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Community members heard at Waverly School Board meeting

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Gini Larson is a teacher at Winans Elementary School. She's just one of the many people who voiced their concerns to the Waverly School Board tonight.

"I think it was a good communication piece between our community and the board,” Larson said. “It felt this time like the board was listening."

Which Larson says is a good thing, because for the past 13 months, Waverly teachers and the board haven't quite seen eye to eye.

"We're looking at things in a very different way than the district is," Larson said.

Superintendent Terry Urquhart says there are two big issues both sides are having a hard time agreeing on.

"One is benefits, one is salary," Urquhart said.

He says the reason the negotiations have taken more than a year because both sides aren't compromising much.

"We haven't been able to do that so well so far,” Urquhart said.” Both teams are not plugging in the way they should."

But after having this meeting, both sides are hoping to talk it out.

"The next step is to get people to consider serious negotiations when something doesn't come out the way you want it, come back and say this isn't something i could agree to, however could we tweak it this way?” Urquhart said.

"I'm hoping we can sit down and have an honest conversation about what can really happen, where we can move,” Larson said. “We're ready to give on a few things. Hopefully they're ready to give on a few things. Let's come to the middle and really find out what's going to be best for our kids and our community."

The next contract negotiation is scheduled for the afternoon of February 7th.