Albemarle County Public Schools passes collective bargaining resolution

After two years of campaigning, the Albemarle County School Board passed a collective bargaining resolution. 

In a unanimous vote, the county School Board voted to engage in collective bargaining with the Albemarle Education Association. The two parties will negotiate items — such as benefits and wages — for all workers within the school system, but only after the union completes an election.

“I’m excited that the Board and the AEA could come to this point and that we’re finally here after a really long time,” Allison Spillman, at-large board member for Albemarle Schools, said at Thursday’s meeting. 

The AEA started its push for collective bargaining in October 2021. The road to resolution has been a bumpy one for the union. The School Board voted against AEA’s first stab at a resolution in August 2022. Albemarle schools attempted to redirect school workers into engaging by creating an Employee Voice and Action Committee. The district said the committee would allow employees to discuss their concerns with no formal bargaining power. But the union powered on. 

In September, AEA suspended talks with Albemarle schools. The union walked out in protest to the conditions the school division imposed, which Vernon Liechti, former AEA president, said were “not collective bargaining.”

The two parties began talking again in October after having a “productive discussion,” the school division told the Daily Progress. It’s unclear what that discussion entailed. Charlottesville Tomorrow asked McIntire, but she said she didn’t know because she was “not a part of the negotiations team at that time.” Because of that, the Board and AEA were able to work on a resolution that worked for both of them.

The vote this week simply allows the AEA to represent county school employees. Negotiations have yet to begin.

Before that can happen, AEA has to meet several criteria. The group must collect activation cards from at least 50% of eligible ACPS employees — everyone not including central office administration workers — to qualify for an election to be the bargaining agent for ACPS employees. If the group achieves that, it will hold an election that will be counted by a neutral third party group. If the AEA wins at least 33% of the employee votes, then the union can proceed with negotiations as the bargaining agent for ACPS workers. 

Despite next steps, Albemarle school employees who’ve supported collective bargaining since the beginning are breathing a sigh of relief.

“Collective bargaining means that employees in every area of our schools — in classrooms, cafeterias, buses, offices and more —- will now have a real voice when it comes to our paid benefits and working conditions,” Tim Klobuchar, teacher at Monticello High School, said at Thursday’s meeting. “That will make a huge difference for us, in terms of tangible benefits as well as overall morale.”

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