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The Ann Arbor Administrators Association has ratified a tentative agreement with the school district that states its 48 members will take a 3 percent pay cut.
The union follows suit behind Ann Arbor's teachers and central office personnel, who agreed to salary concessions in March and May, respectively.
Joan Fitzgibbon of Allen Elementary chats with students who were rehearsing for an upcoming performance in this file photo. Fitzgibbon served on the Ann Arbor Administrators Association's collective bargaining negotiation team. The union recently reached an agreement that calls for principals to take a 3 percent pay cut.
File photo | The Ann Arbor News
The executive session previously was scheduled for the purpose of analyzing applications received for the open superintendent's position. So the board will convene a regular meeting in open session and vote almost immediately to go into executive session with the added purpose of discussing collective bargaining to satisfy its legal requirements under the Open Meetings Act, said board President Deb Mexicotte. The board's normal regular meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the library.
AAAA President Michael Madison confirmed Tuesday that the principals union voted on June 18 to ratify the agreement, which the union did unanimously with 100 percent of the membership in favor of approving the contract, he said.
Madison said he could not speak to the details of the tentative agreement, but confirmed the union "did do what everyone expected us to do, which was to give 3 percent."
The AAAA negotiations have been ongoing since late January/early February. Madison did not serve on the negotiations team, according to a January correspondence between Superintendent Patricia Green and the Board of Education. The principals representing the union during collective bargaining with the district were: Gary Court, Joan Fitzgibbon and Kathy Scarnecchia representing elementary; Chris Curtis and Janet Schwamb representing middle schools; and Lis Anglin and Ben Edmondson representing the high schools. Curtis was the chief negotiator, according to Green's Jan. 18 weekly capsule report.
The 3 percent salary concession from the principals union is expected to save the district around $270,000. The school board already banked on that money on June 13, when it approved the district's general fund operating budget and budget cuts for the 2013-14 academic year.
Vice President Christine Stead said if the board votes Wednesday to ratify the agreement with the AAAA during its 7 p.m. meeting, then the board may need to make some amendments to the budget.
Mexicotte said last week, she anticipates the board will need to talk about the budget again anyway because of a possible arithmetic error that occurred when adding up the anticipated $100,000 in savings the board hopes to generate by charging students at Huron and Pioneer for a seventh class period.
Stead also plans to bring forward some additional items and hopes the board will consider some changes, she said. Much of what she plans to discuss will be to ensure the numbers and the math are accurate — "because my calculations are a little bit different," Stead said.
She also plans to again bring up her concerns about the board using $1.18 million of its fund equity to balance the 2013-14 budget, bringing the district's total savings account to less than $6 million.
Additionally, she would like the board to discuss again the total number of teachers it has agreed to cut because, she said, the total number is greater than the 27 undesignated FTEs. She said that number is closer to 40 FTE by the time the district adds in the 4 FTE from cutting the extra physical education credit.
Stead was the lone trustee to vote "no" on the budget June 13.
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.