GOOD NEWS, we have reached a tentative agreement. There will be a meeting held at the middle school at 4:00 on Thursday Feb 2, 2012 to go over the details. We would love to see all in attendance.
Thanks,
Kelly Leibfried, Dennis Lynn, Leslie O’Meara, Kelly JeremiansonGreetings Colleagues and Friends!
As
we enter the last couple months of 2012, your negotiations team is
working hard to bring a contract that is worthy of the work that you
produce for the wonderful students of Orono. This letter is to inform
you of our current status in negotiations and the steps that we are
taking to achieving an amicable settlement for both parties.
The negotiations team has met with the school board several times this
past fall. Our last meeting on January 12th, the Negotiations
Team (Kelly Leibfried, Dennis Lynn, Leslie O’Meara, and Kelly Jeremiason,)
was
ready to work on settling the contract. The School Board (Tom Stringer,
John Malone, Martha Van de Ven) were presented a fair proposal from our
team and rejected it. They will submitting a counter proposal and we
will have a meeting this Thursday, January 26th, 2012 to review and
discuss.
The meetings have neither been productive, nor have they been contentious. The Board has reiterated the state of the economy several times during our meetings, but they have also said it has a strong desire to remain competitive. As you are aware the district has been adding more programs and advanced courses, it is their desire to maintain current FTE levels and programs, the bottom line is that they don’t want to cut.
We have started our action committee and they are meeting to discuss what actions we may take in the future. They have held several meetings and conducted a survey to reviewed at our OEA staff meeting on January 23rd. From the survey they will determine what actions we may take in the near future.
The staff was informed on Monday January 23rd the status of our negotiations and questions were answered regarding their concerns.
Thank you for being great at your job! Your performance gives the
negotiators a leg up during contractual negotiations. You truly are the
best of the best, and deserve to be treated equitably among our
colleagues throughout the metropolitan area!
Yours truly,
Kelly Leibfried, Dennis Lynn, Leslie O’Meara, Kelly Jeremianson
Negotiations Team