RTPA/RUSD ONGOING COVERAGE: RTPA topics dominate district board meeting

At the Oct. 3 meeting of the Rocklin Unified School District, conversation mostly revolved around teacher contract negotiations. Teachers shared opinions on the matter during the opening forum before the board shared.

“I would like to thank the district team and the RTPA bargaining team for work that was done collaboratively. It was the first time in a full negotiation setting in over seventeen months that we felt our concerns on safety were heard, it’s one of the most collaborative pieces we’ve ever done. I believe the language is best for students, it’s best for staff, and it’s best for RUSD,” school board clerk Susan Halldin said. 

Even with the RTPA’s recent success of changing the contract safety language, negotiations are not over.

“I think we’ve moved inches but we’ve got miles to go,” RTPA negotiating team member Mr. Travis Mougeotte said.

The next topic for negotiations has to do with special ed in the contract.

“Big elements with special ed are continued training, because right now there is no language in our contract specifically toward special education. Zero, at all. It’s all new language and partly we are trying to pioneer some language because special ed language isn’t the most common thing in contracts, but as teachers we’ve always felt Rocklin was the benchmark versus the status quo. So we are asking that instead of just teaching special education teachers how to deal with special education students, train general ed teachers because we have special ed students in our classrooms almost as much as their special education teachers with the push towards inclusion over the last decade. The other piece is limiting case loads so the number of students that the special education teachers are working with directly, as well as class sizes because that is going to benefit every student,” Mougeotte said.

The next district meeting is Oct. 17, in the RUSD District Office board room on Sierra Meadows Drive at 6:30 p.m. Whitney High Student Media will continue to provide updates as negotiations continue.

by ALAINA ROBERTS