The Newport-Mesa Unified School District and its teachers unions began negotiations for next year’s contract on Tuesday, presenting their initial proposals to the public during the district board’s regular meeting.
The district proposed that the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers fully reimburse the district for the 2nd FTE federation release time. The district currently contributes $53,210 to fund a portion of that time.
The district recommended maintaining the salary schedule and hourly rates and updating the language to provide for salary advancement. The school district also suggested a new article in the contract that clarifies management rights.
The Newport-Mesa federation also proposed to maintain the current salary schedule. The federation stated they would make a proposal regarding benefits after considering the Employee Benefit Committee’s recommendations.
The Newport-Mesa union also recommended eliminating the Impartial Hearing Panel step in the grievance procedure and add binding arbitration as the final step.
The joint initial proposal between NMUSD and California School Employees Association, Chapter 18 included updating language and reviewing several of the articles, including reviewing and discussing interests for the grievance procedure in advisory versus binding arbitration.
The current agreement ends June 30.
Also during the meeting, the board approved a three year, $94,488 contract for anti-virus software for the district. This is a renewal contract with the same company, for the same product as was approved in April 2009.
The agreement with Secure Content Solutions Inc. is for the current school year, and the 2012-13 and 2013-14 years.
The funds will be budgeted for $31,496 per fiscal year from the Information Technology Department.
The Sophos software is used to “centrally control and manage the scanning filtering, disinfection, quarantining or disabling of viruses, malware or other unauthorized applications on district desktops, laptops, email servers and web servers,” according to the report.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda was an agreement with Global E-Recyclers for recycling the district’s e-waste.
The board approved the contract, effective immediately and ending June 30 of next year.
The company has been the district’s e-waste vendor on a trial basis for the past two years for “obsolete items returned to the District Warehouse,” according to the report.
Global E-Recyclers will pay to collect, recycle and dispose of the district’s electronic waste. During the 2010-11 school year, the company paid the district $7,500. There is no collection fee.
The price guarantee for the agreement is $0.20 per pound for TV monitors, $0.23 per pound for CPU’s (LCD’s Laptops) and $0.01 per pound for other e-waste.
