Fear. Dread. Anxiety.
Those are some of the emotions the head of the St. Tammany Parish teachers union says educators on the Northshore are feeling after the school board last week voted to terminate its collective bargaining agreement with the union. However, he and the schools superintendent told WWL's Newell Normand that they are making strides in reaching a new deal.
"We're fighting for our employees and public education as a whole," Brant Osborn, president of the St. Tammany Federation of Teachers and School Employees, said, acknowledging the need for a new CBA. "This is an old document. We inherited it. It was negotiated by interim folks. We're going to get it right."
St. Tammany Parish schools superintendent Frank Jabbia says the school board felt now is the right time to hit the reset button and to create an agreement that reflects how the district operates.
"It's more about getting the language and the contractual language right to where it's a transparent document and it reflects state law and what we do in St. Tammany," Jabbia said. "It's a great opportunity to get it right and do it together and work together to do this."
Both Jabbia and Osborn say they are working cordially to draft a new CBA.
"We're working with a federal mediation and conciliation services--a guy from Alabama, a straight shooter. He's there for both sides to help us," Osborn said. "You can't do it in a way that's scorched earth. We broke ground, and now we're trying to plant seeds. There's a lot of fear, dread, and anxiety, and Frank and I are trying to alleviate that."
Jabbia reiterated that his two priorities are to do right by the district's students and to make sure the CBA is in compliance with state law.
"It's getting the verbiage correct that mirrors state law because we have to follow Act 1, and that document was never updated," Jabbia said, referring to the 2012 education reform package approved by lawmakers and signed into law by then-Governor Bobby Jindal.
