Negotiations started on those issues March 23 on re-opened sections of the current three-year contract, which runs from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2017.
That contract included a provision to reopen negotiations for the second and third years on the issues of salary, insurance, evaluations, and expiring memorandums of understanding.
That agreement must be ratified by the teacher’s union and Lakota, which is the second largest school district in southwest Ohio and the eighth largest in the state,
The votes will be held, first by the union and then by the school board, “in the near future,” according to Lakota spokesman Randy Oppenheimer.
“It takes a while to get it scheduled,” he said. “There is no date set yet.”
LEA President Sharon May said the union is “still working on a timeline” to get the agreement ratified.
“As quickly as I can, I can tell you that,” she said. “We have to give enough notice and everything for people, so I’m not sure how long that’s going to take yet.”
May and Oppenheimer said no details of the tentative agreement would be released until both sides ratified the measure.
Labor costs constitute nearly four-fifths of Lakota’s estimated $145 million budget, according to district officials.
Lakota will be busy recruiting and hiring in the coming months to fill an estimated 100 teachers and support staff positions, some of them among the district’s most experienced, with highly-qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds.
Lakota’s teaching staff dropped 17.4 percent from 2010 to 2015, going from 1,117 employees to 923.
The district saw 32 retirees in 2012-2013 school year, 30 in 2012-2013, 29 in 2013-2014, statistics show.
The district is on pace to lose 100 teachers, slightly more than all three previous school years combined, and is now recruiting teachers to fill the vacant teachers and support staff positions.
The contract negotiations have come with some public demonstrations by teachers, including arrival and dismissal gatherings outside Lakota school on April 24, and a gathering of more than 40 teachers at an April 13 Lakota Board of Education meeting.
Teachers wore black and sat silently in the audience during the meeting to show their solidarity. The April 24 gathering found teachers at one school reading from a prepared statement that “it has become clear that Lakota needs a different perspective on our board of education” and directing them to refer to Constant Contact “for a notice about searching for supportive, positive community members who may be running as a candidate this November.”
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