Mountain View School District faces two lawsuits on negotiations

GRANGEVILLE — In a rare move, the Idaho Education Association has filed two lawsuits against the Mountain View School District on behalf of the local teachers union for details relating to contract negotiations.

The lawsuits target the district’s bargaining practices during contract negotiations for the 2018-19 school year and allege public records violations. The district and the Central Idaho Education Association are in mediation on the contracts for this school year.

“The IEA filing a bargaining-related lawsuit on behalf of a local association is extremely rare,” Paul Stark, general counsel for Idaho Education Association, said in an email. “It is only done when all other efforts to find common ground on negotiations processes have been exhausted. It has been many years since the IEA has been forced to take this extraordinary step.”

School board chairman Lot Smith said he was not able to comment on either case because the district had not yet been served the lawsuits.

“We haven’t seen anything,” Smith said.

In an executive session Monday night, the school board discussed the litigation and the teacher contracts but no action was taken on either. The Monday night meeting lasted more than four hours.

According to Smith, the district extended a contract offer two weeks ago but has not yet heard a response from the Central Idaho Education Association.

A lawsuit filed Dec. 6 lays out three claims against the school district, and also individually names the school board members as plaintiffs.

The complaint states the teachers’ first amendment rights were violated after the district issued a directive that district employees could not wear clothing with the association’s logo or slogan.

The second claim for relief cites a breach of contract.

“The parties agreed in their 2017-2018 agreement that they would meet and confer during the term of that agreement for the purpose of addressing preparation time, perceived failings of the framework of the salary schedule, and health insurance for represented employees,” according to the lawsuit. “The association attempted on multiple occasions to initiate such discussions. On each such occasion the district, through its agents, failed to meet and confer for the specified purposes.”

The third claim states the district did not bargain in good faith as set out in the Idaho Professional Negotiations Act, therefore resulting in a violation.

A separate lawsuit filed Dec. 7 states the district violated the Idaho Public Records Act after it refused to produce records the Central Idaho Education Association had requested.

According to the complaint, a records request filed on behalf of the association seeking insurance package information along with invoices, bills and correspondence between the district and its law firm involved in negotiations went unfulfilled. The requests were denied and no Public Records Act provisions were cited, something required by Idaho Code.

Both lawsuits ask for the district’s costs and fees to be awarded, as well as any additional relief the court finds suitable.

At least one of the lawsuits is likely to go forward even when a contract agreement is reached.

“In the event of a settlement, the public records request complaint would likely go forward,” Stark said. “Portions of the federal complaint relating to the bargaining process might carry forward, but that would be a decision to be made at that point in time and taking into consideration all available information. No determinations have yet been made regarding the future of either complaint, and we will evaluate all options as circumstances warrant.”

Tomtas may be contacted at jtomtas@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2294. Follow her on Twitter @jtomtas.

Coming Wednesday

A look at the Mountain View School District budget discussions.