Schools, teachers at impasse

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Jay School Board members had hoped to approve a new contract with the Jay Classroom Teachers Association at a special meeting this morning.

That did not happen.

Today’s meeting was canceled after negotiating teams for the teachers’ union and the school corporation failed to reach an agreement Tuesday night.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t come to an agreement, but I remain hopeful,” Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley said this morning.

Negotiations were operating in a 60-day window to reach an agreement, but that window expired today.

Now the two parties enter a 30-day window known as impasse, during which a mediator from the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board will come in to help resolve remaining differences. If the mediator is unsuccessful in bringing the two sides together, then negotiations enter what is known as the fact-finding stage.

Jay Schools and the JCTA went through fact-finding in 2013 and even that process ended up being contested in the courts. It was finally resolved by the Indiana Supreme Court in July 2016.

The teachers’ contract expired with the end of the 2016-17 school year. Teachers are currently operating on a status quo basis under the terms of last year’s contract.

Gulley noted that the school corporation continues to face fiscal challenges as a result of declining enrollment. Thirty percent of Indiana’s school districts will be dealing with less revenue in the year ahead, said Gulley.

“And we’re in that,” he said.

Both sides, he said, are interested in having “a good, fiscally sound school district that is also able to attract and retain quality teachers.”

“We’re still working to achieve the right balance,” said Gulley.