By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — USD 308's new Executive Director of Human Resources, Dr. Dawn Johnson is pleased with the progress of negotiations between the school district and its teachers for the fall.
"Before Rick Kraus left, he did a lot of great work with changing language and cleaning up the negotiated agreement so that both sides could kind of have some changes that they wanted to make, as far as language goes," Johnson said. "I think we're down to hours and amounts of work and salaries is where we're at."
Johnson said she's been able to pay attention to the negotiations because they are available online.
"I've met with the negotiating team on the teacher side," Johnson said. "I think that we're both in agreement that we're working very hard to make this a win-win situation. I'm looking forward to it."
Johnson expects a final agreement to be reached in either August or September.
"You can start school without having negotiations completed," Johnson said. "Teachers are on a continuing contract. When negotiations are settled, contracts will just be renewed at that point or changed."
Generally speaking, districts and teachers like to see the enrollment numbers on September 20 before officially signing on the dotted line.