D11 Master Agreement meeting to decide consequential contract for teachers Wednesday

UPDATE: The D11 Board of Education voted Wednesday night to end the Master Agreement with the Colorado Springs Education Association.

Original story:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - District 11 board members are expected to decide tonight on a Master Agreement that will determine teacher salary and say in district decisions.

Colorado Springs Education Association (CSEA) is the union behind the master agreement negotiations. It hopes the board will renew the contract on Wednesday.

"Every article in our master agreement is about improving teacher working conditions from a collaborative process and problem-solving to plan time to teacher salary. There's nothing in our master agreement that precludes impacting student achievement because everything that's in there is workplace rights for teachers," Kevin Coughlin with CSEA said.

Another education group, D11 Momentum opposes the union and the Master Agreement. They claim that CSEA is a partisan group, they're not financially transparent, and that the Master Agreement is bad for the teachers and students.

"Does it have any business in the governing of the district?" Joel Sorensen with D11 Momentum questioned. "It's a special interest group. It can't be held accountable."

Sorensen went on to say that teachers in D11 would have power in the district regardless of the contract.

"I think this is the most pro-teacher board that exists and that they're going to have protection and increased pay under this board regardless of the union. I think this has much more to do with returning public education to the public than it does with teacher benefits and salary," Sorensen said.

D11 board members will not comment before the meeting. This is a developing story.