ACPS School Board Set to Introduce Collective Bargaining Resolution Draft

After gaining positive press for responding to the EAA's affidavit formally asking the School Board for collective bargaining, the ACPS School Board is slated to release a controversial collective bargaining resolution draft on Thursday, February 22 this week.

The draft was first introduced to the School Board's collective bargaining committee on January 25th and was immediately met with ire from members of the EAA and VEA. The majority of the criticism in the draft center on three topics:

1.) The exclusion of administrative employees from collective bargaining.

2.) The limitation of collective bargaining topics to 4 during the initial collective bargaining agreement, and only including 2 new topics during subsequent CBAs.

3.) An election participation threshold of 30% of ACPS employees to certify an election of an exclusive bargaining agent.

With that said, numerous educators also lambasted clauses in the draft which, as they said, gave the School Board the ability to ignore a negotiated CBA, given certain conditions. A more detailed breakdown of these clauses can be found in our article detailing them here.

The controversy took on another layer when it was discovered that ACPS had hired the services of an anti-labor law firm, Isler Dare. The same Isler Dare who were embroiled in a collective bargaining controversy in Loudoun County when their collective bargaining resolution draft was introduced.

Time will tell whether the ACPS School Board decides to address these controversies, but the best way to make sure our leaders know they need to change the draft is by showing up to the school board meetings on February 22nd and 29th at 6:30 PM at the School Boards Meeting Room.

We hope to see you there!

-Alex's Pen

REFERENCES

1.) Collective Bargaining Drafts Comparison and Analysis (alexspen.com)

2.) EAA & VEA Express Major Concerns About Current Collective Bargaining Resolution Draft (alexspen.com)

3.) It could be two years before ACPS comes to a collective bargaining agreement, says Superintendent | ALXnow