At the May 26 School Board meeting, the Arlington School Board unanimously passed a collective bargaining resolution that provides teachers and staff the right to negotiate directly with the Board regarding their pay, benefits and working conditions.
The final approved resolution included several revisions to the initial draft posted on April 28, 2022, in response to discussions with representatives of the Arlington Education Association and Virginia Education Association providing feedback from both associations and APS employees.
“This is a historic moment for Arlington Public Schools. We are proud to pass a resolution that gives our teachers and staff a seat at the table when it comes to directly negotiating their pay, benefits and other issues most important to them,” said School Board Chair Dr. Barbara Kanninen. “This agreement is the outcome of a careful, deliberate process to support and retain our valued employees, and we look forward to beginning this important work.”
APS is among the first several school divisions in Virginia to reinstate collective bargaining rights for staff this school year, after the legislature in 2020 lifted the state’s 43-year prohibition on collective bargaining for local government workers.
Also at last night’s meeting, the School Board appointed a new Director of Labor Relations, Stephanie Maltz, who joins APS to help lead this work, after serving as an attorney advisor at the DC Government Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining.
