By Haley Thomas, contributor
The Harrisonburg City School Board is inching closer to finalizing a collective bargaining resolution that may shape the future of labor relations within the district’s schools.
Board members, along with Harrisonburg Education Association members and the district’s teachers have agreed that the goal for collective bargaining is to give teachers a voice in improving their terms and conditions of employment, but a new draft of the resolution must be agreed upon first.
The Virginia General Assembly enacted the Collective Bargaining Law in 2020, which for the first time allowed Virginia public-sector employees to engage in collective bargaining. That law also gives local municipalities and school boards the authority to pass ordinances or resolutions that permit collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining, Superintendent Michael Richards said, is a process by which a group of employees can create a bargaining unit that can name someone to negotiate on its behalf. The goal is to reach an agreement about the terms and conditions of employment for the workers in the bargaining unit.. An agreement would then be written into a legal contract.
The school board took the first steps toward embracing the new state law last fall by passing a resolution inviting collective bargaining. This came in response to the Harrisonburg Education Association, which presented evidence of substantial staff support – 81% of certified employees and 51% of classified employees – in favor of collective bargaining. Richards also formed a Task Force on Collective Bargaining that consists of school board members, central office staff and HEA members.
But the move toward new policies came to a halt last September. The Virginia Education Association, which is the parent organization of HEA, raised concerns focusing on two key issues within the original resolution for collective bargaining: the lack of a third-party to conduct the election for the respand the requirement for a majority of all employees, rather than just those voting, to determine representation. The HEA ultimately decided not to participate in the election required to select a bargaining representative, and returned to the negotiation stage.
Richards, who has advocated for collective bargaining, then formed a committee made up of school district staff and several board members, and they set out to refine the resolution.
“I realized that what I was really trying to get was representation,” Richards said. “I would like to guarantee that all staff members are welcome to join in on important conversations, and that they would have a true voice in that, because what we’re looking for here is employee voice and an authentic way for employees to participate in major decision making.”
Richards said he remains optimistic that collective bargaining will go into effect, given its support. He stressed the importance of collaboration and the need to create a resolution that reflects the board’s commitment to supporting its staff.
“I think there’s some assumption that superintendents will not be in support of collective bargaining,” Richards said. “Some people have said we don’t listen to teachers. But that’s false; we do listen to teachers, but there’s a big difference between me setting up a council and staff doing it on their own, staff being able to use what I call self-determination.”
Richards will present the revised resolution to the board at its business meeting on Sept. 3. If the board passes the resolution – and Richards says he’s confident it will – the HEA will have a second opportunity to win an election that will slate them as the exclusive representative of district staff.
“I feel very strongly that healthy organizations empower their staff to have self-determination,” Richards said. “I personally believe that in a city that is so supportive of collective bargaining, in a school board that has already stated its support and has a superintendent that supports it, I think we can do a really good job working with our employees here with this.”
AI task force update
The group tasked with determining how to deal with artificial intelligence in K-12 education will spend its next meeting in September focusing on how to best gather information and opinions from students, staff, families and community members.
“We want to make sure that we have a way in which we can grow our own internal generative AI protocols to help empower teachers to be more efficient in their work, to help students be creatively brainstorm, do all of those things, and also do it in such a way that the data still belongs to us,” said Deb Cook, director of school administration.
The task force, which Richards created in April, includes Cook; Kevin Perkins, director of technology; and school board members Emma Phillips and Deb Fitzgerald. It also includes several parents, teachers and administrators.
“[The task force] wanted to make sure that our teachers, staff, students and our community were aware that we are doing our due diligence to think critically about what is available and what makes sense in terms of protecting our students and our staff,” Cook said. “And also to make sure that we’re not sidestepping things that have already been put in place.”
Cook said she is aware it can be a touchy subject.
“We also know that people really are using it, and so we want to be able to think about what our responsibilities are,” Cook said. “Our responsibility is to make sure that we’re preparing students for whatever future they see for themselves, and to make sure that as many doors are open for them as possible.”
Cook added that she’s heard the common concerns that AI could eventually replace the work of humans, particularly in education spaces.
“There is no technology that’s ever going to replace that interpersonal connection between an adult and scholar,” Cook said. “It just doesn’t exist. So we want to assure our staff that regardless of the direction that we go with in terms of AI guidance generally, that they’re going to be central to the work, and that it’s simply going to be an opportunity or a tool for them to use, that it’s not going to be a replacement for their innate gifts.”
Richards said an official policy won’t be created just yet. Instead, the task force will aim to provide general guidance for students and staff.
“We don’t want to keep tools from students and teachers,” Richards said. “We just want to help them use them in a way that’s really judicious and makes sense for their development and for their work.”
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