Union officials and administrators at Riverside Brookfield High School are negotiating over whether to extend the teachers’ contract that is set to expire in about a year.
Superintendent Kevin Skinkis and Asst. Supt, Kristin Smetana have held about five meetings with Riverside Brookfield Education Association presidents Dan Bonarigo and Jessica Mauritzen since March after the school board and the RBEA entered into a memorandum of understanding about the talks. Skinkis disclosed the talks at the April 23 school board meeting when he said both sides are trying to determine whether a contract extension can be focused strictly on economic items. Skinkis said that an extension would change only the economic terms of the contract and pay. It would not deal with contract language.
The current, three-year contract expires at the end of the 2024-25 school year. In an email, Skinkis said that it was his idea to explore negotiating a contract extension more than a year before the current contract expires.
“I presented the idea of discussing a contract extension to both the Board and the RBEA,” Skinkis said in an email. “Both sides had an interest.”
The memorandum of understanding approved by the school board on March 12 states that the contract extension negotiations will terminate May 8 unless the parties agree otherwise. More negotiating sessions are scheduled.
“We are scheduled to conduct a few more meetings in the upcoming weeks to see if we can land on some ground for an extension,” Skinkis told the Landmark.
Mauritzen did not reply to requests for comment by deadline.
“The contract extension talks are ongoing,” Bonarigo said. “We have met a number of times and have had productive conversations. We have had a collaborative two years under this contract and are looking forward to the opportunity to extend the current terms.”
Among the reasons Skinkis presented the idea of discussing a contract extension early is that RB is completing its first year under a new organizational model that features division heads instead of instructional coaches.
“The new Divisional model, Peer Evaluation, and additional collaboration opportunities through committees have been positive for all sides,” Skinkis said in the email.
School board members have not been involved in the negotiations.
“The superintendent has briefed me, as well as the full Board,” said RB school board president Deanna Zalas in a text message. “We have not been in direct contact with the RBEA.”
Under the current contract, teachers with master’s degrees will receive raises of $3,300 to $4,500 next year assuming that inflation is less than 4.5%. Teachers with a bachelor’s degree are scheduled to receive $2,800 raises next year.
