IEA: Contract emergency clause ‘wrong’

Sherri Wood, president of the Idaho Education Association, was clearly feeling betrayed after JFAC’s meeting today, in which the joint committee set a budget for public schools for next year that matched an agreement worked out among education stakeholders including the IEA - but tacked on another clause declaring a financial emergency for every school district in the state, allowing them to reopen negotiated teacher contracts in fiscal year 2011. “Here’s what is wrong with that motion as passed about statewide emergencies - we know that there are districts out there that have as much as $17 million in a fund balance,” Wood said. To allow those districts to reopen contracts and cut pay when they’re sitting on millions, she said, “is wrong.” She added, “HB 252 that we negotiated for a month last year does everything that is needed to reopen a contract. … It gives the district the power to negotiate and cut salaries, as 20 districts did this year.” Now, she said, the legislative intent language adopted at the last minute in JFAC suddenly makes that statewide, regardless of an individual district’s actual financial situation. “I don’t get that,” she said.