendar confirmation.

The decision followed a proposal from a bargaining representative to withdraw the immediate collaboration request from the PD agenda and “reposition” it for committee review so that both sides could gather additional perspectives. “We were willing to table that for this year,” the bargaining representative said, urging deeper cross‑table discussion before memorializing any changes.

District staff flagged concerns about timing and scope, saying some scheduling decisions are driven by school calendars and high‑school schedules. A district participant proposed that the committee prioritize class safety and class size before collaboration but agreed that collaboration could be discussed as a permissive topic.

Parties debated how committee recommendations would be shared. The bargaining representative asked that any recommendation be provided to the union prior to survey distribution; the district responded that some bargaining rights and confidentiality must be preserved. To address survey‑anonymity concerns, district staff suggested using a neutral third‑party (regional providers and the EPIC center were cited during discussion) to collect anonymous input.

The meeting ended with no formal objection to the schedule change. “We have no objections,” a participant confirmed when the chair asked for concurrence. The committee will take up substantive redesign work next year and return recommendations, with any practical survey or data‑collection steps to be discussed in follow‑up small‑group meetings.