Albemarle teachers and staff expected to push for collective bargaining during School Board meeting

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Some Albemarle County teachers and staff are rallying ahead of Thursday’s School Board meeting. This comes after the Albemarle Education Association (AEA) walked out of collective bargaining talks last week.

School employees and community members are expected to come to the Albemarle County Office Building around 6 p.m. Thursday, September 14, and urge board members to reconsider the terms of the resolution.

“We need to let them know that the public supports our public school educators, it supports our unions,” Bellamy Brown said.

In February, discussions between AEA and the School Board began to pass a collective bargaining resolution. This would give teachers and staff a voice in their pay, benefits, and working conditions.

Negotiations between unions and their school divisions began in 2020 after a law passed allowing collective bargaining with public employees, something Charlottesville City Schools already approved.

However, AEA walked out mid-negotiation last week over terms the School Board laid out.

In a statement to NBC29, the county’s School Board said, “The School Board stands ready to resume negotiations and urges the AEA representatives to return to the bargaining table.”

The next steps remain unclear, for now.

“We’re going to continue this fight,” Brown said.

Rally-goers say they’re planning on speaking to the Scbool Board directly during the public comment portion of Thursday’s meeting.

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