Kalispell Teachers’ Union, Administration Clash Over New Middle School Course, but Board Declines Weighing in for Now
The union followed the grievance process over the additional responsibilities a new course at the middle school has added to their plates this year, which they say they should be compensated for
By Mariah Thomas
The Kalispell Public Schools board of trustees declined intervening in a dispute between the teachers’ union and administration Tuesday over WIN — or “What I Need” — courses, punting the issue until its next board meeting. If the board takes no action within 15 days, it has chosen to side with the administration.
The 50-minute required WIN course takes place every other day at Kalispell Middle School. Billed as a class period where students work independently while staff ensure they remain on task, the WIN course focuses on character-building lessons. Teachers said the class also at times provides outdoor recreation, as physical education courses have been slashed amid funding cuts at the school district.
For teachers, the class is assigned a “duty” classification. Teachers said typically, that classification means they have supervisory duties, but do not have to provide instruction. Teachers do not receive additional time or monetary compensation for duties.
It’s that classification of the course the union takes issue with.
Teachers at the meeting said they must change lessons and curriculum for WIN classes, which requires additional preparation. They also said they have to engage their students in instruction during the class, elevating it from a “duty” classification. They say they want compensation for the extra work — and that it’s required, per their collective bargaining agreement.
Administrators acknowledged the new course has come with growing pains. They said they have tried to work with teachers to take work off their plates with the course.
“At its core, this grievance addresses the reduction in force, full-time staff reductions, and the resulting expectation that teachers assume increased workloads without additional compensation,” Lynne Rider, the Kalispell Education Association (KEA) president, wrote in an email to the Beacon.
By reduction in force, Rider said she’s referring to the district shedding staff over the better part of the past decade as it works to balance its budget.
Between the previous school year and the current one alone, the district reduced its staffing by 16 full-time positions to compensate for a dearth of funding from the state. Concerns over a lack of funding have become a common refrain for schools across Montana in recent years. Many have grappled with shortfalls under the state’s current formula. Ahead of the school year, Kalispell teachers called for changing the current school funding formula by making better adjustments for inflation and fully funding schools, rather than funding them to the Base Amount for School Equity, which represents around 80% of a district’s maximum budget. To reach full funding, districts must ask local voters to approve levies — an ask Kalispell voters approved for the high school district for the first time in 18 years last spring.
The reduction in force from the previous school year hit Kalispell Middle School hard, per Principal Dallas Stuker. Stuker said at Tuesday’s board meeting his building lost 8.4 full-time positions due to a lack of funding, and that change has been difficult to navigate — a sentiment Rider seconded.
WIN periods also marked a change for teachers at the middle school level, where teachers have historically had both an hour of prep time and an hour of team time to collaborate with their fellow educators as part of the school day. With WIN classes in place, teachers only have team time every other school day, rather than each day, according to Superintendent Matt Jensen.
“The intention was for it to be a duty period, because we have to have a place for students to go where they are supervised,” Stuker said.
Sara Cole, the district’s assistant superintendent for K-8, explained the WIN class design didn’t intend to add more responsibility to teachers’ plates. As it became evident the courses were becoming a burden on teachers, Cole said, she worked to provide teachers with options for how to run the course. Those options include offering the class as a study hall or with a more scripted structure so teachers wouldn’t have to provide instruction. The lessons, instead, come from the district. Administrators said the scripted structure comes with activities students can complete without teachers’ help.
Not true, Rider said.
“It requires teachers to manage large groups of students, facilitate district-provided lessons and modify materials that are not developmentally or academically appropriate,” Rider said. “This is not passive supervision. It is active instruction. Labeling this work as a duty minimizes the professional expertise, instructional skill and emotional labor required to make WIN successful, especially when students arrive with high energy due to reduced P.E. While I believe in the potential of WIN to support student growth, that potential is unsustainable if we fail to acknowledge the complexity of the work involved.
Rider continued: “The reality is that WIN functions as a teaching block, not a supervisory assignment like hallway or lunch duty. Teachers are being asked to bridge the gap between provided materials and student needs without the recognition or compensation afforded to instructional time. When instructional work is misclassified as a duty, it leads to burnout and sends the message that professional expertise is secondary.”
Jensen said administration and teachers agree on many points: WIN time is valuable, the loss of staff is a challenge and that administratively, more work needs to be done to determine how to use staff most efficiently and effectively. But the grievance has moved up the chain of command, from attempting to come up with a remedy between teachers and Stuker, to Jensen’s desk and now to the board. The union said the remedies administrators previously offered were inadequate.
Rider said Stuker offered to put more compensated staff on the Kalispell Middle School WIN task force to address the issue. At the higher level, the superintendent’s remedy was for administration to clarify what WIN time should be, explore expanding paid opportunities for staff to create WIN materials and to have an annual review for WIN. The teachers’ union is asking for monetary compensation for overseeing the class.
School board members had mixed opinions on the issue Tuesday evening.
Some board members saw the issue in nuanced terms, arguing the district’s collective bargaining agreement doesn’t clearly define a “duty period.” Board members Jack Fallon and Jinnifer Mariman also questioned whether the grievance process was the proper way to address the issue. Fallon suggested the administration and union should have instead pursued a memorandum of understanding, a document which spells out shared goals and responsibilities for future collaboration, or addressed the issue through future contract negotiations.
Board members Will Hiatt and Linda Kaps both said they fell on the side of the union, saying the teachers’ work on the course deserves recognition via compensation.
“This is an extra instruction period. How are we going to honor that work?” Rider said. “Asking them to join another committee is not honoring that work. Asking them to wait until the end of the year to look at the frustrations that this year has caused is not honoring the work. So, the resolutions that were given to us is not honoring the work. We need to come to some agreement where we’re honoring the work. And it is an added instruction period, and we did not agree to it under the guise of duty.”