The September meeting of the HTH Board has been rescheduled for Monday, September 12, at noon. Unfortunately, this makes it inaccessible to staff and many families. If you are able to, please attend the board meeting via Zoom, to listen or to speak up in support of fairness, transparency, and accountability in bargaining. The Board makes the final decisions that impact our schools, and we believe that it is extremely important that the community can participate.

Our teachers and other certificated staff have been bargaining since January, working toward our first union contract that represents our High Standards for High Tech. We’ve accomplished a lot at the bargaining table, including reaching agreements on many things that will positively impact our schools: limits on class sizes and caseloads to protect PBL, a more equitable pay scale to help retain & attract experienced and highly qualified staff, guaranteed prep periods and lunch breaks and other protections to help prevent burnout, and a transparent evaluation process, so that teachers receive the support they need and ensuring high quality teachers who best serve our students.

However, without a final agreement from the CMO, those achievements are only on paper until we come to an agreement.
 

Currently, there are small but important sticking points preventing an agreement. You can see more bargaining details here in the bargaining updates we have been sending, but one major difference between the union and administration is the grievance process in cases of wrongful termination. Administration maintains that the CEO should make the final decision on whether or not a termination was justified. We counter that this is a conflict of interest, especially considering a recent example where a union organizer was fired personally by the CEO. The idea of a teacher bringing a grievance directly to the person who fired them is a clear example to us that a neutral third party is needed in the rare cases of unjust termination. As a result, we cannot reach a final agreement yet and may even be headed toward impasse.

We know this is all new territory for our schools, and hope to answer questions and hear your thoughts at our community meeting. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

In Solidarity,

The High Tech Education Collective