The Nampa school board and the local teachers’ union are at an impasse in contract negotiations, the district announced Wednesday. 

The school board and union had reopened negotiations for the 2023-2024 school year to determine how the district should spend state allocations.

Talks broke down at a special meeting Wednesday, when the three present trustees— Chair Jeff Kirkman, Brook Taylor and David Jennings — voted unanimously to declare an impasse and close negotiations. That was followed by a district press release that announced the union had asked trustees to eliminate 13 positions in order to free up funding for teacher stipends. Brian Coffey, president of the Nampa Education Association, said in an interview with EdNews that the district’s description of what transpired was “complete nonsense and a total fabrication.”

In a social media post, Coffey expressed frustration with the district.

“Please rest assured, it was not our idea to cut any staff,” he wrote. “Please don’t be fooled by their lies … The District is playing games with us.”

At the end of Wednesday’s special meeting, Trustee Brook Taylor said the union’s actions had “damaged the relationship” for her because she felt teachers were overlooking all the district has done for them, including raising base wages, providing more support staff and moving to four-day weeks. 

“I feel like you guys are squabbling for pennies in a situation that would greatly cripple this organization,” Taylor said. “So it leads me to believe that you guys don’t truly have the organizational health of this district at heart, which in turn affects students … Realistically, this has been a slap in my face after all that we have fought for for teachers.”

Coffey said the trustee’s comments were demeaning and took issue with Taylor’s description of teachers “squabbling for pennies.” “I would like to live in a world where $4.5M is ‘pennies’,” he wrote in a social media post. 

In the post, he also called Taylor and Kirkman “good soldiers” for the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a hardline conservative nonprofit.

In an interview with EdNews, Kirkman said he is not a member of IFF, does not subscribe to the group’s platform, and said Taylor is not involved with the group either. 

How talks broke down

At issue in the negotiations was about $4.5 million in state dollars the district received, Coffey said, that were tied to 2023 funding for teacher raises. 

According to Kirkman, roughly half of that money went to teacher salaries. The other half was discretionary, meaning the district could determine how to use it. About $1 million of that went to shore up gaps created when lottery dollars were inadvertently tied up, Kirkman said. 

The remaining million is where the disagreement has centered. 

The union has pushed for those dollars to go to teachers in the form of one-time, $1,000 payments. But the district said it has planned to use those dollars for 13 staff members whose salaries were previously paid with COVID-19 relief dollars, which have expired. 

The positions include: 

• three middle school counselors
• three elementary school deans
• four elementary school vice principals
• three paraprofessionals

Kirkman said the district created those positions at the request of staff, who were experiencing an uptick in student behavioral issues that in some cases were threatening teachers’ physical safety. 

In a district survey of elementary staff sent out last spring, more than 85% of staff expressed their support for the elementary positions. 

“The Board concurred, concluding that these roles are vital to student well-being, classroom support, and school safety, and maintains that preserving them is necessary to uphold the district’s commitment to student success and teacher support,” the district’s press release said.

In a letter to union members, Coffey said he believes the district could send out the $1 million in teacher payments without cutting staff. “They have it in the Fund Balance right now,” he wrote.

But Kirkman said in an interview that would not be possible. “It looks like we are just being jerks and don’t want to give our staff money, but it’s not that at all,” he said. “We have to look at the bigger picture. (Coffey) was looking at just one tiny slice of the picture.”

During negotiations, Kirkman said trustees instructed the mediator to ask the union for solutions, including whether they would want to cut some of those 13 positions to recoup funds for stipends. The question was intended to be a sincere request for solutions, Kirkman said, because trustees could not see another way to free up funding. 

Coffey took offense at the question and saw it as a “ploy.” Coffey said the union never responded to that or suggested that staff cuts be made. 

But the district’s mediator told trustees that the union wanted them to cut the 13 positions to make the money available, Kirkman said.

At that point, at the end of Wednesday’s special meeting, the board voted to declare an impasse and end negotiations. 

Neither Kirkman nor Coffey is sure what will happen next.

But, Coffey said, “teachers are pissed.”