The union representing support staff at the Juneau School District is scheduled to go to trial in February.
Juneau Education Support Staff filed a lawsuit against the district a year ago. The lawsuit alleged the district didn’t follow the necessary steps in the union contract when it shut down its after-school childcare program, called RALLY.
The union represents a wide range of employees including paraeducators, custodians and school nurses. Employees at the former childcare program were also union members.
The judge overseeing the case, Larry Woolford, already delayed setting a trial date last March because both parties planned to go through arbitration, which is part of a grievance process laid out in the union contract. In this case, an arbitrator would hear both sides and issue a legally binding statement.
But during the conference Wednesday morning, both parties confirmed arbitration has not happened since March.
A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Jan. 11. The two-day trial is scheduled for Feb. 11 and 12 at the Dimond Courthouse in Juneau.
