001board public meeting for Thursday, November 6th to order. May we stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. >> Next. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> To confirm, we have a legal meeting with quorum. May we have roll call, please? >> Mr. Michael S, >> present. >> Dr. Denita Wood. >> Attorney Shantree Earth. >> Yes. >> Attorney Angela. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Glenn Johnson present. >> With four members present. We have forum. That's a legal meeting. Item number two on our agenda, public comments. I see two signatures, but both indicate they're not speaking. Is that correct? >> Right. >> So, we will move on to item
002three on our agenda, discussion of the terms for the teacher collective bargaining agreement. Miss Spikovich. >> Thank you. esteemed board members, Dr. Stokes and community who may be watching at large. I am excited to come before you today to be in line with Indiana code 20-29-6-9 whereas we are coming together to discuss the terms of the tenative agreement of the teacher collective bargaining agreement which is also posted on our website. This is not an action item, but a discussion of the terms proposed in the tentative agreement between the board and the uh Gary Community School Corporation administration. Final action on the teacher collective bargaining agreement will take place at the next regularly scheduled board meeting set for Thursday, November 13th, 2025, wherein public comments will also be taken at that time. Uh, I'm going to
003call to your attention the actual tenative agreement that was provided to you and again is posted on our website. It is a two-year contract with a reopener for wages in only. Uh, the 2025 2026 starting base salary has been adjusted to be $51,884. The compensation plan in general also instills an eligibility criteria for increases in the 2526 salary to have a $1,000 increase to base salary for um an academic needs, a $500 increase, a $500 increase to base salary for each eligible teacher rated highly effective. And for instructional leadership, teachers who obtain the literacy endorsement on or before January 31st of 2026 will receive an increase of $250 to base. >> And I want to pause um the is the rated effective or highly effective? >> I apologize. Yes, the um salary increase for the
004evaluation would be for teachers who have an effective rating or a highly effective rating for their teacher evaluation. Thank you for that clarification. We also have agreed to an attendance stipen that every teacher who misses zero days per quarter will receive a stipend of $300. If a teacher misses one day per quarter, he or she will receive a stipend of $200. We have agreed to uh delete redistribution language redistribution language. We uh also agreed for supplemental payments to be distributed in both December and in May of $500. There is a caveat that the teacher must work for the Gary Community School Corporation for a minimum of 120 school days as of November 14th, 2025 to receive the December 12th, 2025 stipen and must work 120 school days as of May 1st, 2026 to receive the
005May 20th, 2026 stipen. And for both of these, they must be an employee of the Gary Community School Corporation at the time of the siphon distribution. The general cleanup of language and dates was also discussed for the previous and now expired 23 to 25 uh collective bargaining agreement. The revisions to the ECAs included the addition of a girls wrestling coach for $4,500 for the head coaching position, $2,000 for the assistant coaching position. We want to make that noted that this is the same siphon allocation for the girls wrestling position that is in line for the boys wrestling position. We also have added a flag football siphon or extracurricular extracurricular assignment for $2,000. That is a girls only sport. We also added esports for $1,500 for a high school position and $1,000 for a middle school
006position. There were deletions to the ECAs for positions that had not been filled for quite some time. Those included the media club with the assistant, soccer, pep booster club, elementary coral director, band and orchestra assistant director, and that is at both the middle and the high schools. Changes to bereavement policy included that we would honor five days, five working days to be honored for bereavement in the event that uh an immediate family member was lost. and that those five days would be used within 30 days of the loss deletion of the rest um but the same language for the definition of an immediate family member. In addition, because we have moved to block scheduling at our middle school and high schools, requiring longer class times, the language uh regarding what was used to be called
007seventh period prep or seventh uh seventh period prep for an additional stipend is now going to be called a plan period stipend. And for the middle school and high schools only, those will be now $50 per class period. The elementary will remain the same at $37.50 50 cents per class period. We also identified an increase to the top salary range to $83,200. And uh we also discussed that the new employees that will be hired from the date of the ratification of this collective bargaining agreement forward. A teacher without a professional teaching license, examples include emergency permits, alternate permits, transition to teaching permits, or transition to teaching licenses. Those salaries will start at $49,000 and employees will not be eligible for an increase to base salary until the employee obtains his or her professional teaching license.
008Uh lastly, what was on the table for discussion and withdrawn was some cleanup regarding ECA language and holiday break language. If there are any questions, I'm available for those at this time. >> Thank you. uh the attendance. >> Oh, the attendance is that every quarter? >> Yes, sir. >> So, um Dr. Stokes would like me to explain why. One of the things that we've recognized is that we do expend resources, money for coverage through substitute teachers, as well as when we have a high absence for a particular day and we don't have enough subs. The language that speaks to that planning period coverage where we're paying teachers additional money to cover when there is a teacher absent. What we're hoping that this does is support um an incentive for teachers to not utilize their benefit
009days that are that are definitely allocated to them to use, but it gives them an incentive to not use those benefit days because then they will be able to receive that money um for themselves because we're not paying for anyone else to cover their classroom. Um so it's not something that would cost the the district per se additional money. It's not going to affect our budget. Um and it will provide teachers an opportunity to earn additional money. >> Just one more question. Um the stipens that have been added for the flag football, the esports and the girls wrestling. >> Yes, sir. >> Um those stipens are payable at the beginning of the sport or after the sport is over, the season is over. So any extracurricular activity is definitely going to be there's a schedule
010for each one and each sport a winter sport and so depending on when that sport or extracurricular activity is in session then those stipens are paid out according to the overall schedule for those sports. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> [snorts] >> I'll move on to item number four on our agenda. A motion to adjurnn. So move. >> There's a second. Second. >> Been moved and properly second. All in favor say I. I. The >> meeting is the meeting is adjourned. Thank you for your attendance.