##VIDEO ID:8akqIcGgqzo## Jeff Slanker go ahead anybody all right dude I'm trying to turn you up and leave you I don't know why the camera to it must have been that waving extra all right try it again actually can y'all hear me okay y yes all right good good um I'm Jeff Slanker I know no some of y'all um new faces for me as well I'm a councel for the school district today standing in for Mr Harmon who is who is traveling I'm happy to be here appreciate the opportunity to to chall that awesome you want to start with your team Gary sure Alec McIntyre mcea Gary Simmons Chief negotiator for MCA from FAA Matt theal president MCA Lonnie B MCA Kim love MCA Susan Rayo MCA pad Holtz MCA Dan Moore Martin County School District Kathy parendo Martin County School District Lisa esz Martin County School District our calls Martin County School District okay we're all new today no titles go ahead director management employee benef County School District good evening jeffman director of talent and HR operations Morrison CFO I'm Julie cessa the assistant superintendent of human resources and I appreciate your patience this evening or this afternoon while we get everything um ready for our first presentation our CFO Carter Morrison is going to as soon as our computer up there will allow him he will be presenting for us can you see up there a little bit Jeff I can see hopefully I can hear everybody let me know if youall want me to do a little intro to car happy to do that yeah why don't you go ahead and do an intro to Carter while he's getting his material brought up on the 19 1985 computer we have in here yeah absolutely you know U think we've got the agenda sent over to yall after welcome and introductions our first point on the agenda is our response to the proposal on supplements think what we left to that at the the last meeting that we were kind of looking into that thinking into it and evaluating it um and to recap uh that proposal for the supplements on on B2 and B3 is a a 25% increase on each of the numbers um and then those that were a range um a 25% increase on the top end of the range so what we've been doing is we uh indicated in the last uh you know meeting is looking into that and digging into it and looking at comparables and also looking at the finances and I'll let Carter looks like he he might be ready to go I'll let him kind of take over and present on that you ready Carter I think so I think so okay y uh firstly um let me thank Gary for um sharing with me some of the other school districts that you negotiated with um this issue with respect to supplements um I've also like to recognize um the Union's point if you will that supplements have not been updated in a while so we started the work off very U diligently looking at uh the supplement proposal and what I did was I broke the supplement proposal into two pieces if you will the academic instructional supplements that are in your appendix and then you also the Athletics for so once we started this work um just looking at Athletics for example we started to compare oh I didn't do that um we started to compare when you look at Mar County School District currently versus let's say Indian River okobi St Lucy well we're going through this thing and we're saying well gee it looks like we pay more in a lot of aspects and doing very good until I realized that Gary had negotiated um an increase in the supplements in the Indian River so we got okay wait a minute now so maybe these numbers aren't as current as we probably should be but regardless of that we're starting to we were starting to do our due diligence to see what what the current rates are in comparison to the other Indian River St Lucy okobi and where we are and what the proposal was with the 25% increase so we also looked at um the academics instead as as well looking at the 25% increase and then somewhat of a nuclear bomb went off in the district and this is what happened over the last couple of days so what you're looking at and Pat if you could hand that out for me please so what's passing around is a comparison of as you everybody knows veterans you will know that we count our students we count our students every once we open school 10 days after the opening of school so what you have in your hand is a comparison of August 22nd last year versus August 23rd this year you know the calendar calendar sh Friday or so now when you look at for example elementary schools just to show you how to read this thing in column A at CN Elementary we had on the 10day count 500 students enrolled and present but by the time October rolled around excuse me February rolled around for FTE now let me make a distinction for everyone when you're looking at the student count on the 10day count we're County noses count of noses FTE is as we everybody knows is October and February survey within that week everybody who's attending in that week once you're attend once you attend within the week that survey we we Mark you present and they're fractional students because not everybody has a full schedule so you can see the differences for example at JDP 524 on attend the account 51 18.03 was FTE that we collected and you know students come students go that kind of thing so when you look at the February um unweighted FTE in total so on on T the 10day account in August of 2023 we reported 16,924 which is 16,1 16511 students or a loss when you compare our 10day count enroll to um our FTE that we got paid on is $760 76.8 n the difference between again just making the distinction count of noses versus your FTE which is your full-time equivalent students what we get paid on if you look down on the bottom section you'll see where it says family empowerment scholarship program now I can't prove this with a concrete but you can infer that what the school districts lost was vouchers gain right and that's that's the reality of life that's the state's policy that's just education in the world that we live in today uh the state's policies that you have traditional you've got Charters you got homeschool you've got private school you've got vouchers you've got so we are in a very competitive environment okay when you look at this year's 10day count which we're still oops I'm sorry oh yeah we're still working through the numbers which on your sheet should be marked draft which should be marked draft for comparison purposes for discussion only what we're counting right now is 16 thou 16,25 students I don't know what what's going on with this computer 16,25 so when you compare last year's 10day count of 16926 of which we only got paid 16165 and look at our 10 10day um enrollment now at 16205 we could be down as much as 700 between last year and this year now of course you can see obviously in the FTE that your high schools are the main driver of that difference for last year of 54027 you you can see the difference right there um we are theorizing that some of that may have to do with some off blocks that that our students really don't attend classes during the day and they actually leave our campuses we're not we're working on that but the reason why I bring this to your attention is that if you look at my spreadsheet here for the supplements at a 25% increase that you had proposed I hope this works and doesn't embarrass me always refresh oh wonderful didn't work it's a $682,000 increase I don't know it never works here but is a $682,000 increase so at this point knowing that we're down potentially that many students um we we are not prepared to recommend an increase in the supplements at this time however um because we got to we got to get our arms around these guys so however if the unit was would wish to do so we can absolutely look at that for 25 26 to take a look and see what we can do in in a lot of the areas because a lot of the areas you are competitive again with the caveat that of course Indian River had made there you know you've negotiated some increases with indan river and know' done some with OK chov and St Lucy's schedule um at this point we would not be prepared to to make that recommendation keeping in mind we know that we've made some good strides uh we've kind of knocked out the tsia which is $1.1 million uh we have contributed over $1.3 million of our local monies sir excuse me sir we've contributed $1.3 million our own local money uh we have agreed on the $600 um increase to the to the insurance subsidy pretty much guaranteeing that no member will have to pay a substantial increase we saw that um in our in our proposal and and tentative agreement a continuation of the American Rescue plan rates at $50 an hour we have also agreed on anou to the extended day program which gives mbus um the opportunity to get a waiver on fees for extended day and to come is we're going to be talking a little bit about um what the board has asked us to do coming from the millage right um a a recruitment and retention supplement for ESC teachers still to be worked out the details that we'll be bringing forward to you uh that is a as you know we have language in your in your collective bargaining agreement regarding critical shortage and um I believe that will be utilizing that to to to bring that forward to the board for for approval so the answer if I were to put this in context is not necessarily no it's not yet because we really got to get control of where we are with respect to our student counts and it's a fact of life if you don't have the students you don't have the money and and that's just that's just the fact of love no one can argue with that so with that we just wanted to tell you that we started this work in Earnest in good faith did all our due diligence and again thank you Gary for sharing sharing me all those schedules and we updating and again I don't know why this never works for me here when I do this but work for me in my office worked on my laptop when I get here it's just but it's a $682,000 increase um to the budget and clearly we were not prepared for that much of a hit this year so with that I'll take any questions that you have this time or we can move to the next agenda item which is the uh response to the Western Zone something yes ma'am I get a question for you um I I um I appreciate well first off I appreciate the presentation and and thank you for for clarifying A lot of this stuff um it's it's definitely helpful to to paint a picture um and uh I I don't know if you guys had an opportunity to do this analysis yet um but has there been any comparison between uh FTE from 2425 to FTE from 2014 2015 so 2425 FTE we don't have that yet that will be the October count when we submit our schedules our minutes send that to the state within the survey week and then also the February count for 20145 you in my budget book online you'll see I I keeping it pretty much a 10e history if not longer of my um FTE over the long period we've gone up we've gone down particularly as Charter Schools Treasure Coast Classical Academy opened up that took about a th000 students uh when you look at um thank you for reminding me of that by the way Matt um when you look at if you could go back to the comparison chart thank you I forgot to mention something if you look at the family empowerment scholarship on the 10day count it was 645 when you look at the FTE by the time February rolled around was 13747 five that's a middle school that's bigger than some of our middle schools so again the the the voucher program is killing us there's no other way to say that okay so FTE always remember is different than count of noses because not every not every child generates a one to one and there are factors and fractional attendance rates and that kind of thing that affects your ft so we don't have the analysis of 24 25 5 FTE as yet because that will come in October when we submit our schedules and minutes and they get recalibrated by the state but when that comes in it would be fairly easy to compare apples to apples from this year to to 10 years ago if we were to and I did this in my office at one point so don't quote me but if you take 16165 as a percentage of 16926 you can see I believe it was about 95% ratio which means we lose about 5% so if I'm at 16 205 all things being equal I'm down my FTE is somewhere in about 15,000 right now follow me so we uh are down we will be working on our budget to WR size the ship and so at this time as I mentioned we we we can't we can't go forward would it be possible to share the the spreadsheet that this one right here absolutely the one that you doing the calculations on that didn't calculate the one that was show me the the amount for here correct thank you so much do that I don't know why never works here never get definitely so any more Finance questions Mr Slanker wants to step in if you have any more questions for Mr Morrison for finance anyone else have any questions okay hopefully we don't get a bunch of feedback but I'm gonna try Jeff do you want to go ahead I think I know what it is the yeah I'm I'm unmuting now um and you know I I I think Carter kind of summarized everything um everything well and he mentioned something that um you know I I think we wanted to talk about I know it's on the agenda the ESC critical shortage uh supplement um and I I figured I'd let Julie uh kind of Tau to you about that now in the we're talking about supplements supplement day right I figured let kind of Julie kind of give you an update on that and kind of explain um that component of it the Carter referenced okay well a couple members of our team can talk about it um Mr Raymond do you want to talk about our current openings in ESC yeah as if um on Monday we had 17 openings in the ESC department and Dr informed me two more vacancies so it's our hardest to fill um instructional vacancy right now at 19 as of today um so with that the board is looking to provide an incentive to retain our current ESC teachers as well as recruit persective candidates District so as you know with regard to critical shortage it's strictly at the board's discretion um we don't need anou or anything of that nature we typically do an agenda item at for the board meeting um so we'll be working um to put that together as um critical shortage and they're working on the supplement not only to address as as Jeff mentioned um openings that we have but looking at retention of our ESC teachers so we're just finding difficulty and Dr eses can easily testify and justify that we really need our ESC teachers and it's it's a difficult time to get them in the door and then to get them to stay so the board is um would like to take action on an ESC critical shortage supplement and they want to bring It Forward at their September 3rd Special meeting they don't even want to wait for the regular meeting after viewing on Mondays they look at our teacher openings Mr Ray puts that together and they realize that we definitely have still a number of openings in ESC and we'll be doing something similar we meet with asme on September 5th so we're going to do something similar for ESC and regular pairs as well that we'll be talking with abs me about so we're targeting our ESA population of employees both getting them in the door and retaining them so we want to just let you know about that ahead of time as part of the supplement piece much appreciated Julie thank you okay so Julie it's going to be for teachers and parents well with you we negotiate teachers so right now is that your purose to do both but I'm letting you know we're sitting down with abme on September 5th and in the same vein where we have 30 some openings of per of professionals right now and a number of the largest number are ESC Paras that we're looking at targeting that group of employees all Paris um for a similar critical shortage but they don't have it where it's in in their contract like you all do in supplements so we'll have to present anou for negotiation with them okay thank just stress I'm sorry I'm not on camera but just to stress that this will be coming from the millage as well because that is in the we have various categories that will allow us to provide those types of statements for critical shortage academic initiatives Recruitment and Retention so that's already um approved in the ballot language thanks thank you Carter we want to make sure that was clear that it was m so appreciate Carter stepping up on that yeah the funding the funding source would the funding source is millage yes sir Jeff slinker yeah you know I think unless anybody from the team has anything to kind of add you know I think Carter kind of summarized what our position is on on the supplements that you put forward you know do you all have anything any other questions to kind of ask about what our kind of position is coming back I think Carter was was pretty clear about it just in terms of what we've seen on our our 10day count um you know we can't recommend an increase to the to the supplements at this time on on B2 and B3 and and would say that we would none of that should should change I mean that's kind of what what we're getting that so are there any kind of questions or or one of the things Jeff that I had in my notes and Mark cows assisted with this is we also worked with our existing supplement list to infuse dollars in elementary school for music in our schools for the Russell Holloway track meet which is currently in the CBA as a volunteer and so this year they were paid um also Elementary grade group levels and art right am I missing anything Mr C no I think it so we just want to highlight that as well um you know obviously we negotiated the SLP last year and um the Western Zone has changed from the 2,00 to the 3100 across the board so I guess those were my other notes just to to talk about with regard to supplements Julie quick quick question yes um the critical shortage language that you're referring to that's um number eight I number eight um off of B B2 on the on the appendix okay yes sir all right thank you yeah um get back on camera get back on camera Carter um in the supplements list or the list of instructional supplements there was also a request for the the title one to go from 500 to 625 um we have actually reached out to the Department of Education uh with respect to that and we're kind of awaiting an answer um on whether or not we can um increase that supplement again Title One funding from my lens has not really increased over the years except during covid years they did they did get a bump you know in in funding but pretty much we've leveled back uh to where we are as we rank in serve those schools so that is you know something that we also were looking at okay anything else from the district team okay Jeff slinker you know I don't um I don't think so I think you know there was there was one kind of point of clarification that I had um this was just there was some strike through language that y'all had sent over um in the introductory portions of B2 and B3 and it wasn't clear if yall were looking to strike that language or or not you know I I think I I went back and looked at the past baring sessions and y'all said you were just looking to change the language of the you know in the chart itself in terms of the ranges and the values and Mr Morrison has provided you know our position on that and where we stand on that but that was a point of clarification for me I think it would be our position that that everything in B2 and B3 would just remain the same correct that language at the bottom of B2 and B3 that were that were also in strike format the board wishes for that to remain in as well as the keeping the supplements at the same level yeah that introductory you know it's it's right before you know the chart starts I think on both B2 and B3 and I'll try to look at the uh you know the agreement now right I think we have consensus on the MCA side they understand what you're saying okay sounds good so do we have a response on the well I'm happy to move on to to Western Zone if yall want to y That's What Gary just said if you didn't hear him he'd like to no I didn't hear him you know it's the team say you know hopefully everybody can hear me okay but no I did not hear you on that just to clarify this there's a ESC critical shortage proposal forthcoming yes not for the well it's not going to be an they said it doesn't because we're already um this is already a negotiated supplement and the board can make that action up to $55,000 and it says right in that number eight that it's at board discretion so how we've done it in the past is we actually just make a board item there's really no attachment there's language in the board item and then we they approve that Matt that's how we've done it in the past and I believe that's how we move forward with it okay um do you have more questions on that in that case I do okay um because um I I guess my my first question would be um does the ESC critical shortage designation is there a state designation for ESC as an area of critical shortage I would tell you quite confidently I was in on Miami back in May if I'm not mistaken was the top content area you subject area of critical shortage in the State of Florida um I'll fact check it on caucus time but that I believe was number one um from the state designation I I I understand that and and you know there somebody once told me don't don't ever ask a question you don't already know the answer to um and I I I kind of did I kind of did know that because um when we were preparing um our proposal for the speech language pathologist on area of critical shortage um that was an area that was often linked was ESC and speech language pathologist um when when mcea proposed that critical shortage um recommendation to the board um we were told that that wasn't possible because of the lack of the state designation and I I'm I'm just wondering why that designation wasn't allowed but this designation is because it sounds like I don't know it sounds like like sounds like things just don't quite add up to me and I guess that's what I want want some clarification on I'll take a St first what I remember from last year was that Indi Middle School was designated by the state as a critical short school the only one in Mar County School District I don't Rec my teammates will have to jump in about subject are not qualifying that was my only was Indi Town Middle School was the only designated school by the state ter was eligible CU that's the only group who got critical shortage last go around I don't know if that aligns with your recollection that's how we have a team here to jump in it's actually still on the do's website if you type in the critical shortage there's a list of all the schools and the you know but as a subject area though you said ESC is a subject area I believe so on on on that on that same list may may of 2024 that's what I saw recoup retention as as was speech language pathologist that I don't know but if you know you're asking but if I can refer to page 70 I need glasses two of the contract mat where number eight is um so with regard to that if you'll recall in March of 2023 we did a critical shortage supplement for teachers because that year we had after January a number of large openings so the board gave teachers in any subject area that came on board from March 5th through uh uh maybe may they all got $5,000 no subject area because this critical shortage is at the school district's discre school board's discretion solely Okay so we've already done that at the board's discretion and because the slps had their own light item on the supplement that's where the board decided they would like to go and address that by putting it in the supplement section so tying it to critical shortage that they delineate a school in a report is IMS and IMS only for Martin County School District but the board has the discretion if they feel the need where we're having difficulty retaining and recruiting and there isn't a section in here necessarily there's an ESC supplement but that's not what we're talking about we're talking about an ESC teachers it may be ve teachers unit teachers and we'll be working with Dr EST says to craft that for the school board to review so I guess I kind of wanted to Silo that for you that it's it's really the board's discretion and they've articulated to us in an executive session that they want us to fill those 17 to 19 open positions and they want us to retain the ones we have so we're going to work really hard to craft that Absolut within the confines of their ability to make sure that's on the September 3rd agenda okay understood great understood um last last question just based on on what you just told me yes so just so I'm understanding it correctly um at at the school board's discretion they chose last year not to designate speech language pathologist as an area of critical shortage is that no they chose to pay for it in the supplement and increase it because we already have but they didn't make the designation they didn't make the designation there was a supplement I'd let There was to designate may I um a speech and language pathologist happened to fall under the m CA area in our district they it's not a certification area so they don't take a teaching certification to become an SLP so if you pull up fldoe and you look at critical shortage area you're not going to see slps identified there but you will see if you open it up the first one on the list is exceptional student education teachers so that's the distinction between they're not a classroom they're not a teacher they're SL they're speech and language pathology ologists they don't have they have a certification in speech and language not like say typically a classroom teacher CER or teaching certification so I think we all know that yes there's a shortage of speech and language Pathologists Across the Nation probably and very much so here in the State of Florida and so I think the terminology may have been a little bit um movable in the sense that it's a IAL shortage area we really need to do something for slps and now we're saying ESC teachers are a critical shortage area so I think that the distinction is very fine but it's very clear why we need to look at these front-facing everyday all day classroom teachers that support our um ESC okay absolutely thank you thank you Dr Estus oh you're welcome I'm ready to move on Jeff Gary is ready to move on to the Western zone so for Western Zone and just to recap you know what yall submitted uh at the last uh session where this was presented uh a proposal that would have and it say changes the language in article two certain folks hired before uh June 30th 2014 to receive uh $275 in addition to a $3,100 uh supplement that is outlined in uh B2 uh that was a response to our initial um communication of a change in that language in which uh the uh Western Zone supplement was harmonized uh between folks hired you know irrespective of the date hired to just $3,100 with a reference to that language in appendix B2 and I'll get just kind of straight to the point our um response to that uh proposal that y all submitted uh is is the same as the language that we put across the table at uh Session 8 and that's that the the supplement for Western Zone should be harmonized and it should be harmonized at $3,100 so what what our counter response is is a rejection of the of what you all have proposed and uh sticking to our original language that we put forward uh and Julie and the folks at the team can correct me if I'm wrong on Session 8 and it's for the same reasons that Mr Mr Haron set forth when you all first met and talked about this uh you know that proposal for article two and that language in article two what it does is it takes what was agreed to in a memorandum of agreement on this issue and it puts it into article two and it harmonizes article two uh with B2 um so that is our our position on position is that the original language that we put forward and I know that's in papers and I think Julie and the folks Surly have it but the the simplified language that instructional staff assigned to Indiantown middle and Warfield middle schools shall for the duration of their assignment have their salaries adjusted to reflect a 3100 Western Zone supplement as outlined in appendix B2 and you know again I'm I'm sitting in for for Mr Haron I've went back and I've looked at the negotiations I've reviewed the negotiations Gary I appreciate the the points that you you the discussion that was had on it again I think it's the position of the board here that can you'all hear me lost you for a second there but you're back okay the position of the board really that this was resolved through the execution of that memorandum of agreement in January of 2023 that had language specifically saying it was meant to supersede and supplant the language in article two so our proposal there that original proposal that we s over uh was with attempt to just Implement that formally into the into the contract in article two so that is the the response that that I can give you um and certainly leave it to you to you want to talk about it certainly ask questions well it's it's not no any questions to to ask except for one because what I'm hearing now is a a complete 180 from what was said on the record the last time so that that's point one point two is the logic is flawed because if theou transferred into the memorandum of understanding the district wouldn't have proposed Article 2 and it's it's opening now would it we didn't propose to open up Article 2 the board proposed to open up Article 2 so if it transferred from theou to the collective bargaining agreement what was the purpose of opening Article 2 for the purpose of changing that language so it's just that the the logic is a little bit flawed with respect to that and you can respectfully um relay that message to the school board or just play back this um this this session so um it's it's disheartening that we've gotten this far and then they're going to take a position that's so not in spirit of how this negotiation has been going thus far so um I got your response but our our proposal remains on the table not only did we make a proposal that that made it fair because theou did leave our grandfather people $275 short so just to be a little bit helpful for the school board when you add $2,000 to $1,375 you get $3,375 which is $275 more than the 3100 that's proposed in the supplemental table so what you're asking us to do is to graciously have our members have a deficit of $275 so um we're not going to accept that rejection it'll be on the proposal our proposal will remain on the table and we'll just have this issue to fight about instead of getting this this session completed because it's the principle that I'm going to stand on with respect to this proposal we know what was said on the record last time we wasn't even asking for a whole lot of money the money that we left over in in the salary in a raise pool salary proposal was more than enough money to fund what we were asking for for the life of this contract let alone just for this bargaining year so I I understand I hear what you're saying but we're not removing that proposal off of the table and um the the board can put out any videos or Communications as to why bargaining isn't over yet I'm happy that all of the bargaining is completed in the treasury Coast we got all of our contracts done in a record time and I was looking forward to settle in this agreement tonight but unfortunately we're going to have to be hung up on the western Zone supplement I'm willing to stand this out as long as they are this is a mandatory subject of bargaining and we would take this to impass G help help me understand what is it that you are saying in terms of the 180 I mean you know again I've watched the the videos give me some insight into so what we were asking for what we were asking for was for our 20 grandfathered employees to to not take a financial deficit on this agreement when you add the third the $1,375 that was in place prior to the increase of the western Zone to 2000 they were getting the $1,335 plus um a percentage of of the um starting salary at that particular point in that negotiation session they agreed to increase that supplement to $2,000 and the board's position was that it was har harmonious um at that point and they wanted to take away the $1,375 that our employees were were receiving our grandfathered employees were receiving so that's the reason why we filed the grievance in the first place because our members were short of $275 so that's what we were asking for we have 20 employees that meet the grandfather um criteria or or the definition of a grandfathered employee those 20 employees at $275 was a $5,500 cost to the school board we left $28,000 remaining in a rais pool the amount that we left in a rais pool is enough to fund that $5,500 for the life of this contract so I don't understand why this is a problem with with giving these employees the $275 that they rightfully deserve and they and they earn so it's a point of principle which I'm more than happy to go to impass and argue that point like I feel very very confident in my ability to articulate the problem with the Western own supplement and where the district is is conscientious of of where the shortcoming is and all of the the giving that we have have made to to to expedite this process and we're going to get caught up in in a $5,500 ask a after we've just received the rejection of of of all of our proposals not even a counter proposal of a 1% increase or a 2% increase it's it's a Flatout rejection we're taking that and then we're going to get hung up on a five on $5,500 request G where's the where's the 1 18 in our negotiation I mean I want to make sure go back go back and watch the you said you watch the footage I'm not going to repeat what the district's position was on the record the last time it's on the record so I would invite you to go back to the last session and listen to what your colleague said in regard because what we were proposing was a $5,500 proposal what was counter proposed to us on the record was something that was far more greater than what we proposed and we were told that that was going to be communicated to us in writing the next time we came here so that's the 180 you can go back and and and look at it and see what was discussed so it's only one side that's going to look like like they're not being that they're being disingenuous with respect to that subject and here's what I you know here's what I could say I think that what I think I understand what you're referring to it wasn't my understanding that that uh that was communicated in the last session was ever some type of offer I think it's uh you know certainly there's an ability to ask questions and to explore scenarios is and what the the the school board did was we took that information and folks on our team took all the information to evaluate it and to look at things and to consider things and to examine how we can uh get at uh you know all these issues that we're talking about today so you know I would respectfully I you know Gary I appreciate what you're saying respectfully I would disagree that there it's fine perfectly fine for you it's perfectly fine for you to disagree it don't matter how much how much icing you put on the cake it doesn't make the T cake taste any better so I understand your explanation but I have a right to either withdraw this proposal because you guys open the article so it's fair game I have the right to withdraw our counter proposal or I have the right to leave our proposal on the table this is a mandatory subject of bargaining it fits the qualifications to go to impass my choice is to leave this proposal on the table so that's my response to the board that it's not coming off the table we can take that how we we take it whatever the the um subsequent consequences we have more bargaining sessions and you'll just hear me come every session saying how Incorrect and disingenuous the board is and they're not settling a contract over $5,500 whatever regardless of what the principle is Gary I want to you know of course I'm going to going to disagree but we can Let's Just Disagree and end the session for tonight it's not going anywhere like I don't I'm not interested in in doing a back and forth because my position isn't going to change I have the right as the chief negotiator to either pull the proposal or to keep it on the table my choice is to keep it on the table and if we want to have this discussion the next time the board can take every word that I said and either reconsider or we can go to impass that's what that's where I'm at with this I understand Gary I got to say I got to say one more thing because you brought the two points and and it's not I'm not trying to belor a point that we're not going to be able to work through tonight I certainly understand your position but you brought up you know two points the the first one was the notion of the of the 180 and then the second one was uh the you know your statement that the logic of the 3100 is flawed again I don't want to I want to get it get in terms of the 3100 and in addition to the 275 for the grandfather folks um that that that that was in some way flawed and and I I've got to respond to that here you I understand your position but give me a chance just to give you you know um and I know look I don't want to I know there was an arbitration I know you know that process was what it was I don't want to get into kind of a big dispute here on you know history and the course of history uh but I I think what our position has always been and what Mr Haron communicated was that there was the intention to streamline this Western Zone supplement into um you know into one level and when we negotiated that memorandum of agreement it was to harmonize really what uh what was put forth in B2 uh with respect to the Western Zone information with what's in article uh 2E um you know if you read the plain language just of article 2E nothing in that article uh says anything about there being some entitlement to um you know certain level in terms of what is a grandfa for folks that are are are grandfathered under that uh provision in addition to whatever is set out on B2 it spe specifies that the supplement is 4.5% of 37,000 so I think what we would say is look there was an effort right through the execution of this memorandum of agreement in January 2023 to come to a resolution where we harmonize uh for every in the western Zone at 3100 and that really addressed any issues uh and any vagaries that might have been evident in the complaint it was an expression it was the most recent expression of the attent of the parties and it said in that agreement that it expressly supersedes and supplants the language of the article and the effort of the school board was to incorporate that information in the memor of excuse me the memorandum of agreement into article two so understand your position Gary I appreciate you having the dialogue with me um you know I I'll note your position um in terms of of leaving your proposal you know on the table uh but I wanted to have my my opportunity to have that discussion with you yeah well it it's it's just the same song to a different beat man like just disagree with that logic because if if what you were saying was factually possible then what would be the reason to opening article two and changing the language when the district could just take the position that theou supplanted Article 2 in the first place so I didn't open article two you guys opened article two we didn't ask for the change for for harmonious you guys for har harmonious language you guys asked for that so apparently through the actions of the board by opening that language and requesting to change it that would give anybody who's um arbitrarily unbiased in the situation pause to draw a conclusion that that language must have not supplanted Article 2 if the board decided to open it up and repeat that same language in Article 2 again so explain that to the magistrate when we take it to impass because the logic fa fails me and I don't have a jurist doctorate so if that logic um fails me so let's present it to um to a MAG at impass and see if if they agree with your interpretation cuz I surely disagree with it and I've been negotiating these contracts for a long time I disagree with your position and that's fine for us to disagree and we can we we can remain respectful and disagree but the um state has statutes that um order these steps and I'm going to utilize the process that ordered these these steps if the district wants to hold up this process for $5,500 then let's hold the process up for $5,000 $500 now Gary recall with regard to article two we did open it for two reasons M the retroactive language is in there as well right but you didn't have to touch you didn't have to touch article 2.4 4B so you can open up Article 2 there was other areas to address an Article 2 outside of the western zone so my my argument remains incredibly firm that the reason why you open the language up is because the district don't even believe that Mo that supplanted that language if so then you wouldn't have opened yourself for a counter proposal because I'm giving you the you all the benefit of the doubt that we all know how to negotiate and if I was in your position I wouldn't have opened it up if I didn't want to receive a counter proposal that's why we focused on supplements insurance and salaries we didn't open up any articles so with that we're respectfully asking asking the caucus to take into consideration the supplement proposal okay caucus at 57 Sor no no we we just got ready so okay we weren't waiting on you by any means okay good all right Jeff um Gary said they're ready all right so I have a a response um for the district's response to the supplement proposal and then um a final thought for for the Western Zone supplement uh proposal so the first thing is is that um we understand the FTE position that's that's not a um a hard thing to understand but I I think what I want to be um explicitly clear with on the record is that the FTE issue isn't um mutually exclusive to to Martin County School District like every District in the state is dealing with FTE shortages um I negotiate with um other districts um some districts are uh have reservations schools on reservations that they compete with um some of them have Charter Schools Indian River has Charter Schools Indian River has vouchers V Virtual School those um those problems exist in all of our school districts but the the difference between those districts and and what I see in this school district is that they they never countered uh the supplement with with zero I mean if 25 was was in the sky but to start with with 25 and then the counter is is zero that's that's kind of of difficult to to process especially when um MCA has made so much concessions in these short bargaining sessions MCA had proposed to to take the Band-Aid off and address and permanently address the insurance issues the district made their proposals their explanations and their justifications for doing so what did we say all right well we'll continue to put the bandid on just give us $100 more and a supplement less sign off on this tonight those are the concessions that we made in this salary proposal first night I went around the state bragon on this this school board we're we're making it we're getting somewhere with this and then the moment that you start getting excited like we're going to finish all of these contracts in the Treasure Coast before September 1st all of our proposals were fiscally responsible the last proposal that we made there there is um money left over in the raise pool to finance that proposal we'll be willing to make that argument and impass as as well so we're not going to respond to the supplement proposal at this bargaining session um we'll start working on a on a counter proposal um we'll start working on the counter proposal for that according to my calendar we don't have another bargaining session until the 12th of September was oh no that's the executive session so we'll be here um on September 12th possibly with a response to um the supplemental proposal but definitely um awaiting to hear um The District's position on on our ask for the Western Zone supplement and if if if there's no no traction on that then I just think that this 12 we discuss what the next steps look like because the only thing that we have left um related to to this bargaining session for 2425 is um the Western Zone and the supplement proposal so we can have that discussion on on the 12 and then decide how we move forward um on on the 12 and again it's very very disheartening did you hear everything Gary had to say Jeff yes ma'am I did okay I just want um so we're set to come back uh on the 12th and is there anything from our from our folks on our team not at this time I wanted to clarify and and I just want to make sure it was on the record that we did talk about that supplements are not necessarily no but wo well we get a handle on the budget and looking for that was that was that articul that was crystal clear and we were willing to accept those terms until we got the results of the the second one so you guys delayed this uh a week and then come to the table with a no on both of them like so if if if we were dealing with the not yet on the supplements then that was something that we could have understood but to to say no to well not yet to that and then say no to a $5,500 um salary proposal when we've made all of these gains with with with pools of money much larger than that we're not asking the board to make any cuts to anything or it's $28,000 left over from the salary proposal $5,500 over three years of this contract doesn't even swallow up that entire $28,000 so this seems incredibly spiteful from like it's difficult for for me to explain that to these folks and I just think that like the the the biggest slap in the face is that you have one of these these grandfathered employees like sitting right here on the bargaining team and we're staring right at her and saying like we want you to take a $275 cut knowing what home homeowners insurance and and the price of gas is and and the commute to go from from Port St Lucy and and um here in Stewart all the way out to Indian toown on on a 360 trip every every day and we're telling them that $275 is going to break the bank when we gave a $28,000 break on the raise pool money that's incredibly incredibly disheartening that's the best best way that I can explain that so like let the school board explain that to a magistrate and it's going to be very difficult for me to hold back those 20 grandfathered employees from coming to these school board meetings all right Gary I I appreciate all what you're saying I think you made your your positions uh clear you know I appreciate it I appreciate uh talking today you know we've explained our positions we we've set that out on on both these issues I don't want to continue a discussion that is not going to be fruitful certainly under understand yall's position um you know we we've put out ours and and let's just kind of look forward to coming back on September 12th and see where it all how we can work it all at and where we Le at that point all right 601 thank you the