A message from the School Board
Reasonable and sustainable employee contracts
March 2, 2020 -- One of our goals this year has been the timely completion of fiscally responsible contracts for our six employee groups. However, contract negotiations with the SEIU-represented paraprofessional union remain stalled after eight months. This is unfortunate.
To date, Mounds View Public Schools has successfully negotiated contracts with each of its other five employee bargaining groups -- including two other SEIU-led groups. Each of the bargaining groups found common ground with the District, thanks to reasonable expectations on both sides of the negotiation table. Ultimately, each contract was settled with salary increases ranging from 1.5% to 2%.
The SEIU-represented para union chose to not consider terms similar to the other settled contracts. That made it clear that this group intended to remain an outlier from the other five employee groups. Therefore, the District entered into mediation with the paraprofessional union, hoping that an independent mediator could promptly navigate a solution. Unfortunately that has not been the case. Our last session was on January 30. Since then, we have been waiting to return to negotiate because the para union chose to schedule the next mediation session for March 31. During this time of waiting for the paras to negotiate, the para union has approved a strike authorization vote.