Kansas Staff Organization

07/28/2026

The following memo is in response to last night's (7.27.26) KNEA Board of Directors Meeting.

Also, please see the comments section for the GoFundMe to help support our friend and colleague, Mallory Raugewitz-Blick, as we strive to get her reinstated.

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07/26/2026

07/23/2026

Our KASO union sibling, David Escobar, submitted his resignation from KNEA on July 17, four weeks after a workplace injury that led to multiple requests for workplace accommodations meetings that never happened and follow-up emails and texts that went unresolved.

KSO has some questions:

1. What might this pattern indicate about KNEA management’s employment practices regarding requests for reasonable workplace accommodations?

2. Should requests for reasonable workplace accommodations start the countdown to the end of a staff member’s employment at KNEA?

07/21/2026

Refusing to give Mallory a reason for her termination is not an accident; it’s a strategy that leverages silence and lets power fill in the blanks however it wants.

We are grateful that KNEA members and leaders continue asking the tough questions despite a copy and pasted response from the president’s office. KSO has a few to add.

We’ll start with these two:

1. Could management’s decision to terminate Mallory without providing cause be connected to the fact that she made KNEA management aware of her intent to request reasonable workplace accommodations three weeks earlier?

2. Should requesting accommodations put an employee at risk for termination?

07/20/2026

Upon reviewing President Schwanz’s recent reply to a KNEA member who emailed her last week to ask that Mallory be reinstated, we have a few questions:

What governing documents and agreements is President Schwanz referencing?

Can KNEA explain how withholding the reason for Mallory's termination from her has protected her in any way?

If President Schwanz dismisses members' and leaders' calls for Mallory's reinstatement as "public pressure," what assurance do members have that their voices matter on any issue in their member-led union?

What is “the work ahead” for our KNEA Board of Directors if honoring contracts, improving working conditions, and upholding union values aren’t on the agenda today?

07/18/2026

Think we were finished with our tour of the KSO/KNEA/UniServ District Collective Bargaining Agreement? Not quite.

Next stop: Article Seventeen – Evaluation and Professional Employee Performance.

The evaluation language assigns roles to both the UniServ District and the Associate Executive Director in the evaluation of UniServ Directors.

That raises an important question:
Does this language suggest that employment decisions involving a UniServ Director are intended to rest with one individual, or does it reflect a shared responsibility between the UniServ District and the Associate Executive Director?
Read the highlighted language and decide for yourself. What do you think it means?

07/17/2026

KNEA Board Members and UniServ Leaders; what do you want your KNEA legacy to be? What reputation do you want KNEA to have?

07/15/2026

The next stop on our Collective Bargaining Agreement tour: Article Four – Bargaining Procedures.

Notice the use of the plural "employers."

Articles One and Two define the employer as "KNEA and the UniServ Districts as joint employers." It takes both employers—KNEA and the UniServ Districts—to ratify the Collective Bargaining Agreement governing the terms and conditions of employment.

So here's the question:

If it takes both joint employers to negotiate and ratify the agreement that governs employment, why wouldn't both joint employers be involved in decisions that fundamentally affect that employment?

07/14/2026

FORTY DAYS

For forty days, we've waited for KNEA management and leadership to do the right thing: reinstate our union colleague, Mallory.

Today, in the interest of transparency, we're sharing two documents: Mallory's termination letter and her six-month evaluation, completed by Kaw Valley UniServ Chair Nick Kraly and former Associate Executive Director Kevin Scarrow.

As you read them, we ask you to consider a few questions:
• Why was Mallory terminated without being given a reason?
• Why was the Kaw Valley Ad Board—recognized as her joint employer—not included in the decision?
• What does her joint employer's evaluation tell you about her performance?

The path forward is clear. Reinstate Mallory.

KSO believes our union's actions should reflect the values we ask others to uphold.

It's time for KNEA management and leadership to make this right.

07/11/2026

Continuing our tour of the KSO Collective Bargaining Agreement. Next up, Article Two: Definitions

What would a reasonable person reading this CBA conclude about the UniServ District's role, given that it is expressly defined as an "Employer" yet the UniServ District was excluded from any decision regarding Mallory’s continued employment?