First Day Reflection

As building administrators, I find it interesting that very few of us are actually involved in the negotiation process; however, we have to live with and work within the confines of the CBA. We are expected to know what the agreement says and are “called out” when we don’t follow it. The building administrator role in negotiations seemed to vary from district to district and from superintendent to superintendent.

Most of the class participants seemed to have worked at one time or another on the union side of negotiations, but very few had experience in protecting the interests of the district. Dr. Closen pointed out that he negotiated 7 contracts in his approximately 20 year superintendent’s career. This is likely more contracts than most superintendents will ever negotiate, yet 7 seems like relatively few when one considers that you negotiate against a union representative that has quite possibly negotiated several hundred contracts. In addition, the union representative has probably had much more training in negotiation tactics.