FLEMING ISLAND | The Clay County School Board voting 3-2 sided with Superintendent Charlie Van Zant Jr. and rejected recommendations made by an independent special magistrate regarding teacher salary, insurance benefits and job security. The decision provoked jeers, threats of election day retaliation and other angry responses from the standing-room-only overflow crowd of at least 300 teachers and their supporters who packed the board room. The Clay County Education Association, representing all district instructional employees, already adopted all the magistrate s recommendations and urged School Board members to follow suit during a contentious 2 1/2-hour contract impasse hearing Thursday morning.
Van Zant and the majority of the board opposed the recommendations. They mainly cited the district s financial situation specifically the need to ensure its reserve fund remains at the minimum 3 percent level mandated by the state. The district recently attained that goal for the first time since the 2012-13 school year. The board decision maintains the contract status quo. The current contract remains in place, and the two sides will head back to the bargaining table next year to try to negotiate a new one.
Voting to uphold Van Zant s rejection of the recommendations were board Chairwoman Johnna McKinnon, Vice Chairwoman Ashley Gilhousen and member Betsy Condon. Supporting the union and magistrate s recommendations were board members Janice Kerekes and Carol Studdard. The board quickly left without comment. Clay County sheriff s deputies served as security during the meeting and escorted all the members to their cars in the parking lot as a precaution given the emotional borderline hostile tone of the crowd throughout the hearing.
Renna Lee Paiva, union president, said after the hearing that they were not surprised by the board s action. It was expected. It s obviously scripted by the three school board members said Paiva. Prior to voting, McKinnon, Gilhousen and Condon gave similar explanations for rejecting the recommendations that Paiva said echoed Van Zant s reasoning in a recent email sent to district teachers regarding the impasse and hearing.
They got their marching orders. So, we knew to expect it, Paiva said.
After the decision, Van Zant said the bottom line is money. Right now, he said there is none to give teachers the raises they want and deserve.
At every opportunity when the Clay County School Board has had the money to offer a raise or to buy-down the cost of health insurance, I ve been supportive of it, said Van Zant, noting that includes the 14 years he served on the board before being elected superintendent in 2012. He also said Clay now pays a beginning teacher $38,500 compared to about $25,500 in 1998 when he came on the school board.
This year the union asked for about $1,000 in some kind of a raise. The district countered with about $500 , said Van Zant, adding the union left the bargaining table about the third time the two negotiating teams sat down to talk. We would all like to see our teachers paid more, then we all have to sit down and work through this.
Paiva said the issue is over and done. The current contract now goes before the union members for a ratification vote. They can accept or reject it, but next year new contract negotiations begin, she said. Van Zant said it then will come back to the board for action. The district has about 2,700 teachers.
On Thursday, the district either used substitute teachers, divided up students among classes or in a few instances, had school administrators filled in for the teachers attending the hearing, according to Tracy Butler, service unit director for the teachers union. Special Magistrate Leonard T. Helfand issued a report and recommendations on seven items at issue in the impasse. He supported the union on five and the district on the remaining two. The union accepted them all. But the district only accepted the two recommendation supporting its position. That disconnect led to the impasse hearing.
The hearing got off to a rocky start when Kerekes and Studdard tried and failed to convince the board to table the meeting until an evening session. Kerekes and Studdard, siding with the union, objected to holding it during the day when many teachers and support employees as well as parents were unable to attend without taking time off from their jobs. In two separate 3-2 votes, the board rejected moving the meeting to a night session and extending the public comment period.
The crowd most wearing red to show solidarity as well as wearing badges stating, Budgets Reflect Priorities, and holding signs saying We Will Vote You Out in August booed and berated the board Van Zant and the board majority that supported him. Van Zant, McKinnon and Studdard are running for re-election this year and all face challengers. The countywide primary is Aug.
30 and could decide those and other local races a fact referenced by several of the dozen teachers who spoke out during the public comment period. Kerkes, Gilhousen and Condon are halfway through their first terms. Teacher Christopher Trahan told the board to consider what message they want to send to the county s voters
All eyes are now on each of you.
Your decision today will tell the voters one of two things, either you stand with the teachers of Clay County or you have no regard or respect for us as professionals, Trahan said. Trahan also said failure to support the magistrate s ruling will tell the voters that you are committed to continuing to neglect the well-being and the needs of your own employees.
It is impossible to put our students first if teachers repeatedly are put last, Trahan said. The crowd wildly cheered and loudly applauded the remarks by Trahan and other teachers. They did the same for the union leaders as they presented their case to the board. On the other hand, the audience booed and tried to shout down board attorneys and three members opposing the recommendations.
McKinnon warned the audience several times to be civil and respectful of the speakers or she would have the deputies escort them from the hearing. Nobody got thrown out. But nobody left happy.
Teresa Stepzinski: (904) 359-4075