As possible teacher strike looms, Gateway School Board asks families for patience, hires full-time equity director

Gateway School District superintendent William Short used his time for remarks at the district’s school board meeting Wednesday night to ask for patience and understanding from students, families and residents with a potential teachers’ strike looming.

The teachers’ union informed Short on Tuesday that a strike will begin on May 24 if the district and the Gateway Education Association can’t reach a tentative agreement. The previous contract expired June 30, 2020 and the two sides have been negotiating since January 2020.

“Of course it is never, never our hope that education is halted for a work stoppage, and I can assure you that we are working behind the scenes to alleviate this issue,” Short said. “But, I advise everyone to monitor their email for information that would come out from the district in regards to the work stoppage if it does, in fact, happen.

“We will send out multiple communications beginning on Friday and throughout the weekend to advise and ensure that all of our students and families are aware of the impact that will be caused by the shutdown and how this will operate. I ask for your patience and, please, stay tuned.”

Despite the threat of a teachers’ strike, the most in-depth discussion of the meeting centered around the potential hiring of a full-time equity director.

A number of parents and residents spoke both for and against the creation of the administrative position, which would be a four-year contract at a salary of $125,000 per year.

The district has been seeking solutions to close the achievement, or opportunity, gap between white and black students for many years. They hired a part-time equity director in 2017, created equity teams within schools and formed an equity committee.

The resolution, presented by board member Richard McIntyre, cites the “profound effect” on the achievement of Gateway students caused by the covid-19 pandemic and the obligation of the district to ensure that gap does not widen.

A motion by board member Valerie Warning to table the vote until after a staffing meeting on June 1 failed by a vote of 5-4.

The resolution passed by the same count. Robin Mungo, Susan DeLaney, Scott Gallagher, Brian Goppman and McIntyre voted in favor of establishing the position. Warning, John Ritter, Scott Williams and Mary Beth Cirucci voted no.

DeLaney noted prior to the vote that words such as diversity, equity and inclusion have become buzzwords with a negative connotation, perhaps because of misunderstanding.

“Large corporations have invested time and money into this,” she said. “We invest time and money into renovations, into sports, into everything. We need to be investing in all of our students achieving because it only makes our district look better. Gateway is an excellent district. I don’t think anyone would deny that. But if we all are not achieving, then the district itself is not going to achieve.”

Williams said he wasn’t opposed to hiring an equity director but voted no because the timing is bad.

“We’re in negotiations with the teachers right now and we’re showing them we have all this extra cash we can give an equity director and everything else,” he said. “That’s why I think the timing’s bad on it. I’d love to have an equity director. I’d love to have smaller class sizes. We used to have a tree out back, had all kinds of cash on it. That tree died. In years past that’s what we’d do. Any problem we had, we would throw money at it. We don’t have that choice no more, so I’m just cautious about spending the cash and the timing of it.”

McIntyre said he understood the concerns about timing, but wouldn’t allow a potential strike to hold back a resolution that he believes will benefit the district and the community.

“I see any money we spend on a full-time equity director and this equity program as a long-term investment in the community,” he said. “If it has the effect that we’re shooting for, it makes the teachers better, it improves test scores, it makes Gateway a better school district, which makes kids and families want to move here, which increases our tax roll, which can increase teacher pay. In the long run this is an investment.”