In times of limited resources, the likelihood of difficult negotiations between labor and management may increase even in the best of school districts. The negotiation process can range from traditional to positional to competitive to a more collaborative and cooperative interest-based approach. The most productive approach is a matter of debate…

In light of increasing accountability demands and intense scrutiny of public education, this article highlights five key strategies for negotiating with teacher unions: display willingness to do things differently, work together, meet informally, initiate intense inservice training, and view the negotiated agreement as a flexible, living document.…

Advice for management representatives so that an orderly, peaceful procedure can be followed in settling differences in interpretations of the various contract clauses of a negotiation agreement. (Author/MLF)

Describes a procedure that establishes transportation contract service rates without the time and anguish of long meetings. (Author/MLF)

Recognizing that traditional salary bargaining is divisive and that teacher salaries should remain competitive, Temple City (California) Unified School District has been experimenting with formula-based compensation for the past four years. Primary benefits are lack of conflict over salary increases, which are determined before negotiating other…

Most frequently made collective-bargaining errors include mistaking rhetoric for reality, negotiating every teacher demand, settling too soon, failing to resolve board conflict, allowing unions to define the comparison base, accepting ambiguous solutions, circumventing the bargaining team, not seeking counsel, waving "red flags," and trusting the…

Describes the complexities of the position of executive director of risk management for Dade County Public Schools (Florida). The director must protect the assets, employees, and students of the fourth-largest school district in the country.(MD)

Collective bargaining negotiations engender public interest. This article presents a hypothetical scenario in which a city school district has four months to negotiate a new contract before its current teachers' contract expires. Offers examples as to how the district might conduct its negotiations. (LMI)