Starting last week, Rangeview teachers were asked to sign mandatory contracts agreeing that if they lose any keys to the building they are responsible for the cost of replacing the corresponding locks.
This directive by the district is reportedly part of their new key inventory system which started last year, meant to ensure the safety of staff and students as well as encourage staff to take care of their keys.
The price to replace one lock is estimated to be $300. Teachers have keys that unlock all doors in their department, all of which they would have to pay to rekey. One math teacher estimates that losing their key would result in them owing $4,800–more than they make in a month. However, some question if the payment penalties would even be enforceable.
The price of rekeying the locks has caused fear among some Rangeview staff. Another teacher stated, “It kind of freaks me out,” and that they ultimately regret signing it. If something happens like their car is stolen after work with their keys inside, they fear car insurance won’t cover it and they’ll be liable for the locks. “It makes me really nervous for sure,” they added, and they may be interested in insuring their key.
A limited few staff members are in possession of a “master” key, which unlocks every door in the building. Signing the contract and subsequently losing one of these keys would result in an astronomical fee because all locks would need to be replaced, reportedly costing $38,000.
A third anonymous teacher believes that $300 for each door is an unreasonable ask, and they hope APS will have discretion on whether they’ll make teachers pay, and take the circumstances into account.
The teacher stated they’ve been part of the district for a long time and have yet to lose their keys, but they know “it happens from time to time… that’s just life. People lose stuff.” They also stated that this likely stems from the fact the district “want money and they don’t want to give money,” citing the disagreements over teacher contracts that occured this year, leaving them without contracts for months. According to them the district treat them like children, and in this case they treat them like millionaires, knowing well how little a teacher’s salary is.
The email sent out to teachers involving the contract stated “All employees must sign [the] receipt”. Not signing it would result in the staff member’s keys being taken back, and unable to unlock their door or the staff bathrooms. An anonymous teacher stated they didn’t want to sign it, but eventually caved because they didn’t want to be without keys.
The email regarding the contract did not state that it included agreeing to financial compensation, and it was only included in the last sentence of the contract itself. This led to the misunderstanding with art teacher Alison Maes, who did not realize the contents of the contract made her liable for any missing keys until we informed her.
Some teachers are not concerned with the contract. English teacher Jon Sobolewski who has been with APS for two decades stated “It’s not that big a deal. Don’t lose your keys.”
Stephanie Walsh, social studies teacher and a union representative, says that this has always been a rule, teachers just weren’t aware of it. She stated that it’s “not a thing”. Walsh believes that for the district to actually make people pay, they would have to prove negligence and that it wasn’t an accident. Because of this she doesn’t believe that anyone will actually have to pay if they lose their key, and that in her three decades at Rangeview she hasn’t heard of any doors being rekeyed, just updated. Walsh also believes that the exact wording is potentially “may be” liable, not that teachers definitively are.
Regardless, some teachers have come up with solutions to decrease the potential cost. One solution is to have a single key that only unlocks their classroom, making the cost of losing it only $300. Another is to utilize badges to unlock doors like in colleges. Staff members already have badges which can be remotely deactivated if lost, decreasing the amount of unaccounted for keys.
