Contract negotiations for public school workers continuing

Talks have been positive and collaborative, both sides report

Friday, Jan. 23, 2009

Both the Education Association of St. Mary's County, which represents teachers, and the Collective Employees Association of St. Mary's County, which represents support staff, are nearing the end of three-year contracts.

Conceding that times are tough financially, Liz Purcell Leskinen, UniServ director and chief negotiator for the St. Mary's school unions, said that rather than a push for large salary increases the union is "focus on restructuring the salary scale … we're looking at a phased-in plan."

As for an across-the-board pay raise, she said, "It may not look like it always has."

Both sides were hoping to have any financial impacts from the contracts written into the superintendent's proposed budget this month. "The budget has created a unique problem," Leskinen said.

The school board is set to have its first public look at the budget Wednesday at a work session.

School board vice chair Cathy Allen said normally the school board members get a look at the budget before winter break; this year they didn't get their first copy until last Friday, she said.

"Of all the time I've been on the school board … I think this budget is probably the least set in stone than we've ever had," Allen said. Delays in state revenue projections have left the school board weeks behind where it typically is in the budget cycle.

Leskinen said the negotiators from both sides respect each other, which is helping during the contract talks held during a recession.

"There is so much more positive, professional and a genuine commitment from both teams to really understand" what each party has available and wants, Leskinen said.

The school board's chief negotiator, Brad Clements, agreed.

"Liz [Leskinen] and I, as chief negotiators, talked a lot last year about the process," said Clements, chief operating officer for the school system. Together they hammered out "a very aggressive timeline" for negotiations, which basically included meeting for two full days with each of the school's unions.

The school board's negotiating team has met three times each with the teachers union and support staff union representatives and Clements said he expects one or two more full-day sessions with each union before the contracts are settled.

While most of the negotiations over language issues about working conditions have been settled, work still needs to be completed on the financial terms of the contracts, he said.

"We're close to finalizing all of the language ones and moving into" salary and other financial issues, he said.

While the state's budget deficit and late revenue projections to counties and school systems have hampered the situation, "nothing has stopped us" from negotiating, Clements said. "We're spending a lot of time talking about what the concerns are and understanding each other's positions."

Michael Martirano, the school system's superintendent, also gave a pep talk to all of the negotiators last March before negotiations began to push for a "win-win approach," Clements said.

"He wants all the teachers to be satisfied with their positions, their jobs and be productive," Clements said of the superintendent.

St. Mary's public schools employee contracts expire at the end of this June. The current contract, negotiated in 2006, gave employees a 3 percent raise in the first year, a 3.8 percent increase in the second and a 4 percent raise in the final year of the contract along with step increases. Differences over a change in health care sent the sides to an impasse three years ago, although a decision was finally reached before a mediator was needed.

"Our goal is to always get a multi-year contract," Leskinen said. "All of us would like a three-year deal, but we're also realistic" and know based on the unsure economic times ahead that may not work this time, she said.

While Allen said everyone involved was hoping to have the contracts settled before the winter break, she still feels the discussions so far have been genial and collaborative. "That speaks well for all parties involved," she said.

jyeatman@somdnews.com