Negotiations shut down

COEUR d'ALENE - Teacher contract talks broke down Monday in Coeur d'Alene, just two weeks before the official first day of school.

Negotiating teams representing the Coeur d'Alene Education Association - the local arm of the state teachers union - and the school district's board of trustees met at Woodland Middle School for a two-hour session, their 10th meeting since May.

Both sides walked away from the bargaining table without an agreement in place, and no plan to continue negotiating. The deadlock came after the board turned down a counter-proposal made by the teachers union in response to an offer the board's negotiating team made July 30, when the groups last met.

"Our last proposal is the most we're willing to offer," said Kelly Ostrom, the district's human resources director and chief negotiator for the school board.

Ostrom said the board's negotiating team members - trustees Christa Hazel and Dave Eubanks, Superintendent Matt Handelman, and Chief Operations Officer Wendell Wardell and herself - feel it's a good offer and asked the teachers' negotiating team to take it back to their membership to consider.

At that time during the bargaining session, the teachers union's negotiating team left to caucus in private, as the collective bargaining law allows them to. The board's negotiators also went into caucus.

While the negotiating teams were out of the room, Derek Kohles, president of the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, spoke to about 75 teachers sitting in the middle school's bleachers observing the contract talks.

Kohles called for an informal survey and asked the teachers: "Should we accept the board's proposal?"

Several teachers responded, "No." There were no positive reactions to the idea.

One teacher suggested he and his peers should boycott the annual back-to-school breakfast the district hosts for the teachers each year. This year, it's scheduled to take place Aug. 28.

The school board's final offer includes no base salary increase, but it does include compensation for those eligible for it based on years of service and additional education earned. The board's offer also includes a change in health insurance benefits that will cost employees more through higher co-payments and coinsurance responsibility, and a reduction in the amount the district contributes to family premiums.

Both sides recognized that 23 percent of the teachers in the district have achieved 17 years of service and are thus ineligible for a pay raise based on years of employment. Those teachers will, however, still be affected by insurance premium increases. For a teacher with family coverage, that will be $453 per year.

"Every year, our paychecks get smaller," said Nancy Mueller, during one of the caucus breaks in negotiating.

Mueller describes herself as one of those teachers with longevity. "I have four degrees and two national board standings, and now, every year, I have to give portions of my salary back."

Negotiators for the school board say the change in insurance benefits is needed to help offset a $500,000 increase for the district's overall health care premium.

"It's a shared cost. The district is picking up some, and we need the employees to pick up some," Ostrom said.

The teachers are calling for a 1 percent pay hike, and no change in the benefit plan.

Both sides are at odds over how much money is available to the district to cover their proposals, and how much those proposals will cost to put in place.

The school board's final offer is expected to cost $858,865. The teachers say their proposal will cost $400,000 more, but the board disagrees with that estimate. One of the board's negotiators said they were $600,000 apart in the cost of their proposals.

Tim Sandford, the teachers' chief negotiator, told the board's negotiating team that the teachers were disappointed in them for not making it clear when they met July 30 that the board had made its final offer.

"We thought you were here to negotiate," Sandford said.

Ostrom said the board did not feel that the teachers' counter-proposal showed much willingness to negotiate.

Wendell Wardell said when they met July 30, he asked the teachers if they felt there was any reason to continue trying to reach an agreement, and they said they wanted to meet again.

"We did not expect a take-it or leave-it offer," Sandford said.

Trustee Christa Hazel said she found the negotiating process to be painful, especially since she considers so many of the teachers to be friends and knows many of them personally.

She said that if the teachers don't take the offer back to their membership, they could go to mediation.

"But the board doesn't want that," Hazel said.

She also said the board does not want to impose its last best offer on the teachers, to which several of the teachers' negotiators replied that the board can't do that legally.

Hazel said the board has received legal advice that it is an option available to them.

Following one last private caucus called by the board's negotiating team, Ostrom said: "We've decided we need some cooling-off time."

Both sides left the table, canceling a negotiating session originally scheduled to take place this afternoon.

"I don't know what we have planned yet," said Derek Kohles, following Monday's meeting. "Our primary job is always educating the students in the community."

Superintendent Matt Handelman said no one wants to go to mediation, and if they do go that route, it will likely take several months to reach a settlement.

Handelman said they've heard it could take about eight weeks just for a mediator to be assigned.