Teachers' union meeting canceled

Another miscommunication between members of the public school system and the teachers' union resulted in a canceled meeting and stalled progress Monday.

Ray Swoffard, Hamilton County's deputy superintendent of campus support; Connie Atkins, assistant superintendent for human resources; and James Colbert, area superintendent, showed up at the headquarters of the Hamilton County Education Association shortly after 9 a.m. for what they thought was a Labor and Management Committee meeting.

They were told there was no meeting, and after brief debate with association officials the three left.

Several closed-door meetings later, Deputy Superintendent Rick Smith asked the Chattanooga Times Free Press to leave because Monday's meeting would not involve negotiations but rather "procedural" discussions only.

When Mr. Smith realized the media still would be present, he said, "Well, there won't be a meeting today, then."

Sharon Vandagriff, president of the association, later denied that the canceled meeting had to do only with the presence of the media.

There was a "mix-up" she said, and she had canceled the Labor and Management meeting last week because some members of her negotiating team could not be present.

Ms. Vandagriff did plan to meet with members of both teams to "go over ground rules" of negotiations, but she was afraid to continue with the media present and some of her team absent, she said.

Every year, school system and teachers' union officials negotiate issues such as salaries, medical benefits and sick leave. Their finished product becomes the teacher contract, or memorandum of agreement.