Negotiations between leaders of the Little Rock School District and Little Rock Education Association union ended Thursday afternoon with plans to resume efforts next week to settle on a 2018-19 Professional Negotiated Agreement.
The bargaining teams headed by Superintendent Mike Poore and Little Rock Education Association President Teresa Knapp Gordon issued statements Thursday saying that the talks will resume Tuesday, which is also the date of the general election.
"The LREA and the LRSD negotiations teams met today for several hours but no agreement was reached," Gordon wrote in an email. "We will resume negotiations on Tuesday, November 6th and continue throughout next week."
Pamela Smith, a spokesman for the district, said in a news release: "The district looks forward to continued collaboration with the LREA. Members of the negotiating team will not be making any public comments while negotiations remain underway."
Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key on Oct. 22 directed Poore to seek the association's support for a proposed waiver of the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and the Public School Employee Fair Hearing Act in the district's 22 D- and F-rated schools.
Such a waiver would make it easier and quicker to fire an employee identified as performing poorly in the affected schools.
Key cited insufficient academic progress as the reason.
Under Act 930 of 2017, the state Board of Education has the authority to waive laws regarding teacher dismissal for school districts that have been placed in the Level 5-Intensive Support category, which is the case of the Little Rock district.
Association leaders and members have voiced opposition to the waiver proposal but did agree to enter negotiations over it.
The expiration date for the current 2017-18 negotiated agreement has been extended to Nov. 14 to allow for the bargaining to continue.
Metro on 11/02/2018