Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president spoke to the Board of Education regarding teacher representation. 3.4.2014

Comments to the BOE/March 4, 2014

Good evening, Members of the Board, Dr. Ridder, Members of the Cabinet.

I’m Kittilu Maxson, a 4^th grade teacher, on leave from the classroom and now serving as president of Springfield NEA. I am proud to represent the teachers, school nurses and clerical employees of this district.

As you know, as early as Sept. 1^st, 2013, SNEA issued a request to this board to be involved in the interview process for selection of a new superintendent. You may also know that we issued objections to the “blended” process that was presented to us by this board’s leadership. The process was confusing and has proven to be untimely. While I know from speaking with Dr. Jungmann yesterday, that an excellent candidate has been selected, teacher “input”- and representation for that “input”- was determined exclusively by this board’s leadership.

Many of you may remember that when teachers, counselors and librarians elected a representative a few years ago, we used a process that was clearly outlined in policies that this board had approved.

SNEA did not agree with some aspects of the process but we abided by it to the letter and were duly elected to be the exclusive representative through a fair election process-a process that was agreed upon by all parties- including the district’s legal counsel, who played a major role in putting it together.

Many districts across Missouri now use that model in choosing employee representatives.

Recently, the district received some unwanted publicity when a prospective school board candidate contested the validity of the district’s signature-counting process.

The simple truth was that he and another prospective candidate had failed to get enough valid signatures to have their names on the ballot. Those individuals do not join you here tonight to share “input” on school board decisions.

Similarly, in every contested board election, some candidates have failed to get enough votes to serve. Some of those candidates persistently criticized how this board did its job, and they received thousands of votes, but that wasn’t enough to share “input” or to serve with you here tonight.

I would like to respectfully remind the board that it is not this board’s duty to intervene and choose a teacher representative. Teachers have already done that-and if they wish to change their representative, the board policy that many of you voted for clearly explains how that may be done.

Springfield NEA is honored to serve the teachers of this district as their representative in negotiating the best possible agreements with the district regarding compensation, benefits and working conditions.

We honor the process that has led to a better understanding of this district through a respectful dialogue with administration.

We ask that this board honor the representation process that it put in place years ago, so that we may continue to move forward together with mutual respect and understanding.

Thank you.