DeleteDiscussions about the position board members plan to take on a KASB question about teacher negotiations and disappointment with several aspects of the nearly finished gymnasium dominated Monday night’s USD 428 Board of Education meeting.Board happy with status quoSuperintendent Tom Vernon presented background about the Kansas Association of School Board’s request for direction on the issue of teacher negotiations that is likely to come up when state legislators begin the 2014 session.“At the heart of the question is, what do we have to negotiate, and who do we have to negotiate with,” Vernon said.Vernon said currently, there is a list of at least 20 points the district is required to negotiate on. The KASB would like to narrow that list to a handful of basic requirements including compensation, fringe benefits, the number of hours of work, leaves and the number of holidays. Other points, like wearing apparel or grievance procedures, would be left up to districts to decide if they want to negotiate on them or not.Vernon said the question of who the district would need to negotiate with came up last year, when an upstart teacher organization with more conservative leanings than KNEA proposed legislation that would allow them to negotiate on their own, rather than with certified teachers organizations.