The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - Waitsburg's school board, at their Nov. 12, 2014 meeting, approved a collective bargaining agreement between the Waitsburg School District and the Waitsburg Education Association. The agreement, which was to be signed and posted on the District's website on Nov. 17, enumerates the rights of both the district and the association with respect to wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment.

According to Waitsburg Education Association Co-president Jim Leid, Waitsburg was one of only two or three schools in the state without such an agreement. He said that Waitsburg teachers have been part of the Washington Education Association for years but, while they were protected under that group's general policy, Waitsburg had never contracted to become their own bargaining unit. "We just did what they told us to do," said Leid.

"In the past, the District and Waitsburg Education Association had a unique professional relationship of cooperation through an open door policy of ongoing communication," said District superintendent Dr. Carol Clarke. "However, last fall, the certificated staff took a representation vote for the purpose of developing a more formal relationship around a master contract."

Leid said that negotiating the 29-page master contract was a time-consuming and arduous process. The initial formal representation petition was filed with the State of Washington in August 2013.

Leid also said he is aware of at least two previous attempts to negotiate a master contract - one as far back as 1969 - but in each attempt, the process was never finalized.

Leid said that he, along with teacher Sarah Reser and WEA representative Jim Gow, represented the certificated staff, while Clarke, high school principal Stephanie Wooderchak and Walla Walla School District superintendent (and former Prescott School District superintendent) Bill Jordan negotiated for the District. Pam Beasley serves as co-president of the local association with Leid.

"This gives us a voice - it lets us be a part of the whole picture," said Leid.

For example, he said, the new master contract requires ten days advance notice as well as two days per diem compensation for teachers who are involuntarily transferred or reassigned, as in the case of the four high school teachers who were required to teach classes at Preston Hall this year due to necessary classroom restructuring.

Leid says the teachers are optimistic about the formal agreement. "We have needed something like this to protect ourselves," he said. "We wanted a voice in what is happening and how it happens and now we have one."