COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — Colorado Springs School District 11 wants to hear from the community about ways to improve. On Tuesday, they’re hosting the first of four listening sessions.
D11 says they want community input while they put together a new employee handbook. So, the first of four listening sessions will be hosted here at Mitchell High School on Tuesday, February 4th at 5:30 p.m.
This comes after the board made a decision back in December to not extend their master agreement with the local teacher's union. The new employee handbook will take the place of that master agreement. D11 created a group to meet monthly for two hours to develop the handbook.
Parth Melpakem, President of the school board tells me right now, teachers are most concerned about their benefits, leave, and healthcare. These are things protected in that previous master agreement. Melpakem says he wants to make sure staff knows they will be covering all of those items in the handbook as well.
“There were some concerns that certain rights and protocols in the handbook are going to be no longer in place. We want to assure that it is not the case.”
Melpakem adds “As far as taking care of our students, we need to make sure we take care of all our employees in all three groups. So we are going to provide the most robust compensation and benefits going forward along with the support they need.”
There’s three other listening sessions happening over the next few weeks. I’m told two board members will be at every session to hear concerns and answer questions. It should last just over an hour. Anyone interested in sharing ideas or thoughts for D11 is invited to attend.
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