Your bargaining team met with their District counterparts until 8:00 this evening. We informed the District that we were prepared to work over the next five days in order to reach an agreement, and to stick with the mediation process, no matter where it takes us over the weekend.

We were pleased to receive a similar commitment from the District team.

Prior to today’s negotiations we made significant progress on five articles through small group meetings, including parking, leaves, member rights and just cause, the complaint procedure, and personnel files.

Today, we received comprehensive proposals from the District on the key issues of safety and workload.

We spent most of the afternoon and evening discussing the District’s safety proposals, and were pleased with the progress both sides are making on a variety of important issues, including maintenance of the full continuum of special education services, referral writing, and building systems of support for teachers across the District.

We are still far apart on key issues such as workload, work year, the 6 of 8 high school arbitration, and snow days. The District has not changed their position on several of our other important proposals like salary and early retirement, and has not responded to our proposal for additional special education case management time.

Both sides will reconvene tomorrow at 1pm, and we will continue to keep you informed of our progress.

In Solidarity,

Your PAT Bargaining Team