CAT Tracks for June 9, 2011 NEGOTIATIONS...THE HARD WAY

Call me a dreamer...

I was hoping to report good news this morning...that as you checked out and turned in your keys for a well-earned summer respite, that it would be with the knowledge that a new contract was in place and that you could focus on positive pursuits...freed of the uncertainty that negotiations historically brings to Cairo School District Number One.

Bears repeating...

...call me a dreamer.

Speaking of history...

2008-2009:

CAT and the BOE spent over a year - 14 months and 30-some-odd meetings - rubbing salt into old wounds and creating new ones. The good news...we got it done. In May 2009, the CAT and the BOE ratified the current agreement.

2005:

Dr. Sam Harbin brought his brand of leadership to CSD #1. Stepping down from his membership on the Financial Oversight Panel to assume the position of Interim Superintendent, "Dr. Sam" pledged to the CAT leadership that he was going to "change the contentious, confrontational atmosphere" that existed between the CAT and the District Administration....and he delivered on that promise. That was the one year that negotiations "slipped under the radar". Nobody - especially the public, the media - knew that we were even negotiating. The parties had like five meetings, there were no lawyers or UniServ Directors at the table, and we were done...in May, before school was even out, before we would normally even have started the negotiations process.

2001-2002:

Let's don't even go there! Talk about contentious, talk about confrontational. That was the year that the District decided to shut down the schools rather than reach agreement with CAT...the year that the District chose to NOT make up 17 school days lost...the year that the District chose to throw away hundreds of thousands of dollars of state and federal money...the year the attorney in charge of the District's negotiations bragged "Yes, the District will lose money, but...the teachers will lose more!" (Ahhh, Barney. A quote that will live in infamy.) THAT was the year that led directly to the creation of the Financial Oversight Panel (the FOP), the organization representing the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) which tries to protect CSD #1 from itself.

1994-1995:

Although 2001-2002 was without question the low point in the negotiations history of Cairo School District Number One, I think the one that will always stick in my craw (Do CAT's have craws?) is 1994-1995. After six months of fruitless negotiations, CAT walked out in mid-November...hoping to give reason to the Thanksgiving season. The CAT leadership immediately heard a rumor...that the District was going to "shut 'er down" until after Christmas. We laughed..."No way!" That's when we learned "Always believe what you hear on the CSD #1 grapevine!" We ended up negotiating over New Year's at SCC. The Cairo BOE - after accepting an offer of mediation from a United States Congressman - refused to let him attend the meeting. Totally appalled at the BOE's show of disrespect, the CAT bargaining team accepted the BOE's offer...with a guarantee that there would be no retaliation against its members - i.e. no RIFs in the Spring.