COLORADO SPRINGS — A more than 50-year partnership between the Colorado Springs District 11 school board and its teacher's union may be coming to an end.
News5's Lindsey Jensen sat down with the board president, Parth Melpakam, and union president, Kevin Coughlin.
Melpakam said the master agreement is set to expire at the end of this school year.
Either party could walk away.
Both sides agreed a decision must be made before the third Wednesday in January.
"We will go through this methodically and the board will let the concerned parties know from our side if we are going to go down that pathway but right now, there has been no talk about that at all," said Melpakam.
It's that uncertainty that is concerning Coughlin, who wants to continue this partnership.
"We feel that everything in our agreement helps support teachers do what's right for kids every day and so we feel everything is at stake," said Coughlin.
The board and union meet monthly.
"[The master agreement] has not been specifically brought up because I cannot talk on behalf of the board during that time, I'm having that one-on-one conversation with them," said Melpakam.
"We have reached out to some school board members and been denied access to the conversation, but also, we have spoken with some school board members to let them know that we are concerned," said Coughlin.
Coughlin said a lot of teachers move to D11 because of this unique master agreement. The union and board negotiate salaries every year.
Right now, Melpakam said there is no intent for the board to walk away.
"With the master agreement, outside of the master agreement, I can assure you that the board is committed to taking care of our staff," said Melpakam.
News5 will keep updated as more details unfold.
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