Geary County Schools and teachers' bargaining unit continue contract talks; mileage reimbursement tentatively agreed

Negotiators for Geary County Schools and representatives of the Geary County Education Association met April 29, 2025, and reached a tentative agreement on mileage reimbursement and on Article 13(a), while other contract items remained unresolved.

Union negotiators pressed for protections on planning time, limits on secondary teaching loads and a new article addressing student and staff safety, saying classroom behavior has become traumatically severe in some instances. “These incidents are traumatic, not just for staff, but for students who deserve emotionally and physically safe learning environments,” Representative 3 said while presenting the union’s safety proposal. The union also proposed language saying, “If the district vehicle is available, employees will be asked in advance to use the district vehicle in place of a personal vehicle,” to clarify mileage practices.

Why it matters: bargaining outcomes affect teacher workload, leave and safety procedures across the district, and tentative agreements reached at the table must still be finalized and, if required by local rules, ratified by bargaining-unit members or approved by the board.

What negotiators agreed and what remains under discussion

- Mileage reimbursement: District staff indicated agreement on the union’s mileage language; negotiators recorded that the district “agrees to your proposal” on mileage reimbursement and that the parties could tentatively agree (TA) on that item during the session.

- Article 13(a): The district and union recorded a tentative agreement on the item labeled 13(a); participants said that language could be treated as a TA.

- Professional compensation and other pay items: The union declined the board’s proposals on professional compensation and presented its original language; those items remained under negotiation with no final agreement recorded.

- Planning time and alternative/virtual schools: The union proposed protecting 80 minutes of planned time for secondary staff and extending consistent protections to teachers at the alternative school. Negotiators discussed how virtual assignments would be staffed and described a 60-minute virtual office-hour expectation for some virtual assignments; no final agreement was recorded on broader workload integration across elementary/secondary schedules.

- Teaching load: The union asked that the 300-minute secondary teaching-load cap apply at the alternative school to maintain parity; the union noted it had declined the board’s counterproposal and kept the original request on the table.

- Leave days: The union adjusted an earlier request, proposing three additional usable leave days (down from five in an earlier draft) for qualifying serious circumstances; the board responded with a counterproposal or declined some language in places, and discussion continued.

- Student and staff safety: The union presented a proposed new article describing an increase in physical aggression, sexualized behaviors, self-harm and verbal abuse occurring across grade levels and locations (classrooms, cafeterias, buses, playgrounds). Representative 3 framed the proposal as seeking “protection” and “partnership” and asked for trauma-informed, formal protocols that address staff as well as students.

- Emergency-change language and MOUs: Participants discussed past instances where calendar or planning-time changes were implemented without a full ratification process. District staff and the union debated language to allow for emergency adjustments to the negotiated agreement (an MOU process and whether it must be ratified by the bargaining unit). No final clause was adopted during the session.

Process, timeline and next steps

Negotiators agreed to extend meeting time on scheduled May negotiation dates to 8:30 p.m. if needed; the parties listed possible additional dates in June if bargaining could not be concluded in May. Several items were listed as “declined” by one party or as counterproposals; tentative agreements reached at the session must still be memorialized and, if required, ratified by the relevant parties before becoming binding.

Ending: The meeting concluded with both sides agreeing to continue bargaining on the listed dates; no item in the transcript was presented as fully ratified by the bargaining unit or finally adopted by the Geary County Schools board of education during this session.