Its Done Its Finished.. and so are We

It was a tough day at the negotiation table today.

We talked together about teacher safety and realized it was about a 4 session topic. With the governor in crisis mode and everyone's calendar we thought that possibly we needed some more study to get to the heart of teacher protection.

So on we went to the main attraction. When money comes out, everything else gets scotted off the table. They wanted to know what we had in mind. Our E board thankfully had not set a starting position. We told them we didn't want to reindeer dance. We checked prior to that regarding their understanding that we were not coming from far from where we could settle. In sidebar fashion they signaled that they knew that we knew where the clasified had settled and that we were aware of the district's commitment to "fair share." (This in the past meant 80% of Cost of Living). We offered to settle at COLA across the board including health care. (The classified had not settled for any money toward healthcare). At the table they accepted our offer under advisement, and asked how committed we were to money on the healthcare portion. We responded that we knew they weren't going to give that back to the state if they didn't use it for us.. so we wanted it whether or not they put it on the healthcare cap.

They came back at the table with 3.90 and an offer to settle. They pointed out that our offer had a .70 cost from the medical. And that our offer was really a combination of the two. Our math folks figured the middle spot between the offers which was 4.56 and they said that if we offered that with signature spots, they would sign it.. We did and they did.. so we are through for the year. Lunch at Applebees.. Everyone except one is on a diet.. so only one beer was ordered and drank.

We all left exhilarated and exhausted.. we will face the eboard tomorrow and explain the end game. The president seems happy.. so that is the first step.

: ) Pat