Wentzville teachers plead for constitutional rights

March 2, 2008
Wentzville, MO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was standing room only at last Wednesday’s school board meeting when Wentzville National Education Association President, Scott Kiehl, presented the Wentzville School Board with over 500 authorization cards signed by district teachers asking for a representation election for the purposes of collective bargaining.

In May 2007, the Supreme Court of Missouri reversed the decision to deny public employees the right to collectively bargain (Independence-National Education Association v. Independence School District). The new decision makes collective bargaining a constitutional right for public employees, including teachers. See the Missouri Constitution Article I Section 29.

According to W-NEA records, in Dec. 2007 the W-NEA asked the district for an election for representation to start collective bargaining. The district’s response was to take this issue to negotiations. At the Feb. 19 negotiations meeting, the district team refused to discuss the issue. After this meeting, a letter from Wentzville Superintendent Terry Adams was sent to the W-NEA stating that the district would like to negotiate the representation issue.

At the school board meeting last Wednesday, Kiehl said, “Tonight, I ask you to vote in open session to grant us our rights.” The school board ignored his request.

Kiehl told sccworlds.com “We would rather work with the board and administration, but we are not pulling anything off the table.”

After Kiehl’s presentation to the board members, teachers took turns speaking in open forum session. One common plea was for teachers to have open communication with the School Board instead of through the Facility Advisory Council, a group specifically selected by the Superintendent. See Wentzville School District’s Policies and Regulations--policies 4910 and 4911.

Present at the school board meeting was the attorney who represented the Independence School District and was defeated last May. Kiehl said that the attorney sat through Wentzville’s two-hour board meeting with no input and that he had been present during the day as well. Superintendent Adams was unavailable for comment.

“Teachers do, in fact, have the right to collective bargaining,” Kiehl said.

 The next negotiation meeting is set for Mar. 3.

 

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