Board approves MOA to address teachers’ "win" duties and retroactive pay

Kalispell Public Schools trustees on Jan. 27 approved a memorandum of agreement (MOA) meant to address a grievance about duties assigned to teachers during so-called "win" time and to clarify future expectations for those duties.

Superintendent-designate Matt, who presented the agreement, said the MOA "satisfies the look back, and it compensates teachers for what can be agreed upon as a difference between a duty they would have been assigned to versus the gray area of what was the expectation," and asked the board to approve the agreement with a revised compensation rate. He said the parties negotiated replacing the previously used curriculum rate with the instructional rate for retroactive pay, citing $38.31 per hour as the instructional rate and $31.89 as the curriculum rate.

The administration and negotiators told trustees the MOA was developed through direct conversations with union representatives and building administrators. A negotiator present described the agreement as "a self-contained remedy" that does not set district-wide precedent; the wording in the draft explicitly states it is not intended to create a precedent, the negotiator said.

Some trustees pushed for the MOA to explicitly state that the union would withdraw the grievance if both parties signed the agreement. Board members and legal counsel explained the procedural situation: a prior motion on the grievance was tabled at an earlier meeting, and the union would retain the option to pursue arbitration even if the board approved the MOA. Jack, speaking on procedure, said a union can withdraw a grievance at any time and noted that leaving a tabled motion unresolved effectively lets the motion die if no action is taken within the relevant period.

Trustees praised the collaborative negotiation process. Jen, who moved approval, said she trusted the work the negotiating team had done and appreciated that both sides had heard the board's concerns at the previous meeting. After further discussion, the board voted in favor of approving the MOA with the administrative edits the superintendent had outlined.

The vote carried; the board’s approval signals support for the negotiated settlement but, according to multiple trustees, does not by itself remove the union’s ability to pursue arbitration under the grievance process unless the union chooses to withdraw the grievance.

What's next: The MOA is to be finalized with the clarified compensation language before signatures are exchanged. The union must decide whether to sign the MOA or pursue arbitration within the statutory period; the board recessed into an executive session later in the meeting for separate personnel matters.