Teachers, district reach tentative agreement
Thursday, August 28, 2003 8:18 AM PDT
By Amy M. E. Fischer
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E-mail this articleAfter three months of bargaining, Longview teachers and classified employees reached a tentative agreement Tuesday evening with the school district, the Longview Education Association announced Wednesday.
Members from the two unions, which have been negotiating jointly with the district, will gather at 5 p.m. tonight in the R.A. Long High School auditorium to vote on the contract, LEA president Ray Prynne said.
Details about the agreement will be released only after a contract has been ratified by the teachers' union, the Longview Classified Public Employees Association and the Longview School Board, said John Vencill, the district's chief negotiator.
The sticking points during contract talks have been compensation and medical benefits, Prynne said earlier this week.
School board president Jennifer Leach defended the bargaining teams' practice of keeping the contracts terms a secret from the public as they are being hashed out.
"Negotiations are not part of the public piece until they're ratified," said Leach, who sits on the district's bargaining team.
Should the two unions choose to ratify the agreement tonight, the school board will decide whether to approve it. The public meeting is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at the district office, Leach said.
"It doesn't fit 100 percent within the board's (guidelines), and that's all I'm going to say," Leach said.
Leach refused to discuss until Tuesday's meeting whether the district compromised more than it intended to because of the growing threat of a teachers' strike.
Monday evening, more than 300 members of the Longview Education Association overwhelmingly voted to reject the district's latest contract offer, sparking uncertainty throughout the district whether the dispute would be resolved by the time school opens Sept. 3.
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