During a meeting between representatives from the Madison County School District and representatives from the Madison County Education Association-the local teacher’s union- on Wednesday, July 19, an emergency meeting was called in order to address the shortage of teachers at Madison County Central School. The Madison County School District has money available to provide incentives to qualified teachers to teach at MCCS. However, before those incentives could be offered, a new agreement must be reached between the District and the teacher’s union.
Although meetings of this nature are open to the public, representatives from the Madison County Education Association questioned why a reporter from Greene Publishing, Inc. was present at the meeting. Because of the urgency of the meeting and out of a desire to avoid being a stumbling block to the proceedings, the reporter agreed to leave the meeting.
The result of the meeting was a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the District School Board of Madison County and the Madison County Education Association. The new MOU has four components. They are:
There is a dire need to fill instructional vacancies at Madison County Central School.
The Madison County School Board has funds that are allowed to be utilized for teacher recruitment. The parties agree that for (MCCS), each new hire probationary teacher shall receive a $7,500 sign on bonus for “Highly Effective [teachers] and $5,000 for “Effective” [teachers] based on the teacher’s 2016-2017 VAM scores and/or evidence of student performance. This amount will not be added to their base pay. Any recruitment bonus will be equally divided and paid in Dec. 2017 and the last paycheck in June 2018 (provided all requirements of the current contract are met). The parties agree that the sign-on bonus is only for the 2017-2018 school year.
If a newly hired teacher has previously retired and returns to the District or is hired by the District, the teacher will be placed on Step 10 on the placement schedule. [The] Article VIII “Working Conditions Section” will be suspended for the 2017-2018 school year or until the parties bargain language addressing the placement of newly hired retired teachers.
All teachers previously entering Madison County with prior years of creditable teaching and losing service due to the “Instructional Personnel Experience Conversion Table” will receive a one-time increase of two “Salary Level Steps” above their current level (as of July 1, 2017), to be paid in the Jan. 2018 paycheck. In return, the “Instructional Personnel Conversion Table” will be set aside forever.
The Madison County School Board approved this new MOU during their meeting on Tuesday, Aug.1.
Because of these new incentives the District was able to fill 10 of the vacancies at MCCS. The two remaining vacancies (both fifth grade) will be filled by transferring teachers from within the District. Volunteers have been requested. However, if no teachers volunteer, involuntary transfers will be implemented.
It is crucial that MCCS improve their grade this year. If the school does not receive at least a “C” grade, it will either be closed or it will be taken over by an outside charter school company.