BonnerSprings.com

Whether or not to apply for Race to the Top grant funds and how receiving those funds might affect teachers in the district is a bone of much contention between members of USD 204 and the Bonner Springs Kansas National Education Association.

USD 204 is looking to improve on its financial situation by applying for a portion of Race to the Top, a competitive grant program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that would allocate funds to those states exhibiting the most significant reforms in several specific educational areas in their school districts.

But though the district could receive a large portion of the more than $4 billion grant, the local teacher’s union isn’t so sure receiving the grant would benefit teachers.

To apply for the funds, each district was asked to submit a memorandum of understanding signed by that district’s superintendent, school board president and the teacher’s union president, signifying their collective support of the program. During Monday night’s Board of Education meeting, superintendent Robert Van Maren said the memorandum had been submitted without the signature of Deb Loker, president of the Bonner Springs KNEA.

Loker, who was contacted following the meeting, said her refusal to sign was based on the fact that the guidelines of the Race to the Top program don’t protect the rights of the teachers.

“Signing that would give up the protection of tenured teachers,” Loker said.

Loker said the guidelines regarding how teachers would be affected were too vague, and receiving the grant could possibly take away the possibility of tenure for teachers and could implement a merit pay system, where teachers wouldn’t be eligible to receive their yearly step increase. She said class size could also be directly affected.

“We’re really worried about class size,” Loker said. “What kind of class sizes are we going to have around here?”

According to the U.S. Department of Education Web site, all three signatures on the memorandum aren’t required, but Van Maren said not having Loker’s signature would be detrimental to the district’s ability to receive any funding.

“The federal mandate as it is written indicates without a signature from all parties, we would not be eligible for Race to the Top funding,” Van Maren said.

Loker said her refusal wasn’t only based on the lack of teacher protection, however. The board and Bonner Springs KNEA, at an impasse in contractual negotiations since August, recently settled on a contract that would allow for such items as an additional $15 to be paid by the district for each staff member’s healthcare, but no step increase for teachers across the board. Loker said the settled contract allowed for those teachers holding master’s degrees to receive education-based step increases.

She said Bonner Springs KNEA finally settled with the board, not because it was happy with the terms, but because there was no other choice. A step increase, she said, is important for a teacher’s ability to receive tenure and a solid retirement package through Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, which is based on a teacher’s three top-paying years.

“We hit a stone wall with (the board members), they didn’t move, so in order to expedite the school year and at least get something for a few teachers, we chose to settle,” Loker said.

Both board president Gregg Gibson and Van Maren said the lack of a step increase in the contract was simply based on a lack of funds. The district doesn’t have any money, they say, to allow for raises of any kind.

Loker said despite the settlement, the relationship between Bonner Springs KNEA and the board was not where it needed to be, which was why she was advised by the Kansas National Education Association not to sign the memorandum of agreement.

Ollie Carroll, UniServ director for Wyandotte United, said that KNEA had advised all union presidents in Wyandotte County having good relationships with their districts to go forward with signing the memorandum, because that situation would allow for a good flow of communication should any issues arise regarding where teachers will stand if the grant money comes through. She said a good relationship before moving forward with applying for Race to the Top was essential.

“Bottom line, we’d like to have a better relationship with the district, and we’re trying to do things to move that forward … and we don’t want to do it through this Race to the Top,” Carroll said. “We think the members can be better served if we can (improve relations) outside of (Race to the Top).”

Gibson said if the state of Kansas were chosen to receive Race to the Top funds, the board would be willing to “engage in good faith discussions,” as he said, with the union to establish an advantageous situation for both parties. He said the benefits of receiving the funding far outweighed any conflict between USD 204 and the teacher’s union.

“No matter what the current relationship is between the district and Bonner Springs KNEA, I was disappointed in Ms. Loker’s dismissive position regarding our attempts to at least put our district’s name in the pool at this time,” Gibson said in an e-mail. “I truly hope that it does not hurt the state’s chances of receiving some $60 million in federal Race to the Top funds and, in turn, hurt this district’s chances of receiving a portion of those funds.”

Losing out on the funds, Van Maren said, would signal a continuation of the budgetary downward spiral seen in 2009.

“Unfortunately without this option and potential funding, we are most likely looking at further cuts and reduction in staff,” Van Maren said in an e-mail.

Van Maren said eight to 10 states would be named to receive Race to the Top funding, with this announcement expected to come sometime in January. If the state of Kansas is named, Van Maren said, the district would be allowed 90 days to achieve all three signatures.

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