Board, union face off in negotiations

Friday, March 26, 2010

Though contract negotiations between the Calvert County Board of Education and school unions have always been much talked about, what actually goes on during said negotiations has always been a mystery.

For 2011 fiscal year contracts, this will not be the case; negotiations have been made open and both sides have a no-confidentiality policy.

The first round of open negotiations was held Tuesday afternoon between the board's negotiating team and the team representing the Calvert Association of Educational Support Staff, or CAESS.

The board was represented by its chief negotiator, Calvert County public schools Deputy Superintendent Robin Welsh, as well as Chief Budget and Business Officer Tammy McCourt; Director of Human Resources Kevin Michael; Calvert High School Principal Susan Johnson; and Multi-Program Supervisor Laveeta Hutchins.

The support staff union was represented by its chief negotiator, Joseph Sella, as well as CAESS President Steven Brooks; CAESS Vice President John Stang; and executive board members Marvin Stewart and Renee Stuart.

Negotiations were held at the Calvert County Board of Education's central office in Prince Frederick and are for a new three-year contract for CAESS employees.

Welsh first asked Sella which items proposed by the board were agreed upon by the union.

Sella said that so far, the CAESS was in favor of the board's proposals for superintendent and school board authority; grievance and arbitration procedures; inclement weather; the contract year; how often staff gets paid; and general provisions.

Sella also said that he wanted to put off healthcare discussions so CAESS can partner with the administration and teachers' unions in that particular negotiation.

The main article of discussion for the afternoon was a proposal made by the board's team to cut maintenance and operations employees' hours from eight to seven.

Sella suggested that this proposal, as well as ones on seniority rights and an employee dress code, be scrapped completely.

"You will not get a ratifiable and you're trying to get a ratifiable agreement," Sella said in regard to keeping those three items in.

When Welsh asked what her end would receive in return, Sella answered "a healthy workforce."

"There's nothing in here that would be of any value to any employees," he said of the proposed contract.

After some deliberation Welsh proposed that current maintenance and operations employees' hours remain at eight per day, but that all of said employees hired after July 2010 be considered for seven-hour days if appropriate for their position.

Sella said that this arrangement would be likely to create professional conflicts leading to a division of employees.

He added that individuals looking for employment would not take a 35-hour work week in Calvert County when they could get 40 hours in Washington, D.C., or Baltimore.

"We don't see any cutbacks of leadership positions … instead the workforce gets cut," Sella said, continuing that to parents, "The person in the cafeteria who feeds your child [is more valuable than] some supervisor in the English department."

Welsh pointed out that the system did lose administrative positions last year through attrition and said that "In the long run, we thought it was more important to cut a few hours than cut positions."

She added that when it comes to new employees starting with seven hour days, "nobody tells anyone they have to apply for it."

"… People who want a seven-hour position will apply for a seven-hour position," Welsh said.

"How long do you think they'll want to stay and do well for the system?" Sella responded.

On the subject of the proposed dress code, Welsh said that her team agreed to remove the words "modest" and "clean" from the line stating that all employees "present a clean, modest and professional image," which Sella had previously referred to as sexist language.

"It was never our intent to insult anyone," Welsh said, continuing that she had heard complaints from administrators regarding some employees' work attire.

About 10-15 support staff professionals attended the negotiations.

Plum Point Elementary School Head Custodian Bob Esworthy said that as a former CAESS negotiator and 35-year employee, he was mostly there to observe.

"I always thought it would be a good idea to have an open dialogue so the public knows what we're talking about," said Esworthy, continuing that he viewed both sides' initial perspectives as "wish lists" that had room for further negotiation.

Esworthy added that when CAESS agreed to break its last three-year contract and accept a 0.5 percent salary increase for fiscal year 2010, its members deserved something in return.

"To cut peoples' hours as well as to have no raises at all is really extreme measures," he said.

School nurses, Tara Brauns and Janet Cord, also attended the negotiations and said that though their hours were not up for being cut, they were looking out for their colleagues.

"We want fairness for the employees as a whole, not a divide and conquer type of thing," said Cord, a registered nurse at Calvert High School in Prince Frederick.

When it came to salary increases, Brauns, a licensed practical nurse at Calvert Elementary School in Prince Frederick, said that "anything is better than the 0.5 percent."

Cord said that the board needed to keep economic inflation in mind, stating that "If I'm not getting the cost of living [salary adjustment], it's basically a salary decrease.

"I just want to see the board respect the people they hire," she said.

The Calvert County Board of Education and the Calvert Education Association, which represents the county's teachers, will hold open negotiations from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, Friday, at the board's central office in Prince Frederick.

The Calvert Recorder intern William Marshall contributed to this report.

lbuck@somdnews.com