Knoch’s school board announced at a Jan. 14 meeting they would sign off on a teachers contract, calmly resolving a disagreement over health care language. Months later, that contract is still being held up over a separate dispute.

This time, there is disagreement in the language over when vision and dental benefits kick in.

At Knoch’s April 1 school board work session, board President Donna Eakin responded to a comment made by a member of the public, saying the board had not received any communication from the teachers union since it signed off on the contract two months ago.

“We signed that in February. It’s with the union. We have not heard anything back from them,” Eakin said. “We’ve signed it. We’ve done what we’re supposed to do and we are waiting on the teachers’ union.”

Ian Babb, head of Knoch’s teachers union, confirmed the district sent signed copies of the contract in February. But he maintains it was known to the board the implementation dates and effective dates for vision and dental were still in question.

“The district saw fit to send us signed copies of the final contract that included effective date changes in the language that had not been disclosed to us,” Babb said.

The questions around vision and dental benefits are separate from the health care concerns that have been resolved. Babb said at an executive session after the fact finding hearing, both parties discussed an implementation date of the health care for July 1, 2026, meaning the current health care plan would run through this school year, then it would change.

However, Babb said the union believes that implementation date is not applicable or effective for the vision and dental, meaning “those increases should have been retroactive to July 1, 2025, or increased as soon as feasible.”

“We understand it’s not feasible to go back and change those plans back to months that have already existed,” Babb said. “It would have been a work in progress to see when those plans could have been updated to the increased benefits.

“We’ve had teachers who have waited on scheduling vision and dental appointments because they knew things should be changing and our thought at the time was that January was a good time to see that change.”

But, come March, their plans have not changed.

“The issue at hand seems to be the district holding that they think that’s effective July 1, 2026,” Babb added.

Tom Breth, the school board’s solicitor, previously recommended the board not fight over the health care language, which the board agreed to. He said the contract was presented to Babb back in February.

“The board has not heard from anybody. It hasn’t heard from Brooke Witt (the teachers union’s representative) since then. I don’t think Ian Babb’s ever come to a board meeting,” Breth said. “Ian Babb hasn’t emailed the administration. They haven’t filed a grievance.”

Babb claims he has communicated with the district and the board.

“I communicated with all members of the board back in February and to this day have not received a response,” Babb said.

The board and the teachers union announced they approved a fact-finding agreement on contract negotiations Oct. 8. The four-year collective bargaining agreement, if signed by both parties, is set to cover July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2029.

“Our question is, why haven’t you signed off on the contract the board gave you? Ian Babb hasn’t answered that question to my knowledge,” Breth said. “We’ve implemented all provisions required to be implemented under the fact-finding report … the only changes that come next are July 1, 2026.

“From the district’s perspective, we’ve complied with the report. The only controversy is the education association’s controversy and why won’t they sign the agreement,” Breth said.