BoardWise: Governance team members write in
Published: November 15, 2011
BoardWise is a forum for board members and superintendents across the state to share questions about governance and board-superintendent relations. Send your questions to
boardwise@csba.org
.
Dear BoardWise:
I am the superintendent in a Central Valley school district. We have a strong negotiation team, one that follows the direction and mandates of the board at the bargaining table. Our local teachers union has requested that our board come to the table to negotiate. I would like to know CSBA’s position on this matter.
Curious Superintendent
Dear Curious Superintendent:
CSBA does not recommend that board members be part of a school district’s bargaining team. Having one or more members of the board participate in negotiations can create conflict—both at the bargaining table and at the board table.
This recommendation is based on three important principles of governance:
First, CSBA believes all board members should have equal access to information. If individual board members are present in negotiations, they have much greater access to information than their colleagues.
Second, CSBA believes the board should speak with one voice, giving direction to the bargaining representatives as a full board. If a single board member participates in bargaining, that board member has greater opportunity to shape and influence the contract than his or her colleagues. Other board members might perceive this as an unfair advantage.
Finally, CSBA believes that a school board’s responsibility is to define the desired outcomes—to articulate what the board wants to achieve through the bargaining process. How to achieve that outcome is the responsibility of the professional staff. Most board members don’t have experience with labor negotiations. That’s a special skill set, one that’s best practiced by those with training and experience. A board member’s presence, even as a silent observer, might have an unintended and undesirable impact on the effectiveness of the negotiation process.
For these reasons, CSBA believes that a district is best served when the board gives clear parameters to its professional negotiator, who represents the board’s interests in the negotiation process and brings recommendations to the full board—to be shared with all board members at the same time.
If the board decides to have one of its members present at the bargaining table, we recommend that:
- Only one member participate; this position could even rotate between members.
- The board member observe only—after all, that individual member cannot speak for the full board.
- The board develop clear, written agreement among its members beforehand on the purpose of board representation in bargaining—and the board abides by those agreements once the outcome from the negotiations returns to the board in the form of a contract proposal.
If the board is satisfied with the current bargaining team, and if all communication coming from the team aligns with the negotiation parameters established by the board, then the board and the district are well served.
Good luck,
BoardWise
BoardWise is written by CSBA’s Governance Consulting Services staff: Babs Kavanaugh, Christopher Maricle, Leslie DeMersseman and Luan Burman Rivera.