{"id":96650,"date":"2017-12-20T09:05:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T14:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=96650"},"modified":"2017-12-20T09:05:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T14:05:48","slug":"little-progress-seen-on-vwft-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/12\/20\/little-progress-seen-on-vwft-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Little progress seen on VWFT contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Van Wert independent<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although both sides failed to reach an agreement during a mediation meeting held Tuesday between the Van Wert City Board of Education and the Van Wert Federation of Teachers, at least one side seems to feel things are moving closer to a settlement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMediation tonight didn\u2019t result in an agreement,\u201d VWCS Superintendent Staci Kaufman acknowledged. \u201cWe explored various possibilities and I believe we are closer than we were in previous meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kaufman noted that both sides are using the agreed-upon process, and \u201cnow<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_96234\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96234\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-96234\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/VWFT-outside-VWHS-12-8-17.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"179\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-96234\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>VWFT President Jeff Hood holds a sign seeking a fair contract as part of a group of teachers who gathered outside Van Wert High School on recently.<\/strong> <em>VW independent file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>have a narrower set of variables to work with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe board will review and discuss progress made and where we are now at the regular December meeting (tonight, at 5 p.m., in the conference room of the S.F. Goedde building),\u201d Kaufman added.<\/p>\n<p>VWFT President Jeff Hood was not as positive as Kaufman on the results of Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur negotiations meeting tonight was unproductive,\u201d Hood said, noting, \u201cWe offered to settle on a two-year deal at 2 percent\/2 percent on salary, give up the PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) insurance plan in 2019, no movement on HSA (Health Savings Account) premium, and move the supplemental base 4 percent each year. We are suggesting \u2018fact finding\u2019, which is the next step after mediation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hood said the city school board will look at moving to the fact finding step during tonight\u2019s meeting, adding, however, that the board must agree to participate before that can happen.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers have been working \u201cbell to bell\u201d for the past week or so, and that will continue at least until the next meeting between the two sides.<\/p>\n<p>Hood said the VWFT will also have representatives at tonight\u2019s board meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The teachers have been working under their previous contract since it expired on July 1 of this year and sought mediation last month to try and come to an agreement with the board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Van Wert independent Although both sides failed to reach an agreement during a mediation meeting held Tuesday between the Van Wert City Board of Education and the Van Wert Federation of Teachers, at least one side seems to feel things are moving closer to a settlement. \u201cMediation tonight didn\u2019t result in an agreement,\u201d VWCS Superintendent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 07:50:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}