MSEA requests return to bargaining table

MAT-SU -- After both the Mat-Su Employee Association and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District came to the conclusion last spring that they could no longer mediate a teacher negotiation agreement for this year's teacher contracts, MSEA will request the two teams return to the table one last time.

"We are currently asking the board to send a team back to the table with us," said Barbara Morris, president of MSEA. "If they don't come back to the table, nothing is scheduled until November. That's a long time for uncertainty."

Both the district and MSEA worked with a professional mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service last spring. The groups attempted to come up with a compromise for this year's negotiation agreement, but could not meet middle ground. The mediator recommended that the negotiations go into arbitration, where an outside arbitrator comes to the district and acts as a quasi-judge, hearing both sides' requests for the negotiation agreement and then making a final decision in writing. Unlike mediation, the arbitrator does not try to get the teams to work together. Both MSEA and the district had agreed to move to the arbitration stage last spring, and chief school administrator Bob Doyle said he was surprised to hear of MSEA's intention to request resurrecting mediation.

"We are open to letting the [arbitration] process work," said Doyle. "It takes two sides to declare impasse; both sides tried to compromise, both sides said that realistically we could not reach a compromise … my question is, why are we rolling forward all of a sudden?"

Morris said having teachers work without a negotiation agreement is not in the best interest of the children or the staff, and that waiting until November is too long a wait. Morris also said it was interesting to note that the school board had recently extended Doyle's contract, while teachers returned to their classrooms without a negotiation agreement.

"Our team is ready, we feel there are many things we could sign off on to get things together," Morris said.

Doyle said he hopes that teacher's paychecks on the 15th of this month will change a few minds: Most teachers in the Valley received a step-increase in pay this year. But Doyle also said that if the school board decides to return to the mediation table with MSEA, he will do the board's bidding.

"At this point, our focus is on AYP and student learning," he said. "If the board says, 'let's go to the table now,' I will, but I just can't meet 100 percent of their demands."

Both the district and MSEA have filed unfair labor practice complaints against one another with the Alaska Labor Commission. If MSEA's request to return to the table is denied, the groups will come together in November under arbitration.