Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Friday, September 8, 2006
Let the healing begin?
Huber Heights schools, desperately in need of healing and fence mending, got off to a rocky start last night as the school board ratified a new three-year contract for teachers and support staff.
Board member Carl Fisher, the no vote in a 4-1 decision, called out the teachers during the board meeting, speaking directly to union president Becky Whited, he said, “shame on you for leading our teachers out on strike.”
He went on to say, “Grow up and take responsibility for your actions. I’m afraid this community may pull its support and put us in a financial dilemma — then we’ll all have something to cry about.”
Not exactly the kind of first step toward reconciliation these two camps could really use.
Fisher’s statements and the details of the final deal show two things about a strike that never should have happened — it was the broken relationships that led talks to collapse and in the end it was money that settled the deal.
When talks broke down, the two sides were very close to a deal — too close to not get one done. The sides essentially agreed on pay and were close on health care costs.
During the strike, we heard a lot from the union about other issues like class size, outsourcing and release time. How did those issues get resolved?
—Class size. A new committee will review problem cases.
—Subcontracting. No ban on outsourcing, just a guarantee that no CURRENT teachers lose their jobs to outsourcing.
—Release time. The trade off was two more teacher workdays in exchange for giving up one hour early release days.
Folks those are NOT earth-shattering changes and every one of those issues should have been resolved prior to a strike.
Which leaves us with money. In the end, the union gave the board what it wanted — more employee contributions toward health care — in trade for a one-year free pass with current benefits and another year with a solid 3 percent pay raise on the back end of the deal. They both got a financial takeaway they needed to strike a bargain.
The new contract is a good compromise, but one that was mostly about money and one that certainly could have been worked out without a strike, but for the pervasive mistrust on both sides.
So what do you think of the deal and of Fisher’s comments?
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