Union and district at odds over implementation of presidential-release leave after arbitration ruling

Martin County Education Association leaders and school district officials clashed Tuesday over whether the collective-bargaining provision that allows the union president to take a yearlong unpaid presidential release should remain and how it should be implemented.

The disagreement follows an arbitration ruling that sided with the union on the underlying interpretation of the release provision and sent implementation details back to the parties to negotiate. Martin County Education Association representatives said the release helps union officers do their work during the school day; district officials said the provision posed administrative and legal complications that required careful written procedures.

The union argued the district’s prior implementation for a former president was routine and workable. "It worked the same way that it worked in my other district," said former MCEA President Karen Resiniti, describing the earlier arrangement in which the union prepaid salary and the district ran the payroll…