Hinsdale High School Teachers Association

In last month’s IEA Insider, Jim Crandel, HHSTA’s Chief Negotiator during our last contract talks, writes about the importance of relationship building and the previous Board’s decision to not honor its commitment to retired teachers:

“Sure, we had our outrage, but what we needed was community members, parent organizations and the media to help our board realize that destroying teacher trust would NOT result in better schools.

Relationship building is key to the success of any organization. It’s one of the reasons your Association’s leadership has been discussing relationship building with the current Board via district administration. These talks have resulted in a compromise of sorts: a Memorandum of Agreement approved at the September 21st Board meeting that ensures Roundtable meetings between the Association and Board will continue during the negotiations process – the opposite of our current contract language. Although a step in the right direction, as we attempt together to achieve a successor agreement to our current contract, this process will be complicated by the profound breach of trust that culminated in the retiree grievance process Jim was writing about.

Some might say that the grievance is in the past, and now that it has been settled we should look forward. But the warning “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear” is printed on rear view mirrors for a reason. By the District treating the lives of over 100 retirees – teachers with a conservatively estimated 2,000+ combined years of dedication and service to the district – as nothing more than a budget item, the relationship from which trust must be developed has been profoundly altered in a way that merely living up to the ruling of a binding arbitration does not address. Although this event may be behind us, it is closer than it appears.

So how do we move forward then? Often when confronted with an obstacle one must examine the past in order to limit any harm traveling similar paths forward might cause. After all, rear view mirrors are there for a reason. Through them, old processes may be reviewed so new and better ones can be implemented. Previous methods of sharing information may be reexamined so that new and more open communication can be established. And perceptions may be gauged so that future misperceptions can be avoided.

The use of a “rear view mirror” is nothing new in education. In fact, it is a research driven best practice called appropriately “reflection.” Although to the professional educator reflection is often a singular endeavor, in relationship building both parties have to agree to reflect together in order to better shape their future relationship and that of their organizations.

As we eventually enter the process of negotiation, the question that remains is to what extent the administration and Board will engage in reflection with the Association, or how much they will just move forward.