Budgets, Collective Bargaining, and Safety: A Summary of the February 22 School Board Meeting

This article summarizes the events of the February 22, 2024 Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) School Board meeting. If you would like to watch the video for the meeting you can find it here (1).

In a well-received move the ACPS school board voted to approve their proposed FY2025 Budget during their February 22, 2024 School Board meeting.

However, the process was not without its controversy. Even though the budget passed, it did so with a 7-2 vote, a break in the ACPS tradition of budgets passing with unanimous votes.

During her comments Board Member Alderton explained why she would be voting no, centering her comments on her perceived difficulty of defending the budget. Citing the new ask of an additional 8.1% to the budget Alderton stated that because she knew what it was like to live on an ACPS salary that she did not think that simple dollars would solve our problems, instead citing working conditions as where we should be focusing our efforts. She further explained that we should also be lobbying the state to revise the how they budget for education due to their flawed appropriation algorithms. Moreover, Alderton expressed concern that this budget has been birthed out of a more contentious than normal process, lobbying for systemic change in how we engage in this process. Superintendent Melanie Kay Wyatt also expressed concern at the possibility of "culture impacts" if staff members of 5+ years of service got a restorative step instead of all employees. School Board Member Abdel Elnoubi expertly pointed out that the reasoning behind this restorative step was to address the loyalty penalty many ACPS employees have been subjected to over the years. Ultimately, after the lively discussion, the proposed budget passed 7-2 with Members Alderton and Harris voting against. At the discussion's conclusion the school board moved onto their Safety & Security update which stated that ACPS faced 213 security instances in the first 2 Quarters of the 2023-24 school year. This was in addition to 31 arrests or referrals, with the majority of those instances being concentrated in ACPS' middle schools: George Washington and F.C. Hammond; promoting the School Board to pursue further information on the troubling trend.

ACPS Central Office also claimed that these numbers represent a decrease in activity from the previous semester, but failed to provide numbers which compared current figures to those in previous years at the same time. Board Member Kelly Booze pointed out this lack of data, expressing worry over the increase in incidents this year as compared to last year at the same time. Following Booze's comments, the meeting moved to a discussion about the weapons abatement pilot program, generating a spicy moment between member's Elnoubi and Harris. While citing the drop in weapons being found in ACPS schools Elnoubi expressed a desire to explore other metrics for success so we can better define what "success was." This prompted Member Harris to express frustration that, despite the perceived success of the pilot program, that supervisors were "poking holes" and trying to dictate matters of day-to-day policy too much, which is in contradiction to the general populations perception that ACPS' Central Office does not have enough oversight. Elnoubi fired back that he was voted to do his job and that an ask for other metrics of success does not constitute "poking holes" in a program which has delivered promising initial data.

Luckily, the contentious moment quickly passed as the Board heard from the CTE and Workforce Development Department. The Department delivered good news in saying that we have been seeing an increase in the number of students finding success in CTE curriculums. The presenters also claimed that we should see this positive trend continue with the rolling out of the high school's academy structure due to the inclusion of CTE/Workforce development class in all academies like Hospitality & Tourism in the Business & Government Academy or Photography in the Arts Academy. Then came, from the educator's perspective, the main event of the evening. The unveiling of ACPS' Collective Bargaining Resolution Draft. The fireworks over the CBR draft actually began at the beginning of the meeting when numerous educators, including a high ranking member of the National Education Association, stated their extreme displeasure in the CBR draft as it is written. Delivering the presentation on the draft was Isler Dare attorney Steven Ray who quickly moved through the document, with the exclusion of numerous taking center stage. For example, while Mr. Ray acknowledged the 30% voter participation threshold to certify the election for ACPS employees' exclusive bargaining agent, he did not mention controversial clauses like the policy clause, which allows the Board to shut negotiations on matters related to policy, the lack of an evergreen clause, the nullification of a collective bargaining agreement if too much time passes, or the fact that the union would need to seek supervisor approval to meet with the people they are supposed to represent. Instead School Board members needed to specifically ask about these clauses to get the information out of Mr. Ray. For example, Member Elnoubi asked about the emergency clause which, as it is currently written, gives the School Board the ability to ignore a CBA in the event of an emergency. Mr. Ray did acknowledge that other districts have written specific rules into their resolutions to address issues such as the one brought up be Elnoubi. Ultimately, the presentation given by Mr. Ray did not do anything to address employee's concerns about the CBR as it is written. Therefore, ACPS employees and community members will need to attend the School Board's public hearing on collective bargaining on February 29, 2024 at 6:30 PM to show the Board they must rewrite their draft to take into account their employee's needs. We hope to see you there!

-Alex's Pen REFERENCES

1.) Feb 22, 2024 School Board - Alexandria City Public Schools, VA (swagit.com)