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Schools

Tensions build between union and School Board

By TOM MARSHALL
Published January 18, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - There has been no love lost between school districts and the Florida Department of Education over a controversial merit pay plan, with many districts saying they felt rushed to meet a Dec. 31 deadline or lose state funding for the mandatory program.

But the plan has also caused a falling out between the Hernando County School Board and its teachers union.

Board members on Tuesday angrily challenged the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association's decision Dec. 12 to declare an impasse with the district over the state plan, Special Teachers Are Rewarded, and questioned whether they could continue to negotiate with the union in a collaborative manner.

"All of the rhetoric of collaboration goes out the window when impasse is declared prematurely," board member Jim Malcolm said, describing the union's action as a "betrayal" that left him furious.

By declaring the impasse, he said, the union had forced the district to impose a plan on teachers that both parties oppose.

Although the School Board faced a tight deadline in December to devise a draft plan, district officials said the union had faced no such pressure because union ratification was required only for the final plan in March - not for the December draft. "That deadline was not new; that deadline was just for a draft," superintendent Wendy Tellone said, criticizing the union's action.

Union president Brian Phillips insisted his leadership team hadn't meant to send such a signal. He said they had seen no alternative, feeling they were being forced to effectively negotiate with the state.

The union's parent group, the Florida Education Association, has called the STAR plan divisive and filed a lawsuit to block it.

"We don't bargain with the Department of Education; we bargain with the district," he said. "We were trying to be as cooperative as we possibly could be with the School Board on the STAR plan."

The angry words came as a surprise to district officials, who had expected a quiet workshop presentation by a federal mediator on its interest-based bargaining process with unions.

But Malcolm said the union's decision to declare an impasse led him to question whether such a process - rather than the traditional, and often more acrimonious, bargaining method - could succeed in Hernando.

Board member Sandra Nicholson agreed, suggesting that the board might withdraw its draft STAR plan and forgo up to $1.2-million from the state. The district would then have to spend the money out of its general fund, potentially taking money away from teacher salaries.

"The whole tone of this conversation is suspicion and mistrust," said board member John Sweeney, reflecting on the rapid unraveling of relations with the union.

Under the STAR program, districts will award up to 25 percent of their teachers with a 5 percent bonus, based in large part on students' performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test or other subject-area tests, some of which have not been devised.

While many political observers see the possibility that Gov. Charlie Crist or the Legislature could adjust the program or its deadlines, under current regulations districts must implement the plan during the current school year.

Susette Putman, an Orlando commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said several Florida school boards and unions reached an impasse over the STAR plan last fall, describing the December deadline as the "killer" that disrupted their collaboration.

But Chairman Pat Fagan said the Hernando board's two-year success with the union under the collaborative bargaining system shouldn't be hastily abandoned over the controversy.

"We need to work together and try to solve this issue," he added. "We have differences, and we need to meet in the middle."

Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or 352 848-1431.

[Last modified January 18, 2007, 06:41:39]