School district, teachers union settle athletic director dispute
Four high school athletic directors positions will be reinstated as full-time positions and Boyce Hodge gets his job back as Madison West varsity boys basketball coach as part of a new agreement between the Madison Metropolitan School District and Madison Teachers Inc.
District and teachers union officials announced the resolution regarding issues that have split the parties for years Tuesday morning in a joint press conference by Superintendent Dan Nerad and MTI Executive Director John Matthews at MTI's offices.
Nerad, who started his job with the district July 1, said he made it a priority to negotiate the agreements with Matthews and the union. He said their collaborative goals are to make sure Madison children receive a quality education and that the union and district forge a better give-and-take relationship.
The athletic director and Hodge issues were union concerns, while the resolution's third component concerning virtual learning was an area the district wanted to resolve.
"At times there may be differences we can't resolve through these types of approaches, but I want to work very much in this way to see if there are issues that we can work through," Nerad said.
The agreement eliminates all the litigation, grievances and complaints that arose from the disputes. The agreement has not yet been signed, but both sides said that action is a formality. Nerad has kept the Madison School Board updated on the negotiations and met with board members in executive session Sept. 12 to inform members about the agreement, which will be ratified by the board at an upcoming meeting.
For almost eight years, the district and union disagreed over the athletic director situation, which came to a head two years ago. Jim Pliner of La Follette, Rick Raatz of Madison East, Tim Ritchie of Madison Memorial and Hodge of Madison West -- all union members -- lost their athletic director jobs in August 2007 and were reassigned in a move by officials seeking to cut $7.9 million from the school budget. It has been reported the district saved $113,000 with the restructuring decision, and the jobs were consolidated when the four were replaced during the 2007-08 school year by David Kapp, who oversaw East and La Follette, and Tim Svendsen, who worked at Memorial and West.
MTI officials filed a grievance in support of the former athletic directors, and it was announced in May that arbitrator Milo Flaten ruled to reinstate the four and reimburse them for any financial loss. All four received back pay of approximately $7,000 each and Hodge, Raatz and Ritchie were reinstated to the positions. Pliner chose not to return to the athletic director job at La Follette, and instead, accepted an assistant principal job at Sennett Middle School.
District officials then told the reinstated
athletic directors that the work hours outlined in their contracts
surpassed the 2008-09 staff requirements at their respective
locations.
MTI officials filed a complaint in June to question the district's decision to adjust the work hours associated with the athletic director job, and the district then proceeded to file a lawsuit in Dane County Court to reverse the May ruling by the arbitrator.
Hodge will remain at West, while the athletic director job for Memorial will be posted in the near future and filled by a member of MTI's teacher bargaining unit. The athletic director positions at West and Memorial have no authority with supervising and evaluating coaches, and school administrators will formulate a plan with the district on how to handle those tasks.
The positions at East and La Follette will be filled by Kapp and Svendsen, respectively, who will work as athletic/activities directors and are not members of the bargaining unit. These are management posts that have the authority to supervise and evaluate coaches, and will also handle duties with nonathletic extracurriculars, such as yearbook, newspaper and drama groups.
Outside of group meetings, Matthews estimated he and Nerad spent 35 to 40 hours hammering out details of the agreement, and the athletic director issue was a critical component of the agreement -- especially in implementing full-time status with the positions. The athletic directors will be assigned to the high schools on a full-time basis through June 2013, and this provision of the agreement will be reviewed in two-year increments.
"We see it as someone who is integral to the process of building the bridge between academics and athletics at the high schools," Matthews said. "The sports program is nothing more, nothing less than a continuation of the academic program, and you need someone to oversee that operation school by school, and in our opinion, on a full-time basis. That's something which the new superintendent agrees."
Hodge, who said was forced to resign his
position as West basketball coach in April due to testimony he gave
during the arbitration, said he was satisfied with the agreement.
Hodge, a 1991 West graduate, coached the basketball team for 11
years.
"I'm extremely relieved that this is now over and that we can now move beyond the last couple of years of different perspectives, the different ways of staffing athletics in Madison, the whole basketball coach issue and how it tied into that," Hodge said. "Those are days behind us, and there is a sense of relief that we can move forward.
"There's a whole lot to do in the Madison school district. We've got 25,000-some students we need to be worried about educating. So to not spend any more time on this issue is a relief."
Tuesday's agreement also will implement a
measure that requires a licensed teacher from the bargaining unit
supervise virtual/online classeswithin the district. The district
and union have bickered on-and-off for nearly seven years over the
virtual/online education issue. Matthews said the district was
violating the collective bargaining contract with development of
its virtual school learning program that offered online courses
taught by teachers who are not members of MTI.
In the agreement announced Tuesday, there
were no program changes made to the current virtual/online
curriculum, but requirements outlined in the agreement assure that
classes are supervised by district teachers.
During the 2007-08 school year, there were 10 district students and 40 students from across the state who took MMSD online courses.
Though Nerad has been on the job for less than three months, Matthews said he is pleased with his initial dealings and working relationship with the new superintendent.
"This is that foundation we need," Matthews said. "There was a lot of trust level that was built up here and a lot of learning of each other's personalities, style and philosophy. All those things are important.
"It's going to be good for the entire school district if we're able to do this kind of thing, and we're already talking about what's next."
File photo
Boyce Hodge, shown in his longtime role as Madison West boys basketball coach, was reinstated Tuesday as coach and full-time athletic director at Madison West.
