Aurora Education Association

Mediation Scheduled for AEA & APS

Posted 6.15.11

Next Monday and Tuesday, June 20-21, members of the AEA and APS bargaining teams will engage in mediation to resolve issues from the 2010-2011 round of negotiations. Mediation will be held at the CHSAA building located at 14855 East 2nd Ave.

You will remember this year was a full contract year, meaning that every article of the contract was eligible to be open, reviewed and changes negotiated. The teams have negotiated quite a number of articles and have reached Tentative Agreement (TA) on several of them. These TA’s are available for review by going to the AEA website, and clicking on the negotiations link.

In May, after several months of negotiations, AEA declared impasse as it was apparent that we would not be able to move forward on the remaining interests in regular negotiations. A request for impasse calls for a mediation process, which we will engage in next Monday and Tuesday. AEA and the District have used mediation several times in past negotiations. Mediation is different from negotiations in that we will have a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service mediating the process in order for the teams to arrive at resolution to the articles still on the table.

The remaining articles to be negotiated in mediation include compensation, teaching and learning conditions, and association rights. While the budget situation is still difficult, it is more favorable than it was earlier this year. Also, the resolution of the HS 6th period arbitration issue has enabled the reinstatement of potential furlough days, so furlough days will not need to be negotiated.

Specific to compensation, the District is still holding to its position of freezing both steps and lanes on the salary schedule. While other District’s are freezing salary steps this year, most metro districts are funding educational lanes. AEA recognizes that any freeze can have long term earnings implications, especially for newer teachers.

We are optimistic that we will be able to successfully address contract interests in mediation and have a full contract TA to communicate to members soon after June 21st. Please look for our next communication after the 21st which will provide specifics on the results of mediation as well as contract ratification information.

AEA Negotiations Team: Micki Amick, Carla Burneson, Brenna Isaacs, Frank O’Hara, Amy Nichols, Vicki Reinhard, Patrick Sandt, Milton Stillwell. 6.14.11