CAT Tracks for April, 2, 1998

It took four more hours of patience and perseverance, but the Cairo Board of Education and the Cairo Association of Teachers have finally approved and signed a Contractual Agreement which will take us into the next century!

The attorney for the Board of Education expressed misgivings about two language items in the tentative agreement. Of particular difficulty was Section 3.4, Voluntary Transfer. He advised the Board that our language was illegal and could NOT be accepted. He was concerned that our language would take away the Board's legally mandated authority/discretion to hire, fire, and transfer employees. However, when we pointed out that their attorney had approved--declared legal--even more restrictive language, the Board accepted the language which you ratified on March 26th. In the discussion of this issue, we reminded the Board that they had made a commitment to give up some of the authority that our members had felt had been abused in the past--namely in the area of voluntary/involuntary transfers. We told the Board that our language-- IF RATIFIED --would send a signal to our members that a new era in labor/management relations was actually possible in Cairo School District Number One. They agreed.