During the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District’s March 10 board meeting, board members formally requested that the district’s faculty association consider allowing upcoming contract negotiations to be held in public.
“This is an extremely unusual request, if not unheard of,” Mark Goodman, the president of the faculty association, wrote in an email to the Sun. “Negotiating in public will not improve the relationship between the district and the teachers.”
The last couple of years have been rough between the faculty association and the district. The most recent contract negotiation for teachers only concluded after a mediator was brought in. The faculty association’s current contract with the district expires on June 30, and so both sides will need to take a seat at the bargaining table once again.
“There are no districts in this area that negotiate in public. The Santa Maria high school district does not negotiate in public with its classified union,” Goodman wrote.
District spokesperson Kenny Klein said public contract negotiations are something the district wants to pursue across the board, including with the classified union. It just so happens that the faculty association’s current contract is set to expire soon, while the contract with classified employees isn’t.
“It’s a timing thing,” he said.
Goodman also forwarded a response from faculty association member Eric Farnsworth, who called the district’s request “disruptive” and a “change in the bargaining tradition.” Farnsworth also said bringing in a mediator, “a paid consultant,” causes a disconnect.
“When local administrators sit together with teachers, they all understand each other’s desires and challenges,” he wrote.
In a press release from the district, Superintendent Mark Richardson said that now is the perfect time to take contract negotiations into the public setting, because of changes in school funding that “mandate school-community involvement.”
“I would think that any group that values transparency could see the benefits of this change,” Richardson said. “As a district, we want everyone to know where we stand on the issues.”
This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2015.
