Fountain Hills board endorses revisions to certified-employee agreement emphasizing more protected time for teachers

The Fountain Hills Unified School District board on a September meeting heard the bargaining team present a revised certified employee agreement for the 2025–26 school year that prioritizes giving educators more protected time when salary increases were not available. "If funding could not be increased, then time could be given back," said a member of the bargaining team during the presentation.

Bargaining team representative Talia (bargaining team) opened the presentation saying the group had sought creative options to retain and support staff given constrained funding. Facilitator Roni Asali described the process as interest-based negotiations, saying the approach focuses on "what is the interest or what is the role we're trying to meet, and then the team collectively creates proposals." The team said the proposed agreement was supported by an "overwhelming majority" of certified staff who participated in the talks.

The proposal includes several working-condition changes rather than pay increases. Key elements presented and discussed include: clarifying professional duties (including required duty assignments such as crossing-guard or parent-teacher conferences), explicitly defining the professional day as 50 minutes before and 50 minutes after students are on campus, protecting prep periods and lunches, and reallocating half the district's early-release days to staff meetings, professional development or PLC work so those releases serve as the "gift of time" for educator collaboration. Presenters said the change removes an automatic 8-hour on-campus minimum that some staff found inflexible while preserving duties that require on-site presence.

Board members asked detailed procedural and drafting questions during an extended Q&A. Topics raised included: the definition of "new educator" for additional support days (answer: typically first year), whether language should refer to "Arizona Revised Statutes" rather than abbreviations, how "blackout days" approvals will be routed to an immediate supervisor or principal, and ensuring club-funding and other sections use consistent tense and terminology. Administrators and union representatives identified proofreading corrections and suggested small drafting edits (for example, changing "maybe exceptions" to "may be exceptions").

Presenters emphasized that some commonly requested changes (a proposed remote work day and flex time) were removed from the working draft after earlier board direction and were not part of the current proposal. Board members indicated support for taking the clarified language back to the bargaining team for final redlines and asked that corrected statutory references and clarified supervisor routing be returned at a future meeting for approval. The board announced upcoming meetings on Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, 2025, where follow-up items may be considered.

The presentation and discussion did not conclude with a final vote on the full agreement; the board recorded feedback and directed staff and bargaining representatives to return with revisions and final language for consideration.