Moscow panel backs two supplemental contract days for special-education staff, seeks broader flex options

A Moscow School District labor-management advisory group voted to advance a recommendation that special-education teachers be offered a supplemental contract for two additional days, after debating several options including a three-day proposal.

The panel’s recommendation came after administrators and teachers described uneven access to paperwork time and prep time across school levels. The group also discussed allowing special-education staff to use existing Friday collaboration hours or alternative professional-development (PD) days for paperwork and to permit flexible use of supplemental days at different points in the school year.

Why it matters: Special-education staff say heavy paperwork and the need to train and supervise paraprofessionals leave them working outside contracted hours; the committee sought low-cost and higher-cost options to address that workload. The committee’s preference for two supplemental days was the more popular option during a dot vote: the transcript records 15 dots in favor of two days and nine for three days, and members asked administration to calculate the fiscal impact.

Discussion and details: Administrators told the group the two- or three-day supplemental could be structured as an optional, supplemental contract (not automatic). The committee debated whether those days should be usable only at the start or end of the year, or flexed throughout the school year (for example, used during heavy IEP months or as compensatory time after weekend work). Members raised operational concerns including how to log and verify flex days and how the district would handle substitute coverage when staff use the days.

The group also discussed lower-cost alternatives: letting special-education teachers use one non-collaboration Friday per month for paperwork, allowing the alternative PD application (a currently available process) to be used more consistently for paperwork, and protecting prep time for special-education teachers at the building level. Administrators said some buildings already allow flex PD use informally; others do not, which drove the push for clearer district-wide guidance.

Direction to staff: Committee members asked administration to (1) model the fiscal impact of the two-day supplemental option and report back at the May meeting; (2) draft clear implementation language (how days are claimed, how they are logged, and whether they are supplemental contracts); and (3) prepare language to clarify when Friday collaboration time can be used for paperwork and whether a monthly option is feasible.

What’s next: The committee will bring the fiscal analysis and draft language back to the next meeting; if adopted administratively, the supplemental-day approach will be reflected in negotiating documents or joint communications for bargaining teams.