Richmond Schools denies allegations that it wants to silence teachers

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Richmond Public Schools is denying allegations from union leaders that it is trying to silence its teachers.

The morning of Tuesday, Sept. 30, 8News received a joint press release from Richmond Public Schools (RPS) unions condemning what they described as a proposed "anti-union policy." By Tuesday evening, RPS issued a response to the unions' allegations.

Starting in 2021, RPS and these unions worked together to authorize collective bargaining within the school district. This move was historic, as RPS became the first school division in Virginia to do so -- something both union leaders and school officials described as a point of pride.

"We shared pride in being the first school district in Virginia to do so after pro-labor allies in the General Assembly fought to finally lift the segregation-era ban on public sector bargaining in our state," the unions said in their release.

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RPS is now considering making some changes to the language unions and school leaders crafted together. However, the two groups have fundamentally different perspectives about what is being proposed.

The unions believe the changes are an attack on RPS employees, while RPS leaders believe that the changes are employee-informed attempts to make the process better.

"Superintendent Kamras is attempting to unilaterally weaken workers’ rights," the unions said.

Union leaders continued by saying these new provisions are "weaker than the federal labor law that Trump recently gutted."

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"After decades of assaults on workers, it would be dangerous for local governments to compound these attacks," the unions said. "The superintendent’s conduct thus far has made his intentions clear: to force these changes through as quickly as possible in order to hide the changes from the general public."

Meanwhile, RPS said it's making these suggestions after hearing from teachers, principals and Central Office staff, as well as spending "tens of thousands of hours learning alongside employees about how to implement collective-bargaining agreements."

So what, exactly, is being proposed? The most severe claim made by union leaders is that RPS wants to censor and restrict the free speech of all education workers -- an allegation that RPS leaders firmly denied.

"To be clear, despite allegations to the contrary, absolutely no restrictions on teachers’ free speech rights were ever discussed," the school district said. "RPS has always, and will always, strongly support our teachers’ freedom of expression."

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Union leaders said that RPS wants to weaken employee mediation and grievance. To this allegation, RPS said the suggested changes relating to mediation and grievance are meant to address concerns raised by employees.

"We learned that employees found it confusing to have two different, but similar, grievance processes," the school district said. "We also learned that, as written, the impasse procedures were very expensive — costing more than $120,000 last year alone. And we learned that some employees did not want their home addresses shared automatically."

In full, union leaders explained the school district's proposed changes as follows:

• "Censorship and restriction of free speech for all education workers."
• "Trigger mechanisms that would cut employee pay without negotiation."
• "A reduction in the scope of what workers are allowed to bargain for in their contracts."
• "Weakening mediation and grievances."

RPS explained its proposed changes in its response as follows:

• "Removing duplicative grievance processes, a common point of feedback from employees."
• "Simplifying (while still maintaining) the impasse and mediation procedures."
• "Asking both parties to come to the table with a focused set of issues to negotiate."
• "Agreeing to implement agreed-upon provisions only when funds are available to do so."
• "Ensuring that negotiations and advocacy do not disrupt the school day or daily operations for students."

"The revisions outlined above are an attempt to make our processes clearer, more efficient, and more sustainable — both in terms of funding and staff time," the school division said. "We owe that to our stakeholders, the taxpayers and most importantly, our students."

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RPS leaders went on to emphasize that they "maintain [their] strong support of collective bargaining."

"If any changes are to be made to local labor policies, the School Board must use the same democratic process that they did when they adopted the policy," union leaders said. "RPS workers — many of whom are RPS Parents — should have been given the opportunity to meet and collaboratively draft revisions."

In its statement, RPS leaders said the proposed changes were shared with union leaders the week of Monday, Sept. 22.

"Since then, the Administration has begun a second round of meetings with our union partners to hear feedback for proposed revisions — some of which [have] already been accepted," the school district said. "The School Board of the City of Richmond is the body with the authority to make these changes and looks forward to discussing the proposed modifications in public at both of our upcoming meetings."

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The Richmond School Board's next meeting is set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

The day prior, at 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6, the unions will hold a press conference and rally at the 9th Street entrance to City Hall to further denounce these proposed changes.