Riverside Contract Talks Deadlocked

North Side Voice, November 28, 1996, page N11: CORRECTION: An article in last Thursday’s North Side Voice incorrectly states Riverside Superintendent Jerry Wilson’s experience. He has been Riverside’s superintendent 17 years.

A conflict between Riverside School District employees and administrators is continuing to simmer.

Riverside teachers, bus drivers, janitors and others have been working without a contract since the start of the school year, and negotiations between the school district and the unions representing teachers and bus drivers are deadlocked.

The Riverside Education Association, which represents teachers, and the Public School Employees union, which represents all non-teachers, say the school district has taken a tight-fisted, hard-line bargaining position.

Superintendent Jerry Wilson said he is just trying to save money for the school district.

The PSE and the district are stymied over administrators’ plans to either privatize busing, or reduce bus drivers’ hours. Both would drop pay for drivers, the union says.

The teacher’s union objects to a cut in planning days and demands 10 minutes more preparation time during the school day.

A group of parents, teachers and staff plan to bombard the school board with complaints at their next meeting. They were going to address the board during a Tuesday meeting, but poor weather forced it to be canceled.

The meeting will likely be some time next week. At that time, the group has more than 900 signed petitions denouncing the plan to privatize busing.

“I think the parents are getting a little riled up,” said Karen Nelli, a parent volunteer at Chattaroy Elementary.

Superintendent Wilson said contracting bus routes to Laidlaw could save the district more than $200,000 a year. Cutting teacher planning days would save about $150,000.

The school district laid off staff last year after the Legislature cut money for special education and busing. Most of the money and staff have since been restored.

But several parents and teachers call Wilson’s frugality hypocritical, noting that his $105,300 annual salary is higher than superintendents at many larger school districts.

Most superintendents in comparable school districts make between $80,000 and $90,000, according to the state Superintendent of Public Instruction’s office.

“This is called the poorest tax (school) district in the state. We can’t even pass a bond issue. But Jerry Wilson makes a lot of money,” said Nelli.

Shots at his salary are normal during tense union negotiations, Wilson said. “The superintendent is always going to be a target,” said Wilson, Riverside’s superintendent for 23 years. He said the pay was determined by his performance.

Moffatt, the PSE union representative, said negotiations with Riverside are more tense and hostile than any she’s seen.

Riverside Education Association president Steve Nicols blamed his union’s stalemate on Wilson’s refusal to meet personally.

“It’s very difficult to negotiate when the person in charge won’t come to the table,” said Nicols.

, DataTimes