By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — USD 308 Executive Director of Human Resources Dawn Johnson explained that, though the paperwork has been filed to allow a mediator to work with the district and its teachers, that hasn't happened yet.
"We just submitted our impasse paperwork, that goes to the Department of Labor," Johnson said. "They will get that and then they will assign a mediator from the state. Once the mediator is assigned, the paperwork that gets submitted has our contact information. They'll reach out to both sides and we'll start working through them to coordinate a date."
Johnson sees the union and the district on pay as not being that far apart.
"In the salary schedule that the Board of Education put together, it was giving a raw number in each one of those cells," Johnson said. "The salary schedule that the HNEA put together put a percentage in each one of those cells. It really is just philosophical. The numbers are almost the same, they are very similar. It comes down to philosophical differences on whether percentages should be used to calculate that increase, or a raw number should be used to calculate that increase."
All the districts teachers are under a continuing contract, they will just get back pay for whatever the difference is once the negotiation is worked out.
"The mediator goes back and forth between the two rooms," Johnson said. "They'll come in, we'll start, we'll go as long as we can. It may very well be that it happens in one day. I believe the goal is to go into mediation and at the end of that day, we have a plan ironed out before we leave for that day."
The date for the negotiation with the mediator has not been set yet. The official count date for the purposes of school funding in the district is coming up September 20.