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Adams 12 and teachers reach tentative agreement covering pay, leave rules and special-education planning time
Summary
The district and the District 12 Educators Association reported a tentative agreement that updates employee-protection language, rewrites planning/absence rules, defines special-education protected planning time, adjusts sick-leave bank rules, and includes a compensation package averaging about 3% of certified payroll.
Adams 12 Five Star Schools and the District 12 Educators Association presented a tentative negotiated agreement May 7 that negotiators described as a package of contract clarifications, staffing and compensation changes.
"Employees are encouraged to fully to participate in the Adams 12 5 Star community as their true authentic selves in alignment with district expectations," said Myla Shepherd, chief human-resources officer, quoting new language added to the agreement’s employee-protection article. Negotiators said the change was intended to strengthen protections and make school workplaces more welcoming.
Nut graf: The deal affects staffing practices, special-education workload, leave-bank rules and pay. It must be ratified by association members before it becomes binding; the district said ballots go out next Tuesday and will close the following Tuesday.
Negotiators said they rewrote a comprehensive article governing absences and planning to remove decades of ambiguous text and reduce recurring conflicts between supervisors and educators. The district and association also made the sick-leave bank co-pay consistent: educators who access the bank will now make a 10-day buy-in, negotiators said, replacing a variable past practice.
The agreement includes a multi-part compensation package the negotiators described as equivalent to about 3% of certified payroll. It contains a step increase averaging roughly 1.29% of payroll, an ongoing 0.5% cost-of-living adjustment and an additional one-time payment (about 1.2% of payroll) slated for a December payment. Health-insurance premiums are increasing 7.09%; the district will continue to cover 95 percent of employee-only premiums, negotiators said.
The district said it completed a multi-year review of special-education schedules and is now incorporating defined additional protected planning time for special-education teachers across grade levels. Negotiators called the change "one of the only districts" efforts to explicitly define protected planning time for IDEA compliance tasks.
A separate committee’s work on elementary specials staffing led to a temporary memorandum of agreement and a reduction in force affecting 12 specials teaching positions, negotiators said; the MOA outlines a split-assignment approach for small schools and conditions for temporary staffing changes.
The board was also told the agreement contains a new approach to late changes after school-year start: an MOA offering financial incentives for volunteers to accept disruptive last-minute reassignments to address hot-and-cool enrollment spots, intended to protect less-experienced teachers from being the default option.
President of the District 12 Educators Association Dave Lockley and association coordinator Steve Lesh participated in the presentation. Lockley said the interest-based bargaining process the district uses is collaborative and year-round. The negotiated package will go to association members for ratification next week; the board was briefed but did not take a ratification vote on May 7.
Ending: Board members praised the years-long collaborative process and thanked negotiators. The district will return to the board with final ratification results after association voting.
