"Cause You Need To Know!"
April 7th, 2024
I SEE WHAT'S GOING ON...I WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW ABOUT NEGOTIATIONS.
Negotiations are presently at a standstill as we battle with the House Administration to "just" follow the law. The Open Meetings Act of Maryland calls for all government meetings to start off as meetings open to the public and then based on some circumstances in the law, be allowed to go into closed sessions at their discretion and by a majority vote of the governing body (PGCPS).
In other words, each negotiation meeting/session can begin as open to the public and if the governing body (PGCPS) wants to close the meeting after taking attendance and any other house keeping matters, they would have to vote each time and go on the record as closing each and every meeting/session. For some strange reason, they do not want to follow the law and have to go on record as closing the sessions from you.
I do not know what it is that they want to keep you from hearing. I don't know why they are against following this provision of the law. They may want you to think that ASASP is somehow in agreement with closed sessions, We Are Not, but we will follow the law.
I Do Not Know why Dr. Goldson did not object to open meetings with the teachers union last year and now just twelve months later, her successor, Mr. House and his Administration are adamant about keeping you out of even the roll call. Just so you know, the teachers union (PGCEA) was allowed and had over 1,000 members virtually in some of their sessions witness their public negotiations just last year.
Since February when ASASP and PGCPS initially began the conversations, ASASP has petitioned for open sessions all the way up to the Maryland Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) and the PERB has ruled that PGCPS has the right to close the sessions, but we want you to know that we want them to follow the law to the T.
I just need for you to know that this is a new day at ASASP and we will not be "going along just to get along," unless that is what you, dues paying members, overwhelmingly want us to do! Let us know what and how you feel.
Stay tuned for the beginning of the month ASASP Union Times, it will be coming out very shortly, I sent this separate "Cause You Need To Know!"
Jeffery Parker, Executive Director ASASP