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How – and Why – Districts Should Maintain Positive Relationships with Employee Groups The current budget crisis in California presents new and significant challenges to the collective bargaining agreements between school districts and the employee associations that represent district employees. These challenges arise from the shrinking budgets in almost all school districts. In most cases, this fiscal crisis was not caused by the districts or their employees, but everyone shares the burden of finding viable program solutions to problems caused by fiscal shortfalls. As partners, the district and association leadership can provide a strong force for attacking the problems (and not each other). They can also work toward reaching solutions that reflect shared interests. Unfortunately, district/association partnerships can become strained and more difficult to forge during times when programs and services are considered for reductions or elimination. The first key to a successful district/association relationship is ongoing, open communication. Although the parties may disagree about priorities and solutions, it is critical that they be willing to share information, perceptions and ideas reflecting the concerns of their constituents. Sharing such information provides the other party with important insight into their motivations and needs, and their ideas about how a problem should be solved. Strong two-way communication can bridge divides in ways that either party may anticipate yet may bring new ideas to both parties. One strategy that districts and employee group leaders use is interest-based problem solving. Similar to interest-based bargaining techniques used in negotiations, the interest-based problem solving approach also utilizes steps that define issues and interests, brainstorms options, reviews standards and understandings, reaches consensus and finalizes agreements. This collaborative strategy emphasizes working as one collective team to attack problems that confront the district and may result in solutions that satisfy both parties’ interests. While there is no approach that can resolve differences 100% of the time, adversarial relationships tend to magnify the differences and even cause larger scale problems. The idea of using collaboration instead of confrontation can provide a powerful starting point for districts and employee associations. Districts that provide training for its leaders in interest-based problem solving or other such collaborative approaches can offer possibilities of win-win outcomes that tend to be longer lasting and satisfy the interests of both parties. Editor's Note: Steve Horowitz is the Director of Human Resources and Organizational Development for the educational consulting firm Total School Solutions. |
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