Negotiations

For the past two days, I've been working on contract and salary negotiations for my school district. I am part of a five-teacher team, and we use a process called Interest Based Bargaining to ensure that the students', teachers', administration's, and the community's needs are met through contract and salary adjustment.

Every since I began my career, I've tried to get involved in as many different committee, leadership, and union positions as I can. In my twelve years of teaching, the adjunct roles I've taken on include: Technology Coach, Literacy Coach, Math Chair, GATE Teacher, Association Vice-President, and Student Study Team Coordinator. I've worked on Curriculum Mapping, Strategic Planning, PQR, and a California Distinguished School Application. I love to get involved. Each time I join one of these groups to work toward improvement in our school district, I learn a little bit more about how the organization functions as a whole.

It's very educational being a part of salary negotiations. I know the contract much better than I ever did before, and I'm becoming quite familiar with ed code, the district budget, and how complicated school funding truly is. I've enjoyed negotiations for several reasons: Our administration is quite transparent, and the whole process is respectful and solution-oriented. 

For me however, this is probably the last year I will take part in bargaining. Despite the positives, I personally struggle with a few things:

• I have a hard time keeping my personal opinions in check. Sometimes as a representative of the association members as a whole, I am obligated to fight for a position I may not agree with. 
  
• I am a natural rule-follower. I don't really question authority - I never have! So challenging my bosses in a negotiations setting is not easy for me. I must admit, however, that it has helped with my assertiveness.
• In Interest Based Bargaining, we follow a lengthy, structured process. This is good in a way, because it helps avoid a negative, adversarial approach to negotiations. But it seems like everything takes forever. Sometimes, I want to just cut to the chase and make a decision already!

Unfortunately, we did not finish today. It's a tough year for everyone - the economy is going downhill, property values are decreasing, and the provisional state budget includes some important cuts to education funding. I have faith that we will reach an agreement soon, but boy will I be glad when we are finished!