LEES CREEK — Members of two unions have ratified three-year collective bargaining agreements with the East Clinton Local Schools District, both including the same percent increases in base pay.
The school district negotiated with the East Clinton Education Association which is comprised of teachers, and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees which is comprised of the district’s transportation and food service employees.
During the three-year agreements, the yearly amounts of the base increases for both groups chronologically will be 3 percent, then 2.5 percent, and lastly 2 percent.
The negotiated agreements also revise the district’s calendar schedule.
“As part of the negotiations, there was conversation about the Professional Development (PD) time, and how that can be beneficial for teachers and the district as we move forward,” East Clinton Supt. Eric Magee said at Monday’s meeting of the board of education.
Basically, a majority of the one-hour early releases taking place every Friday has disappeared. Doing that enables the district to add a Professional Development day at the end of each quarter which, said Magee, was an ‘ask’ from the teachers union.
There will still be some early-release Fridays next school year. They are scheduled intermittently, occurring especially during the first part of the academic year.
For the PD day at the end of each quarter, half the day will be directed by the district, and the other half directed by teachers. So, for example, teachers may use their allotted time to finalize grades at the end of the grading period.
Both collective bargaining agreements will go into effect July 1 and remain in force through the month of June 2025.
At the Monday meeting, school board members approved a revamped elementary report card that will be ready to go this fall.
As previously reported, East Clinton educators have been looking at their elementary report card format and content. The process has involved a teacher committee at both of the district’s two elementaries conducting staff and parent surveys.
Sabina Elementary Principal Matt Willian said the main change will be the use of the more familiar A, B, C, D, F markings for evaluating learning outcomes rather than S+ and N and the like.
Something that has not changed, though, is the goal of the report card — to show the student’s level of mastery in a subject. A standards-based report card, whether it uses the familiar A, B and C markings or not, is supposed to capture and show the child’s progression toward achieving mastery of the various standards.
In other words, as Willian put it, what’s getting reported on the report card is not an average of a student’s performances from beginning to end of a grading period, but rather the extent of his or her mastery of the academic standards by the end of the quarter.
He reported that among the elementary teachers, 32 of 35 staffers approve the new report card format.
In the first couple weeks of school this year, Willian expects a “Curriculum Night” will be held to inform elementary parents what they can expect to see in the new report card.
The date for the board’s July monthly meeting has been changed to 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 27 at the high school media center.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
