Agreement addresses health precautions and teacher preparation during distance and hybrid learning
Eugene School District 4J and its teachers’ union, the Eugene Education Association, have reached an agreement on working conditions during both comprehensive distance learning and hybrid on-site/online learning models.
Students began the 2020–21 school year learning from home and will not return to classrooms until January or later, when public health conditions allow. When school buildings reopen, it will be in a hybrid model, with students attending classes on-site at school and online at home in alternating groups.
Among other things, the working conditions agreement:
• Provides teachers 500 weekly minutes of individual preparation time during the workday (an increase over the established 300–350 minutes per week), and 215 minutes of common planning time.
• Affirms the district will make a good faith effort to assign qualifying high-risk staff to available positions with minimal or no in-person student contact time for the 2020–21 school year.
• Addresses health and safety conditions, including hand sanitizer stations, the provision of face coverings to all union members and personal protective equipment to represented medical professionals, and alternative workspace when union members are unable to use their regular workspace for preparation or unassigned time.
• Addresses the recording of live instruction.
• Provides for monthly meetings between the district and EEA leadership concerning the district’s plan for hybrid learning.
The agreement is temporary and will expire either when the district’s instruction model changes from distance or hybrid learning to regular full-time on-site learning for all students, at the expiration of Oregon’s emergency declaration related to the coronavirus pandemic, or on June 30, 2021, whichever happens first. The agreement does not establish precedent or status quo conditions beyond its expiration date.
This working conditions agreement is in addition to the one-year extension to EEA’s labor agreement that the district and union finalized in September. The union and district started negotiating the working conditions agreement in July, shortly after the Oregon Department of Education released its initial guidelines for allowing students to return to on-site learning.
The agreement applies to 4J’s teachers and licensed specialists, such as school nurses and counselors, who are represented by the Eugene Education Association (EEA).
Working Conditions Agreement: Approved by School Board Nov. 4
Teacher Contract Extension Agreement: Approved by School Board Sept. 16
