Claremont
The nine-page unanimous ruling on the teachers union’s cease and desist request centered on a side agreement under the current collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, that specifies the block schedule. The school board’s argument that the authority for setting the class schedule rests solely with the school board and administration was not supported by the three-member panel.
“All the arbitrator has done in this case is require the district to follow the 2014-17 CBA … Having included the block schedule in the 2014-17 CBA, as recounted in the first and second arbitration awards, neither the school board nor the superintendent has the right or option under RSA 273-A to unilaterally change from a block schedule to an A/B schedule,” the ruling said.
Contacted Thursday afternoon, School Board Chairman Brian Rapp called the decision “troubling” and said it puts the school district in a tough position.
“I don’t think it’s feasible to change students’ schedules when we’re (a quarter of the way) into July,” Rapp said in an email. “What should really concern people is that the (labor relations board) is hinting that public policy decisions can actually be ceded to an arbitrator. Local burn permitting is an authority given by statute to the fire chief. Imagine a ruling that pulls that authority and gives it to an arbitrator. It’s very troubling.”
Stevens Principal Patricia Barry said requiring the high school to revert to the old schedule with less than two months before classes begin would be “incredibly difficult.”
Union President Tammy-Lynn Yates said in an email this is the third time the school board has been told it should not have implemented the new schedule.
“The school board should honor those decisions,” Yates said. “In addition, both the students and teachers at the high school have struggled to deal with increased student demands and increased student stress under the A/B schedule. That needs to be fixed as well. The SREA trusts that this is a ‘wake-up call’ for the school board to honor its promises to the association and act in good faith with regard to scheduling at the high school.”
At the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, the School Board implemented a new class schedule referred to as A/B, meaning students took classes every other day for an entire year.
The new schedule came out of a scheduling committee that included faculty members and was unanimously approved by the committee but twice was opposed by the Sugar River Education Association, the union.
The union filed a grievance, which was denied by the administration, and the case then went to arbitration. Last June — and again in April — independent arbitrator Gary Altman sided with the union, saying the board violated the collective bargaining agreement by implementing the new schedule. Under the block schedule, students take four classes every day each semester. The school district rejected those decisions to the union, which filed a cease and desist order with the labor relations board.
Though it rejected the arbitrator’s order to revert to the block schedule, the school district agreed it violated the collective bargaining agreement and would pay high school teachers an additional 8 percent ($153,000 total) of their salary for the additional instruction time, the labor relations board noted in its ruling.
But the additional pay does not absolve the district of fulfilling its obligations under the contract, the board said.
“Public employers like the district do not have the option to ‘buy out’ of certain provisions in a collective bargaining agreement by unilaterally providing additional wages,” the ruling said.
In addition to the contract’s wording, which specifies the block schedule, the board also relied on a grievance procedure outlined in the contract that makes all arbitration decisions binding on both sides.
If the School Board does not abide by the ruling, the labor relations board would need to seek an injunction in Sullivan County Superior Court to enforce it, National Education Association attorney Jim Allmendinger said in an email.
Attempts on Thursday to reach the school district’s attorney, Matt Upton, were unsuccessful and SAU 6 Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin was unavailable for comment.
The union also filed an unfair labor practice against the district. Briefs in that case have to be filed by July 15.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
