Lawrence School District to appeal PERB decision

Lawrence School District is appealing a Public Employees Relations Board decision that it must “cease and desist” immediately its addition of a sixth teaching period for teachers in the middle school and high school.

During last school year, the district assigned a sixth teaching period to a total of 22 teachers. According to Lawrence Teachers Association (LTA) officials, for more than 30 years, the district needed to address the possibility of assigning a sixth period class with the LTA. Typically, the LTA approved the additional teaching periods, especially in situations that were classified as emergencies such as a replacing a teacher who left during the school year.

“The district unilaterally assigned teachers the sixth class when there was no emergency, this is is what led to the grievance."

Skonberg said that efforts to resolve the issue were not successful. According to her, the LTA sought to settle the case before going to arbitration, but the school district thought they had the right to assign the classes and would not come to an agreement. A hearing with an arbitrator from the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) was held on June 15.

Based on the PERB ruling, the district must compensate teachers who were assigned to a sixth period class, unless already compensated by the appropriate dollar amounts that were contractually agreed to. The district must also compensate or “make whole” any teacher laid off as a result of the sixth period assignments.

“The arbitrator stated that the LTA was able to demonstrate the standards for a teacher’s workload as being five teaching periods per day, with certain exceptions,” Skonberg said.

Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall said that for the district it was a “clarification” and though the Aug. 22 decision went against them, they will appeal. Schall said it’s the way the district is going to conduct its business and the move doesn’t impact programs. He believes that teachers, whom he called professionals, would rather be assigned a class for the stipend of $8,750 than hall duty for no compensation

“This is how we are going to operate,” he said. “Administration wants the prerogative to assign a sixth period class, the union wants a level of control on how they are assigned. It is a matter for the courts.” Schall said the appeal is moving forward.

In addition to lengthening this debate, the appeal also puts a hold on contract negotiations between the district and LTA. The last contract expired six years ago. However, the superintendent said that the teachers continue to work under the past contract, are receiving their “step” raises (incremental raises in salary based on qualifying professional experience) and earn an average salary of $114,000 per year.

Replacing several faculty members

During what was termed a special meeting on Sept. 1, the Lawrence Board of Education accepted the resignation of five teachers, most of who left for jobs in other school districts. The trustees approved the hiring of seven teachers and a new assistant high school principal.

“Teachers left for various reasons: lack of job security, some thought not having a new contract meant a lack of respect, some moved on to jobs in the field of education in different capacities,” Skonberg said.

Schall painted the departures of the teachers and the administrators who left as a positive due to the promotions they received and what he called the “valuable training” a faculty member receives in Lawrence. Regarding the teachers contract, he noted that the Buffalo teachers’ contract took several years to be settled and points to Lawrence’s financial stability.

“Lawrence has set fiscal trends; we had a self-imposed tax cap we were criticized for and now everyone boasts how they stay the state requirement,” Schall said. “The teachers’ contract is a must-do for the district.”