Bargaining update Feb., 2020

January 28, 2020: Todd Watkins gave his budget report to the Board of Trustees. His report can be found in the Board's Work Session Agenda dated 1/28/20 or go here:

https://helenaschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1.28.2020-Board-Work-Session-Packet-Ray-Bjork-1.28.20.pdf

His report is the last six pages and his recommendations are on the last two pages. One Trustee asked if the budget problems were the effect of the teachers' salary scale, or the loss of students to East Helena--Todd didn't know the answer to this question.

January 30, 2020: Budget Summit. We had two parts to our conversation: one a report by Business Manager Janelle Mickelson that showed us enrollment projections and how these are estimated; the other a report by Human Resource Director Stacy Collette about staffing numbers and costs that come out of the general fund. We learned a lot that day, but felt we needed more information as we move forward. We do know that we will have a reduction in POSITIONS at the high school level, but what and how many those positions are has not been determined.

February 6, 2020: The HEA bargaining team sent an email asking for further information so that we can dig in and analyze numbers. 1) Raw data on all certified teacher salaries; 2) the same information on all employee groups; 3) class size for every current class being offered at the high school, middle school land elementary level.; 4) historical staffing levels; and 5) accreditation reports. We believe that with this information we may be able to have a truly clear picture of enrollment, staffing and budget historically and going forward.

Next meeting with the whole team will be on February 26. We may be meeting as an HEA team when we get the information from the district so that we can start to look at those numbers.

Questions? Don't hesitate to call or email me.

Jane