NJSBA School Leader Up Close

[Music] hello welcome to school leader up close I'm Janet Bamford I'm the chief Communications officer at the New Jersey school boards Association and I am here today with Kurt ribovich and Sandy Ral who are two of our Labor Relations experts at njsba um we are going to talk a little bit about the winter issue of school leader magazine and uh and Kurt and Sandy both have articles in this issue of the magazine talking about uh different topics about Labor Relations um and one of the most important jobs of any board of education is handling negot negotiating with its uh employee unions um this is the time of year when negotiations committees are in full swing and njsba has a wealth of resources and information for for Boards of Education uh that are involved in negotiations um and we're going to talk about some of that right now um Sandy let's start with you um Sandy as a data analyst you do a lot of work that benefits boards as they are preparing to begin negotiations um in your school leader piece you talk about recent Trends in um settlements in contract settlements among boards in the state um one of the things we always look for you mentioned that new teachers contracts that began with this school year um for those contracts the average increase is 3.56% for this year um so that's something that board members might want to take a look at in the issue um but first let's talk a little bit about why is it important for boards to have access to um comparative data when they're getting ready to negotiate with the unions what why do they need it well it's important to be prepared um having access to comparative data helps the Board understand what's occurring in in state in settlements so showing up for your first bargaining session you should already have an idea what other settlements look like because you may not have been at the negotiating table for some time maybe it's been three years maybe this is your first time at the table um but an important note is though what other districts settle at should never be what dictates the board's goals but rather be a tool that helps prove or disprove a claim clim so for example if a union claims a county average of their starting salaries is $61,000 but the board with access to that settlement data finds that most of the districts within that County maybe large K to2 districts they may even have a Regional High School District they could have a vacational district um so special services those districts are generally higher higher in salary um but when you filter down and you're you're a small K to8 so if you can filter down that data into something more meaningful that shows the size and grade configuration of your comparisons um you may actually find that the salary is more competitive among those compar comparables um so the Board needs to be able to present um their own data which is vitally important Sandy are there other you you mention uh salary trends in in your article are there other noteworthy trends that you've noticed that perhaps aren't mentioned in the school leader article yeah there is um but I wouldn't consider it a good trend from the board's perspective uh board achievements is dropping and what I mean by a board achievement is any proposal or goal that the board was seeking to obtain in this round of negotiations and they were successful in doing so um that is what we mean by a board achievement and that's been considerably dropping off um for example in in 2015 districts that started with that contract year in 1516 78% of districts reported some type of a board achievement four years later in 1920 it dropped to 68% and now this year four years after that in 2324 only 46% of districts are reporting a board achievement the the point is negotiations is a two-way street and it's not just about uh you know negotiating raises the part it's also about achieving a contract that works for both parties so if there's something important your new contract needs if there's language um in your contract that maybe has been presenting a lot of grievances from um maybe needs some clarification or some word changes um now's a time to seek that change Sandy for um for members who may not be familiar with it what what would examples of board achievements be when you see achievements example of a board achievement would be um you were seeking say scheduling flexibility and you you were able actually to get that or you wanted an additional work day um anything really that the board has set out to gain to change to you know modify in that contract somehow and they were successful in doing so we're just not seeing that much reported anymore and it's it's a little concerning okay thank you um uh so when you're on a negotiating committee the njaa brings settlement reports and other data to the negotiating table why can't the board just use the data that is brought by um by the uh employees yeah you know I get asked that question a lot and it's not that their settlement rates are vastly different from ours um they're generally the same but it's rather comes down to the comparisons they are making and from what data set are they broad-based comparisons um you know maybe they're citing the state or a county or is it the opposite and maybe it's a cherry-pick settlement that may be particularly High um you want to ask to see their data uh you want to look to see what districts they're making their comparisons against also remember it's the Union's job to get a settlement in terms of conditions of employment that are favorable for their members um so they're going to present data that's going to be in their position right so the Board needs to do the same and our report generator makes it that much easier for the board to gather information to help them make their own arguments and present their own research so about a year ago njsba introduced a new service a fantastic new service uh for members only and we've gotten some great reviews on it in effect from our board members um uh and some terrific feedback call uh the services negotiations data portal and uh Sandy was instrumental in uh designing it and developing it and I'm hoping she can tell us a little bit about it yeah so the portal has been fantastic tool um regarding teacher settlements and teacher salaries and um Can this tool be expanded yes and I'm really hoping that we see it expand with more and more data but in the um what we're looking at next is I often get ask for administrator salaries now we don't collect that personally but we do receive a data set from the New Jersey Department of Education every year for administrator salaries um and the problem with that is we have it but they still have to come through me to get it and so we're currently working on on a similar report generating system like we have for the teachers where the members will have the same ability to select the parameters of their report and um download it or print it so the these salaries would be for superintendents business administrators principles assistant principles supervisors and directors it'll be available in this new system it will show degree level experience um how many years experience the administrator has um but we are in the very early stages of this and so it was going to take a little bit of time a little bit of testing but we will certainly keep our members um informed once this goes live that sounds fantastic uh that's a nice addition um and I also I want to point out to anybody watching that negotiations data portal is available 24 hours a day seven days a week you sign in using your members login and then you can ask as Sandy um mentioned earlier you can ask for what you want the parameters of your search to be your county neighboring counties your grade schools grade or District's grade configuration all all those things it's kind of infin infinitely um uh uh adjustable so um Kurt we're gonna let's let's shift our Focus to you when Sandy put her article together um at that point there were still about 32% of school districts with contracts that expired last June that hadn't reached an agreement yet and we know that at least 29% of those districts are at impass and are now in or about to go to the mediation process and that there are also districts with contracts that expired in June 22 that haven't reached a settlement yet and they're going through impass procedures these are all terms that um a negotiations committee if you're new to a negotiations committee or even if you just need a refresher you may be unfamiliar with these Concepts so Kurt covers a lot of these in his uh School leader article on negotiations Basics so let's start at the beginning Kurt why was the New Jersey employer employee relations act which is called the perk law um perk standing for well you can tell us what perk stands for employ uh uh why was that created so uh to start and it is a mouthful right to say it so we shortened it by saying the perk law which is the public employment relations associ uh commission but the the law in itself is because most of the contracts that are covered uh affect Public Service think firefighters police school districts which is what we cover um so you don't want any disruption in those public services to the community at large so the perk law was enacted to help mitigate any labor issues uh between management and the union and resolve them in a quick manner so that services to the public are not affected so we understand that not everything is negotiable when you sit down and bargain with your District's unions um what's the difference between items that are mandatorily negotiable and non mandatorily negotiable that's always a topic we get calls about uh at school boards uh to address so if something is mandatorily negotiable that means one of the sides one of the parties whether it's management or Union have brought it up as an issue that they want to negotiate and discuss during the negotiations process like Sandy mentioned uh before you know if there's something that keeps getting a grievance filed against it within your collective bargaining agreement typically the side that is bringing those grievances forward uh we'll F we'll discuss about it it uh during the negotiations process so if something is mandatory mandatorily negotiable that means one of the sides is going to bring it up and you have to negotiate it at the table things that are non-mandatory negotiable are in law or statute so that uh covers pension payments even uh the allotted number of sick days um and even the number of school days in a year you can always do better than the law but there's there's a minimum threshold you have to meet if it's in statute or law and and um what are what's an example of some things that you must negotiate over if one side brings it up yeah so a good example is uh even time school time right the the length of the day which I know Sandy tracks for us also um and that's important to note because we like to compare apples to apples um if we have one District that's working an eight hour school day and another District that's working a seven-hour school day as an example um that affects their salaries and other benefits that the employees within those districts receive so you need to break it down so that you're comparing Apples to Apples during the negotiations process and if you didn't know these little um these little issues or these little differences between districts um then you would think wow this one District's paying a lot more than the other but really it's because they're working a longer school day as an example so I just want to clarify one thing Kurt had mentioned that we have I track the length of the school day um what I track is the length of the school year so the number of days in the school year but if you did want to look at other districts and how the length of their school day compares to yours we do have a collection of contracts on our website it's in the data portal area you'll see teachers Collective negotiation agreement um click on that button and you'll find um all the con teachers contracts that we have received now there may not be every single one there but we do have more than even the perk website um which is quite impressive um because they're required to send their contract to perk but they're really not required to send it to us so but we do have quite a collection and there you can do much of your research from um so what happens uh if the union and the board can't come to agreement um you know either as a whole or on any specific issue what what's the procedure what's the process in that case yeah so it's great um we have a process in in place you file with perk uh the commission um that you're at impass and you can't come to an agreement now you do have to demonstrate that you uh Faith you know Faithfully tried to uh come to the negotiations table and work out the issue uh typically it's about about three meetings um if after three meetings you cannot settle on a specific issue uh then you one party will file but perk that you're at an impass and it starts a mediation process which is essentially bringing in a third party to help negotiate between the two parties I've actually personally been a part of uh impass procedures and uh the one thing I would love to tell everyone is uh both sides do not get what they want uh so if you can't come to an agreement with each other and you do want to bring in a third party just keep in mind that uh the whole purpose of that third party is just to get you settled they don't care how much you're paying they don't care how much you're giving away um so you really have to be aware of that when you bring in a third party their only purpose is to get you to settle and depending on where you at where you are at in the process uh they can even keep you there 24 hours uh in order to get the settlement done and and and the the steps go first you're at impass then you go into and if that does then you go into mediation yeah you go into mediation um and you know there's a lot uh to talk about with that uh which we could talk about um if anyone wants to go through uh they're more than welcome to call us however um there's public reports you have to put on the website and the final process is called super conciliation which um only one or two districts have uh gone through and they've never gone beyond that uh because that's where you could be held for 24 hours straight um tiring yourself down right your negotiations committee down just to get to a settlement Around the Clock Around the Clock um and I know of stories back in the 90s where you used to negotiate at a a neutral site like a hotel or something like that so um there are costs involved in in all of this um to both sides and it's a lengthy process but again what I always like to warn school districts about is if you are going to go to impass uh keep in mind you're not always going to get what you want either so it may not be the best route to go you may want to just take a breather take a week off to uh you know gather your your thoughts and then come back to negotiations table and try to work it out between both parties between union and management uh because that third party person is not from your District they don't know your community and again their whole purpose is just to get this settled so that they could go home also well that's that's great we could we could probably spend you know a week talking about all these issues um uh but I want to thank you both for being here today where can our members find more information if they need it so you can always contact us um Sandy and I we're always available our our phone numbers are on our website we also have um a great legal and Labor Relations section of our website um and we are in the process of redoing our website so it's going to get even better but uh in the meantime we do have a lot of information up on our website and we have a generic email uh that you can also use on our website there that will go to all of us and whoever grabs it first will respond to you but uh one of the most fruitful things for me at least as an employee of New Jersey school boards is just talking to Schoolboard members and chairs of negotiations committees um to walk them through the process and hear how things are going of course when you call us everything is confidential so we're not going to share anything you tell us with anyone um you know outside of njsba because we do want to give you the right information so sometimes I'll say you know what I'll go talk to one of our attorneys and get back to you on that um and then I would have to share that information with the attorney to to create the scenario for them to understand what's fully happening but we have a whole host of information on the website and uh any of us we are uh very happy to speak to you and then we have various webinars and conferences throughout the year I know in the spring we're gonna have a spring conference that's gonna help uh us get some Labor Relations information out there and then always in atlan City in October our at Workshop our annual convention um we have wonderful Labor Relations programs and hopefully this year we might do something special on Monday of Workshop too uh that's really labor focused great great well thank you both thank you for watching members and I urge you to read the latest issue of school leader magazine