District Requests Contract Mediator Impasse Declared During 3Rd Meeting In/Around: Riverside

The Riverside School District has asked for a mediator in its negotiations with the Riverside Education Association for a new contract after only three meetings.

The district has petitioned the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission to provide a mediator to help the two sides reach an agreement.

Given the current tone of negotiations, a mediator may be best for both sides.

In a June 8 letter to the employee relations commission, Riverside superintendent Jerry Wilson writes, “REA began to review its proposals and quickly demonstrated very little knowledge and understanding of its own proposals. There was general confusion among the REA negotiating team and there was no valid, supporting information presented.”

Jan George, co-president of the REA, received a copy of Wilson’s letter. She did not agree with his opinion.

“I thought we were very prepared,” George said.

Key issues in contract negotiators thus far are the district’s teacher-transfer policy and classroom sizes, she said.

“We’ve long had a concern about the way teachers are assigned transfers in our district,” George said.

Unlike most other districts where teachers apply for and bid on vacancies, at Riverside, administrators assign teachers to where they want them to go. And most of the time the teacher has no say about whether they want to make such a move, said George.

“It’s arbitrarily and sometimes not so arbitrarily done,” George said. “And it’s somewhat punitive in some instances.”

The REA also wants extra per diem days for teachers with master’s degrees and for teachers with at least 25 years experience.

District officials said the REA’s requests would cost the district anywhere between $2.4 million and $4.1 million next year.

“The district sees little alternative but to request assistance from PERC in light of the REA’s lack of concern or even interest in the financial ramifications of its own proposals,” Wilson said in his letter.

The current contract ends Aug. 31. The REA first notified the district on Feb. 25 of its desire to negotiate a new contract.

Wilson said the REA should have contacted the district much sooner than it did given its contract requests.

George said the district declared an impasse during the third meeting. She said the REA asked for a counter proposal from the district three times but never received one.