At school board meeting, Henrico teachers call for collective bargaining

About a dozen Henrico Schools teachers showed up to last Thursday’s Henrico School Board meeting wearing red and holding signs to urge the board to allow collective bargaining for school employees.

The teachers, many of whom are a part of the Henrico Education Association – a union for public educators in Henrico – were joined by members of the Richmond Workers’ Assembly and other supporters to call for collective bargaining, a process that would allow employees to negotiate their contracts with their employers.

Four participants, including HEA president and Highland Springs High School teacher Patrick Miller, spoke to the board at the meeting’s public forum, emphasizing the need to improve the working conditions and better outline the job expectations of teachers and other school staff.

“I’m here for those educators forced to work unpaid overtime to meet the minimum demands of their jobs,” Miller said. “I’m here for the educators who clean and maintain our buildings, who get our students to and from school, who feed them everyday – working exponentially harder than they should have to because we have a fraction of the staff that we should have.”

Since last fall, the HEA has held public meetings and information sessions to encourage HCPS employees to support collective bargaining. HEA members have also met with some school board members individually to urge them to pass a collective bargaining resolution, which Miller said would give teachers more of a say when it comes to pay, working hours, and expected duties.

Currently, HCPS teachers have two choices: “sign or resign,” according to Spencer Billett, co-chair of the HEA’s collective bargaining committee and a teacher at Highland Springs HS. They either can sign the contracts presented to them by HCPS’s central office or resign their positions.

“Unfortunately, right now we are seeing many teachers choose the option to resign, and I would love to see us work positively together to stop the trickle flow of teachers who are now leaving the profession,” Billett told the school board.

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In 2020, Virginia’s General Assembly passed legislation that took effect in 2021 making it legal for local government employees – including public school staff members – to collectively bargain the conditions of their contracts with their employers, with a significant caveat.

The 2020 law gives employees two options: either a school board member can put forth a collective bargaining resolution for the board to vote on, or, if no board member puts forth a resolution, more than 50% of employees under the same contract can sign authorization cards that will be presented to the board and automatically force board members to vote on the possibility of collective bargaining within 120 days.

Since the law took effect, the HEA has been meeting behind the scenes to coordinate a countywide approach.

Since no current Henrico School Board members have said they will put forth a resolution, the HEA has begun the process of authorization card-signing. Teachers and other staffers who sign authorization cards give the HEA permission to negotiate a contract on their behalf, according to Elizabeth Broda, Billett’s co-chair and a teacher at Henrico High School.

So far, the HEA has seen a positive response from teachers, Broda said.

“We’re seeing enthusiasm with folks who feel like they need a voice and feel like coming together is the best way to have that voice because their voice by themselves maybe isn’t loud enough,” she said. “There are some administrators too that are also really supportive.”

Through a “soft launch,” the HEA has targeted 13 schools across the county to encourage teachers to sign authorization cards. “Wave one” of the launch had HEA members speak to teachers at Deep Run HS, Henrico HS, Highland Springs HS, J.R. Tucker HS, Mills E. Godwin HS, Moody MS, and Ridge ES starting this past May. In the fall, HEA members began “wave two” by speaking to teachers at Godwin HS, Douglas S. Freeman HS, Glen Allen HS, John Rolfe MS, Short Pump MS, Echo Lake ES, and Longdale ES.

At almost all the schools targeted, more than 50% of teachers signed authorization cards, with some schools having 100% or 80% of teachers sign, according to Billett.

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But starting in mid-October, the HEA moved on to its “big push” – going countywide to encourage teachers at all schools to sign authorization cards and pushing the school board to adopt a resolution.

Under collective bargaining, Broda said the HEA would be able to push their top priority: better pay and better benefits for teachers. But other issues also need to be addressed, including understaffing, high caseloads for exceptional education teachers and counselors, a lack of guaranteed planning time for teachers, and unclear job expectations.

“We’ve had a lot of people feel the most concerned about the parts of our contract that basically says, ‘other duties as assigned,’ where it’s a really open-ended point,” Broda said. “But it basically says that if your principal tells you to do it, you need to do it. And that ends up looking very unequal from school to school and from district to district.”

Secondary school teachers are required to have one duty-free planning period per day, while elementary school teachers are required to have on average 30 minutes per day. But for many teachers who have to take on extra duties due to staff shortages, these planning periods are not guaranteed.

Exceptional education teachers in particular have to take on an enormous amount of duties, leaving them with little to no planning or break time, according to Broda. Many ex ed teachers have to be with their students for the entire day – during music class, art class, PE, lunch, and recess – due to staffing shortages.

“They’re being overstretched, and really it’s not to the benefit of the students because when is that teacher supposed to prepare new activities for the students to do? Or work on those students’ goals behind the scenes?” Broda said.

Caseload numbers for ex ed teachers and counselors are also “out of control” at many schools, according to Broda, with one teacher managing up to 25 cases.

“Simply, ex ed teachers are not okay,” Broda said. “I’ve spoken with ex ed teachers at the elementary and secondary levels and they’re both struggling.”

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Teacher contracts currently are written “unilaterally” by HCPS central office, according to Billett. Collective bargaining would allow HEA teachers and central office staff to “sit down as equals” and negotiate contracts to find “contractual solutions” for these problems, he said.

And while issues such as understaffing and student misbehavior have been brought up to the school board before, they are often treated as individual incidents rather than countywide problems, according to Miller.

“There is a pervasive and incorrect idea among leadership that any staff member can approach their principal or school board member and that these problems can be resolved one by one,” he said. “These are not individual problems and they cannot be solved individually.”

This past spring, Miller requested that HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell and her staff put out a “neutrality statement,” which would convey to HCPS employees that they would not receive pushback for either signing or not signing authorization cards and that Henrico Schools would stay neutral on the issue of collective bargaining. However, Cashwell and her staff opted not to do so.

“HCPS employees are free to support positions or initiatives of any professional organization to which they belong without retribution; therefore, a statement exclusive to this topic is not necessary,” HCPS official spokesperson Eileen Cox said. “Dr. Cashwell, the school board and school administrators value staff ideas, feedback and perspectives. They help shape the division’s culture of belonging and fuel innovation and positive change.”

HEA members also has met with several current school board members and with multiple school board candidates who ran for election this month. Madison Irving and Ryan Young, who won school board seats representing the Three Chopt District and Fairfield District respectively, both said that they would be in support of a collective bargaining resolution. Incumbents Alicia Atkins (Varina District), Kristi Kinsella (Brookland District), and Marcie Shea (Tuckahoe District) have indicated that they would consider a resolution.

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While they haven’t received pushback from administrators or school principals, the HEA has had to confront concerns from many teachers that their jobs could be in jeopardy if they outwardly support collective bargaining. It is illegal for employers to retaliate against employees who participate in union activity, but Virginia’s history as a “right to work” state has caused many teachers to be fearful.

“Virginia having the history that it does of not being particularly friendly to unions has created some concerns of folks who feel this kind of lingering history of being silenced,” Broda said. “They feel pressured to not speak up. And part of that is just historical, part of that is actually lived.”

Despite that, the HEA has been successful in garnering support, Broda said. While the focus right now is on targeting teachers, counselors, and librarians, the next step would be to reach out to other school staff such as custodians, bus drivers, and nutritional workers.

Staff such as transportation workers would collectively bargain separately from teachers, because they have different contracts, but Broda hopes that the board would pass a resolution allowing all staff groups to collectively bargain, not just teachers.

One school district that has done just that is Richmond Public Schools. In February of 2022, the Richmond School Board approved a resolution introduced by one of its members that allowed collective bargaining for multiple staff groups, making it the first school district in Virginia to reinstate collective bargaining rights.

Several other districts followed suit, and the difference between school districts with and without collective bargaining is significant, Billett said. While teachers in districts with collective bargaining often have more detailed and specific contracts that can be up to 12-13 pages long, HCPS teachers receive contracts that are only a page and a half, with many employees confused by what they consider to be vaguely written expectations.

Through collective bargaining, the HEA hopes to clear up those policies and expectations. And the HEA is in it for the long haul when it comes to putting forth a resolution, according to Billett, because members want the process to be done right.

By continuing to meet with school board members and speak out at school board meetings, Broda hopes that the union and the school system can work collaboratively to make contracts more fair and more equal.

“We look forward to working with the board to write a collective bargaining resolution that supports all kids and all staff, because we are not the enemy,” Broda said to the board. “We want a partnership and we’re extending our hands and we hope that you guys do the same.”

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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.