Saturday, Aug. 22 Class #1

I found that our topics today were relevant for Iowa or Illinois. The skill of building trust and relationships with your board and union are important in no matter what state you are a superindentent in. Knowing our contract as building principals is very important, it seems as though we often know it better than the teachers. Coming to the table with good faith efforts is important. It seems you hear about situations when hidden agendas drive the contract. To me that is pretty frustrating. My superintendent once said that negotiations is a time when the union forgets about the best interest of kids. It is all about the raise. For superintendents I imagine it comes down to managing the $$ that you have to work with. Negotiations really can impact the budget for years to come. Another interesting point from this afternoon that sticks with me is the concept of remembering what you get on the final year of a three year contract. I believe and have experienced this to be very true. It may be a good strategy to try...keep that in mind Union #1!
As a teacher, I was part of the negotiating team for a few years. That was 10 years ago. Since then, I have not been a part of it on either side. This class should provide a good experience to look at things from both sides and discover some of the strategies that superintendents can use during the negotiating process.