Ringgold schools to remain closed due to teacher strike
Teachers in Ringgold School District planned to remain on strike Friday as negotiations the day before failed to produce an agreement that would have returned students to classrooms.
Ringgold Education Association President Maria Degnan said representatives for the school district “weren’t willing to move on anything this morning, on any open issues” during some 3 1/2 hours of negotiations Thursday.
“So the strike continues, and we resume bargaining at 7 p.m.,” Degnan said shortly before the evening session began.
District Superintendent Karen Polkabla said earlier in the day talks “continued in a positive manner.”
“The gap between the monetary expectations of the Ringgold Education Association and what the district can legally raise in taxes was too large to close,” Polkabla said in a statement released Thursday night. “The district will continue to work toward an agreement that gets the teachers and students back into the classroom, is affordable to the taxpayer and allows the district to operate without cutting programs and staff.”
The 210 Ringgold teachers walked off their jobs Oct. 18, with the proposal to freeze them at their current salary steps for five years as one of the biggest challenges preventing agreement on a new five-year contract.
Ringgold Education Association also rejected a fact-finder’s recommendation that would have taken their salaries from between $36,000 and $78,508 a year last term to between $41,439 and $83,947 a year by the end of the contract.
Additional negotiation sessions are scheduled for Nov. 8 and 13, Polkabla said.
The state Department of Education has told Ringgold that teachers must return to the classroom on November 21, 2017 for students to have the required 180 days of instruction by June 15, 2018.