BY Jean Jacques Bohl
The Blaine County School District Board of Trustees started negotiations with school district administrators on Tuesday, Nov. 29. The School District calendar also calls for sessions on Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 5. All sessions start at 4:30 p.m. in the Minnie Moore room at the Community Campus in Hailey and are open to the public.
On Tuesday, the meeting was a training program in the interest-based bargaining format, the same protocol used in the yearly board/teacher negotiations, which stresses collaboration over antagonism.
Administrators’ salaries and benefit packages became a hot issue last spring during teacher negotiations and district budget votes. The Blaine County Education Association, as well as school board members Cami Bustos and Liz Corker, raised the issue of administrative salaries and benefits and their impact on the district’s budget. An online petition by a group of parents also asked the district to trim administrators’ perks. A vote of 3-1 at the April 19 school board meeting demanded negotiations between the board and the district administrators.
Shortly after that, 22 administrators organized the Blaine County Administrative Group and asked the General Teamsters Warehousemen and Helpers Union to represent them. In an Aug. 2 letter to the board, the teamsters informed the board that they would represent the administrators. Contrary to the teachers who operate under a negotiated master contract and salary schedule, the administrators are individual contractors.
The board has designated trustees Rob Clayton, Liz Corker and Ellen Mandeville to be its negotiators. The whole board will be on hand to caucus in a closed session, should the need arise.