Collective bargaining heads to school board Policy group likes single-rep option.

The CPS policy committee recommendation is a good first step toward real bargaining, rather than the convoluted, multiple vote "multiple representation" system that MSTA supports.   Remember that when the MNEA lawsuit reached the Missouri Supreme Court in 2007, MSTA and the Missouri Council of School Administrators jointly filed a brief opposing collective bargaining.  The brief included this in the table of contents:


…Collective Bargaining Would Constitute Poor Public Policy
Collective Bargaining is Bad for Students
Collective Bargaining is Bad for Teachers
Collective Bargaining is Bad for Taxpayers and Voters
Collective Bargaining is Bad for Education.


Now they claim to support bargaining and seek to prove it by proposing the unworkable, never before used in the United State of America "multiple representative system."   Right.

By CATHERINE MARTIN
Columbia Daily Tribune
Thursday, August 25, 2011

A Columbia Public Schools policy committee will recommend to the school board a collective-bargaining policy that calls for exclusive representation.

There is no district policy in place for collective bargaining, but a 2007 Missouri Supreme Court ruling said all public employees, including teachers and educational support staff, have the constitutional right to collectively bargain.

The committee has primarily discussed two versions of a recommended policy from the Missouri School Boards’ Association. One results in one bargaining representative after a single election; the other would allow the selection of a single representative, multiple bargaining representatives or no representation and could require multiple votes.

Some were unhappy with the committee’s decision today to only recommend one policy to the board at its September meeting.

“I do think that the multiple representation option should be presented to the board because there are two versions,” said Kari Schuster, president of the Columbia Missouri State Teachers Association. “Yes, policy No. 1 may be the safest to many, but policy No. 2 has its valid points.”

The committee agreed to present three policy options to the board — a third choice allows for a “meet and confer” method of bargaining — but will only recommend one.

“From this committee’s standpoint, we need to present something to the board, and we need to explain to the board why this is the policy we’re recommending,” school board and policy committee member Helen Wade said.

The decision to recommend the first policy is based on recommendations from MSBA, information from other school districts and public forums, said Dana Clippard, the school district’s director of human resources.

“All collective bargaining done in every other state is exclusive representation; there is no other experience out there with doing multiple representatives,” Superintendent Chris Belcher said. “We don’t want to put ourselves in the position of being a trial.”

An appellate court has not weighed in on the multiple representatives policy, Wade also pointed out, and although both policies have valid points, the exclusive representation model is simpler and safer.

“When looking for a representative, we have one representative of a district; we have one president. … It’s something people can get their minds around and are generally accustomed to dealing with,” she said.

The board likely will not vote on the policy until October. The first reading next month will give board members and the public a chance to ask questions and representatives from teachers’ organizations to explain their positions on the policy. The Columbia Missouri National Education Association has voiced support for the exclusive representation model.

“This will give us two full months of discussion and open debate,” Belcher said.

The school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at the district administration building, 1818 W. Worley St.

Reach Catherine Martin at 573-815-1711 or e-mail cmartin@columbiatribune.com.