COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IS KEY TO RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT Teacher shortage can be addressed at negotiations table By Kelly Hagen, NDU Communications
Bargaining is never easy. Across North Dakota, negotiations between teachers and school boards are nearly over for the year, with only four contracts still being bargained at the mid-point of August. This year’s negotiations were difficult, with rewards and setbacks for both sides of the table. But, on the whole, all parties in public education involved – including teachers, students, administrators, parents, elected officials and the entire community – benefit overall for going through the process. “Teachers bargain to improve working conditions, to lure our young scholars into the profession and make the educators more able to focus on educating,” said Karen Christensen, vice president for education for North Dakota United, as well as president of the Wishek Education Association and lead negotiator for their teachers. Wishek’s negotiations this year was one of several in the state that went to impasse. Under state law, an impasse exists if “after a reasonable period of negotiation, an agreement has not been formulated and a dispute exists,” and “the board of a school district and the representative organization both agree that an impasse exists.” At that point, the North Dakota Education Fact Finding Commission will mediate the dispute, hearing from both sides, and the public, at an impasse hearing. The commission gives its recommendations on a path toward solving the dispute, and then the two sides can either choose to accept the commission’s recommendations or, ultimately, the school board can “impose” a one-year contract on teachers, with the terms that they term acceptable. The Wishek Education Association went to impasse primarily over one sticking point: contributions made to the Teachers Fund for Retirement (TFFR). WEA wished to change the contribution from a flat rate of $1,205 per teacher, to a rate based on a percentage of the teacher’s salary, so that the contribution grows with the teacher’s years of service. Christensen said that WEA members wanted this change to assist in efforts to improve retention. “We wanted to have an ace in our pocket, in order to say, ‘Look, here’s what we offer if you stay long-term, what this can mean to your benefit package,’” Christensen said. “We needed something else, because the inconsistency of a flat rate to your staff means you’re offering $1,200 to a beginning teacher, which is 3.5 percent of base, but the longer you stay at school, the less your benefit is.” Retention and recruitment of teachers are big topics of discussion in North Dakota, currently. Our state, along with many across the U.S., is struggling with a shortage of teachers. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently charged a task force with the responsibility of brainstorming ideas on how to turn the tide, and fill open positions across the state, particularly in smaller, rural districts. The idea that seemingly should stand out above the rest would be to increase 4
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