KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Angry and frustrated teachers took their contract demands to the Kansas City School Board, but not enough board members showed up to hold an official meeting.
About 300 people packed the room, most wearing union t-shirts and/or "Bargain in good faith" buttons.
The only five board members who attended the meeting listened as the crowd erupted into applause as soon as union leaders approached the podium.
“We feel that our contract is being blamed for the problems in the district and we are angry and fed up with that type of thinking,” said union president Judy Morgan.
The board did not take a roll call and was unable to take any formal action because four of the nine members didn’t show, preventing a quorum.
A school district representative says the missing members were either sick, out of town, or unavailable because of family obligations.
The teachers fear working without a contract means working without the protections afforded in the last round of negotiations like planning time during school days, management input, and control over transfers.
“What it really says, is that if that if we don't do what you want us to, you will impose what you want on us,” said teachers’ union negotiator Andrea Flinders. “That is unacceptable”.
The teachers say the district informed them by letter the current contract expired June 30.
“Please honor our contract until negotiations are settled,” Flinders pleaded with the board members.
A school district security guard physically blocked NBC Action News efforts after the meeting to get a school board member reaction, leaving only a school spokeswoman, who had very little information, to comment.
“I don't know what to tell you,” KCMO School District spokesperson Cynthia Wheeler-Linden said. “Other than what I know and it's very little, quite frankly. I'm not involved. That's a behind the door negotiating process.”
Wheeler says she is certain the two sides will eventually reach a contract.
Morgan acknowledged teachers had violated state law by striking in the past, but refused to answer when asked whether striking remains in the union’s negotiating arsenal.
The school system says it is determined to continue negotiations.
