Board moves to restore Odyssey of the Mind coordinators after contract reduction

Board members on Sept. 18 debated whether to use a rarely used contract clause to increase Odyssey of the Mind (OM) coordinator positions after recent bargaining language reduced coordinators to three total (one per attendance area). Several board members and community correspondents emphasized OM’s reach—administration reported about 200 participating students last year—and warned that the program could struggle to organize midyear without coordinators in each building.

Board members described two practical options: leave the contract as written (three coordinators) or temporarily restore the historical one-per-school coordinator arrangement for the current school year and address the schedule or permanent change in next year’s negotiations. “We don’t want this to fall apart because of a miscommunication,” one board member said, urging a short-term restoration so teams can organize while the association and administration sort out contract language.

Members also raised administrative concerns that, in some past years, coordinators were paid when no active teams existed at their buildings and asked administration to tighten oversight. The board moved to restore coordinators to the historical one-per-building arrangement for the current year; a roll call was requested but the transcript does not include a final tallied vote in the public record.

The move is framed as an exceptional, one-time use of the contract clause to avoid disrupting student participation; the board asked administration to follow up with details of any dollar impact and to bring longer-term changes through negotiations next year.