Wednesday, June 22, 2011

June 22nd Negotiations Session: Welcome to a New Round of Bargaining!

Thank you for visiting our site! Our goal is to keep you updated on our progress in negotiating our 2011-2013 contract. After each negotiating session or other major event, our negotiators will update this page with any news or progress toward a settlement.  You can also follow us on Twitter under 7007 (that's the number of our local) or on the AHEM Facebook page. We will post links back here on our social media as soon as this page is updated. We will also update our negotiations hotline at 651-695-2029 if you'd rather hear this info by phone. 

We held our third negotiations session this morning with the district team.  The district team this round is Paul Cady (district General Counsel), Brandon Nelson (Labor Relations and Benefits Department Director), Sheryl Ray (Evergreen Park Principal), Annette Ziegler (Coon Rapids Middle School Principal), Jeff McGonigal (Interim Associate Superintendent, previously Coon Rapids High School Principal).  Our team is Paul Goupil (Coon Rapids Middle School teacher and Lead Negotiator), LeMoyne Corgard (Oxbow Creek teacher and AHEM Vice President), Vicky Czerwinski (ABE/ECFE Teacher), Jay Wilkins (Anoka Senior High Teacher), David Kundin (Education Minnesota Field Staff), Gary Christofferson (Education Minnesota Field Staff) and Julie Blaha (AHEM President).

So far, we have had good discussions of contract language and each side has laid out some of their larger interests for this round of bargaining. One of the topics we discussed today were the ramifications of the current No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements on schools that don’t make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and how they could affect our contract.  We are also comparing information about economic issues like compensation and benefits, but until the legislature finishes their work on the state budget, we aren't able to get very specific.

We will be setting another meeting for mid July to continue these discussions.  We'll update this entry once we have the date.

Thanks for reading and we'll keep you posted, 
Your Negotiators - Paul, Vicky, LeMoyne, Jay, Gary, David, and Julie