Teachers, negotiators weigh language to limit regular use of classrooms for multiple rostered classes and guarantee lockable storage

Union negotiators proposed revised contract language intended to guarantee adequate workspace for teachers, including heat, light, ventilation and acoustics, and to discourage the regular scheduling of two different rostered classes in the same classroom without teacher agreement.

The revised proposal said classrooms should not be regularly used to simultaneously teach two different rostered classes without collaboration with the teachers using the classroom. If sharing is necessary, teachers assigned to the space would be provided a lockable place to store personal items and appropriate workspace to perform professional duties; educators providing confidential student services would be provided appropriate private space as needed.

District and union negotiators debated the realistic remedies for situations caused by long‑term space constraints, including capital projects or trailers that take years to implement. Negotiators discussed language choices — “should not” versus “must not” — and agreed to preserve managerial discretion for difficult building‑level decisions while adding a collaborative step and modest protections for teachers when sharing occurs.

Practitioners described specific scenarios at crowded elementary schools where resource rooms are shared by multiple providers at the same time, producing loud, distracting environments for some students. Union speakers urged that collaborative problem solving be required before long‑term scheduling decisions and that teachers be provided somewhere secure to store personal items when sharing cannot be avoided.

The parties agreed to refined wording: classrooms should not be regularly used to simultaneously teach two different rostered classes without collaboration with the teachers using the classroom; when sharing occurs, teachers must be provided a desk and lockable storage, which need not be in the same room.