Tensions high at board meeting as teachers decry school district’s contract policy

April 29--CORPUS CHRISTI -- In a sign of escalating tensions between the teachers unions and CCISD, the American Federation of Teachers rallied outside Monday's school board meeting, a week after trustees voted against the reinstatement of tenure for teachers.

"This was prompted when they refused to even compromise on the contract issue, when they went from the strongest contract in Texas to not even be willing to compromise," said Ray McMurrey, Corpus Christi AFT president. "It just, once again, showed their willingness to do the very worst to employees as they could, to be as draconian as they could to employees."

Backed by three teacher's unions, educators last week called on the Corpus Christi Independent School District to reverse its 2011 decision to stop offering continuing contracts, the only teacher contracts without expiration dates.

Teachers argue such contracts offer better job protection from angry parents, retaliatory administrators or test scores that threaten their job security. The district, when it stopped offering the contracts, said it did so because CCISD faced bigger legal hurdles when trying to fire or lay off a continuing contract teacher.

Four trustees -- Board President Carol Scott and Jane Bell, John Longoria and Dwayne Hargis -- struck down a motion to reinstate the contracts.

McMurrey characterized the move as the latest in a long list of "anti-employee" decisions, including switching from a fully funded health insurance plan to a self-funded health insurance plan years ago.

"This finally was the straw that broke the camel's back," McMurrey said.

Longoria said McMurrey is out of touch. Longoria said while McMurrey tries to tear CCISD down, he is trying to support and strengthen the district, noting trustees consistently have given teacher raises and did not lay off teachers when the state chopped $5.4 billion from school finance, forcing districts statewide to cut educators. Also, at $513 per month, the district funds teachers' health insurance at the highest rate in the region, Longoria said.

"Those are the facts, and Ray has rhetoric and there's a day-and-night difference," Longoria said. "Ray can blow on his bullhorn all day long, but he does not have the facts to back it up."

About 50 people gathered on the sidewalk in front of the administration building, singing "Our contract is our future, we shall not be moved," and waving signs that said "Teachers need due process" and "(Superintendent) Scott Elliff is a sellout."

They then moved inside for public comment where a handful of people addressed the board, including McMurrey, who accused a majority of trustees of being unfit for public service.

"We are at the lowest mark in academic history in CCISD and you've done it by demoralizing your staff," he said. "You've done it by disrespecting your employees. And in November, if we don't change, we are going to continue to see a degradation of this district."

The 30-minute public comment session at times grew tense, with Scott threatening to remove audience remembers if they continued applauding and violating the board's rules of decorum.

A CCISD officer moved in to remove one speaker, Chris Phelan, after he continued to talk about a topic he had earlier addressed with trustees -- board policy says speakers can't address the same topic twice in the same meeting, Scott said -- but he changed the subject to teacher contracts and continued speaking until his 3-minute time limit expired.

Few teachers who attended the rally didn't have continuing contracts, which the district grandfathered in when it changed the policy in 2011. About 75 percent of CCISD teachers have continuing contracts but that will change as those teachers leave the district and are replaced.

The board has no plans to discuss contracts again.

Twitter: @CallerRhiannon

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