Board and Cincinnati Federation of Teachers Reach Contract Agreement

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CINCINNATI BOARD OF EDUCATION & CINCINNATI FEDERATION OF TEACHER.S . .....~,. --("I
\\~C:l) ED. b~Ut~
NEWS RELEASE

February 8, 1988
For Immediate Release Contact: Lynn Goodwin
369-4011
Tom Mooney
961-2272

BOARD AND CFT REACH TENTATIVE CONTRACT AGREEMENT
In a joint news conference today, Cincinnati Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Lynn Goodwin and Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney announced a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract between the Board of Education and the district's 3300 teachers. Goodwin and Mooney credited the success of the negotiations to the new "Win-Win" or "Principled" negotiations process used in the discussions. This process is based on methods developed by the Harvard Negotiation Project.
Goodwin and Mooney in a joint statement t said, "Through this process we have become a team of fellow professionals who have learned tio use the "Win-Win" tools well. We believe this presents the Cincinnati Public School~ with a unique opportunity to make a significant change in the climate of our syslem and in the education for children in our city."
Highlights of the contract include:
Additional Professional Teaching and Learning Conditions -At the high school level teachers will teach fewer classes per day, providing them with more instructional time for each class. This will also decrease the number of students that a teacher will provide instruction to each day. In addition, the contract calls for minimizing the number of non-teaching duties for teachers at all levels. Non-teaching personnel will cover as many of these responsibilities as possible, allowing teachers to devote more time to educational activities, as well as time for tutoring and advising their students.
Enhancement of Teaching As a Profession -The Board and CFT are both committed to improving the profession of teaching. They envision teaching as a profession which offers opportunities for professional growth, involvement in decision making, communication, collaboration, increased responsibilities combined with accountability. Both parties are committed to designing and implementing a career in teaching program. By implementing a change in the organization of schools, teachers will have the opportunity to take on greater responsibilities which will bring with it greater status, higher salary, opportunities to collaborate, as well as leadership roles to improve instruction and student achievement. A career in teaching program is a way to give incentives to attract and keep quality teachers in the profession. It will include four levels: intern, resident, career, and lead teacher. A joint Federation/Administrative committee will be formed to develop the specifics of such a program and present it to the Board and Federation by August 1, 1988.
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Editorials

CINCINNATI POST 2/15/88
Did the students win?

The landmark contract rati•fied last week by the Cincinnati Federation ot Teachers and the board ot education institutes a new cooperative relationship between the teachers union and the Cincinnati public schools. Both sides have Invested great hopes In their pioneering part•nership. The publlc must walt and see whether the new ap•proach w1ll deliver better schools.
This contract was reached by a novel negotiating process called "win-win." It replaces the traditional tug-ot-war over fixed pOSitions with a broad dis•cussion ot problems and joint crafting of solutions. These so•lutions must respect the essen•tial principles and practical constraints (including budget l1mltations) ot both sides.
The result is a striking victory for the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers -and a victory hard earned. For years, under the leadership of president 70m Mooney, the CFT has raised is•sues of educational quality 2.nd advocated sound positions -of•ten in the face of silence and inertia from the district. It has long tried through collective barga1n1ng to win a say in edu•cational deciSions.
The union now has secured that. Joint CFT-districtcom•mittees, for example, wlll design a career ladder for teachers and deSignate interns, residents, ca•reer teachers and lead teachers. Lead teachers wlll take on extra responsib1l1ties for an extra sti•pend.
Improving professional con· ditions for teachers was a goal of both the union and the board. The new contract wisely relieves teachers of many non•classroom duties. But both s1des also seek to Improve learning. Thus, the contract reduces teachers' class load from six to five a day -and makes class periods longer, Increasing time for math or Engl1sh by up to 25 percent.
Will an educational partner•ship work when only one side answers to the voters? The dis•trict and the union point to a successful experiment already under way.

Under a peer appraisal system won by the CFT through collec•tive bargaining, experienced teachers are now assessing new teachers' performance. The re•sults show they are serious about standards: Peer review is dism1ssing inadequate teachers at twice the rate of the old ad•ministrative reviews.
The new contract can be equally successful if the CFT means what Tom Mooney says -echoing the union's national leader, Albert Shanker -about being a protesslonal association devoted to Improving education, not just a narrow advocate of higher pay and benefits. Indeed, Cincinnati teachers can no lon•ger make a strong case for being underpaid. Raises of 4 percent, 5 percent and 7 percent In the next three years will make them competitive with other publ1c school teachers and many pro•fessionals In Greater Cincinnati. They have always earned more than teachers 1n paroch1al schools.
But this contract gives the CFT a share in district gover•nance regardless of who is pres•Ident. It strengthens the union materially and symbol1cally by granting it the r1ght to collect an "agency fee" from the 15 per•cent of teachers who now. choose not to become dues-pay•Ing members.
On both sides, there are skep•tics about the new partnership.They see Old-style confronta•tion between management and labor as truer to reality.
But these are changing times, when partiCipatory manage•ment Is bringing surprising re•sults In Industry -and when public schools need to fully en•list their teachers' best efforts.
We hope the CFT and the Cincinnati public schools will prove the doubters wrong.

ENQUIRER 2/14/88
Teachers' contract: No conflict this time

BY KRISTA RAMSEY The Cincinnati Enquirer
In February, 1985, Cincinnati ,Federation of Teachers announced plans for a one-day strike to draw attention to contract negotia· tions.
"The board has left us with no choice but to do something dramatic," CFT president Tom Mooney told reporters.
In February, 1988, the teachers and ad· ministration offered a community by now used to hard-fought negotiations something equally dramatic -a contract settled, they said, by collaboration instead of conflict.
"It signals a clean break with past prac•tices of confrontation," Mooney said this time.
So how did things evolve so nicely?
Oddly enough, these seeds of solution were sown in earlier upheaval.
Teacher strikes in 1967 and 1977 had left a legacy of distrust and hard feelings for negotiators of the 1985 contract. Administra· tors came to the table skeptical; teachers came prepared to wage their campaign before the public.
"We both attempted to use the media to get leverage for our positions," said Lynn Goodwin, deputy superintendent of business and flnance. "But the CFT used it very skillfully.
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE C·1
evaluations, the agreement offered
both sides a chance to work with
-rather than confront -each ; other.
, "In the agreement we reached on class size were the seeds of 'win-win' negotiating," the joint approach used in this year's con•tract, Mooney said.
No filter needed
"It was an artful compromise,
and it got us into the heart of
day-to-day communication," he
said.
"It made us believe we could
talk to each other, not just through
the public."
While the two sides worked
together on solving such basic
problems, the deadline for 1987
negotiations approached.
With it came new resolve to
flnd a better way to settle things.
"We didn't want a taste in our
mouths like the last contract left,"
Goodwin said succinctly.
Board member jerry Lawson
wrote a newspaper column calling
for a more positive tone in negotia•
tions; fellow member Virginia Grif•
fin set up breakfasts between the
two groups to encourage more
contact.
Then, former teacher Virginia
Rhodes was elected to the board of
education.
"That had to be a message to
the board that they had to take a
look at our point of view," Mooney
said.
And in a second new arrival -
Superintendent Lee Etta Powell
-the district got, in Goodwin's , words, "a chief administrator who ,! dl)esn't feel threatened by an in•I\'olved, active group of teachers."
One of Powell's early moves was to name Goodwin the board's chief negotiator, ensuring that teachers could negotiate face-to-face with an administrator, not with an attorney as they had in the past.
"There had to be some symbol•ic move for us to believe things were going to change," Mooney said. "And we had alwa}'s had a good relationship with Lynn.
"It had become evident that anything under Lynn's jurisdiction, we could work out."
Teachers as professionals The final predictor of future success was the new, more profes•sional role the teachers carved out for themselves. By lining up squarely on the side of career ladders and peer appraisal programs, teachers con•vinced themselves and the admin•istration that they were ready for professional status. "We took on new responsibili•ties," Mooney said. "We had to bite that bullet before we gained more credibility."
Once such factors were in place, both the teachers and the board started searching for a means to smoother negotiations. And both came back with the same solution.
Their choice -Conflict Man•agement Inc., a part of the Har•vard Negotiation Project -is a system that trains negotiating parties to decide both items to be discussed and solutions in a joint manner.
Goodwin uses an illustration to explain the theory behind the so-called "win-win" bargaining:
Two sisters squabble over a single orange, Their mother cuts
"We lost that war -public sentiment for the positions was clearly on the side of the CFT."
In addition to a public relations campaign, the teachers' union filed complaints of unfair labor practices, lobbied parents for support and, as a flnal weapon, threatened a one-day walkout.
The strike never materialized. A contract was settled hours before it was set to begin.
But in that contract, say Mooney and Goodwin, lay the beginnings of a new relation•ship between teachers and the administration.
By establishing joint ccrrunittees to ad•dress such issues as class size and teacher (Please see WIN, Page C-2)
the fruit in half to settle the -dis•
agreement. , "
One daughter uses the peel'10
make a cake and throws away the
fruit. Her sister wants only the
fruit for juice, throwing away-the
peel.

The lesson? That often, both sides in a disagreement can ·be appeased, that it's not always nec•essary for either side to lose. ';'i;.
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Contract of ideas:.."
The Cincinnati educators liked the idea and, in early November, 30 representatives from both sides 'went through a four-day training
session. '.In
The teams proceeded to brim·
storm items to be negotiated, then
to narrowing the list of possibili•
ties. Finally, a smaller group whit•
tled the list to specific solutillr;s,
with means of evaluating their 'ef•
fectiveness. '!::
Mter the rest of the gteup
approved, the list became a tenta•
tive contract, which was ratified by
the teachers Monday and 1be
board, Friday. J;:
In announcing the settlement, Mooney and Goodwin seemed comfortable using terms like 'ex•traordinary' to describe the proc•ess leading up to it.
It was a far cry from the meth•
ods used in contract talks just
three years earlier, and Goodwin
admitted to only one disappoint•
ment.

"We all were surprised that' we
didn't feel like one massive cele•
bration at the end of it," he said.
"It was a feeling that you'd just
ended a good project." ,
Then he added quickly, "Bui in settling this one, we had a lot more joy along the way."
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THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Sunday, February 14, 1988

Schools
New teachers contract signed with an absence of rancor
The most remarkable aspect of the precisely the amount anticipated when Cincinnati Board of Education's· the size of last fall's Cincinnati School
three-year contract with the Cincin•nati Federation of Teachers (CFT) was probably the absence of rancor during the negotiations. From begin•ning to end, contracts talks were free of confrontation. Both sides believe the process produced a contract that is objectively fair.
The new negotiating procedure is called "win-win" -which means that both sides have an opportunity to realize their reasonable objectives. The ultimate test will be whether it turns out to be a "win-win-win" con•tract, in which the winners include the public and the young people for whom the schools exist.
Teachers get raises amounting to 4%, 5% and 7% during the contract's three years. Eighty additional teachers are to be hired, many teachers will be relieved of non-teach•ing duties, high school classes will be lengthened and the teaching load re•duced. All told, the contract will cost the school district an additional $40 million over three years -which was District tax levy was devised.
The school board abandoned its longstanding opposition to the agency shop. Henceforth, teachers who are not members of the CFT will be obliged to pay a fee to the union for its services as their bargaining agent. This was a major victory for the teachers -although, in "win-win" negotiations, bargainers do not think in terms of winners and losers.
There are other features of the contract that CFT officials view as long strides toward enhancing teacher professionalism. CFT assumes, in the process, a share of the responsibility for eliminating teachers who fall short of professional standards.
At the end of three years, Cincinna•tians can look back and assess the usefulness of the technique the school board and the union used to arrive at the agreement and at· the spirit in which its provisions will have been carried out. If educational standards are truly enhanced, everyone will have won.
ENQUIRER February 11, 1988

School unions OK contracts

,BY KRISTA RAMSEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Unions for both teachers and clerical workers ratified contracts with Cincinnati Public Schools Wednesday, crediting a new sys•
. tern of "win-win" bargaining with
smooth negotiations.
The board of education will vote
on the proposals later this week ..
Highlights of the pact affecting
3,300 teachers include reductions
in class and pupil loads at the high
school level, salary increases of
16% over the next three years and
a career ladder that increases
teachers' role in policy making.
At a press conference announc•
ing terms of the contract Monday,
Cincinnati Federation of Teachers
president Tom Mooney said the
teachers' contract will increase in•
structional time for students and
offer "new leadership roles for our
best teachers."
Later, Nancy Cavanaugh, a Cill•
ton kindergarten teacher, praised the career development proposal:
"I've been in the classroom for 17 years and my choices were limited before.
"The career ladder is an oppor•tunity for older teachers to get an increase in pay and for all. teachers to gain more respect."
But Suzanne Voos, a math teacher at Roselawn/Condon Ele•mentary School, was most pleased with the in-school planning period:
"I have six classes a day so the extra time will really help.
The Association of Cincinnati Public School Office Personnel -'•representing 500 secretaries, com•puter programmers and clerks •agreed to a 4% pay increase for each of the next three years.
The contract also provides addi•tional pay and vacation increases for long-time employees and fund•ing for career development.
ACPSOP president lannis Rob•ertson said the plan "gives our people a sense that they can go to school and progress."
Teresa Mitchell, a secretary at
the School for the Creative and ' Performing Arts, praised the set•tlement .
"I think the pay raise is fair, especially with the longevity incre•ments and added vacation," she said. I
Total cost for the clerical work-: ers' contract is estimated at $3 ' million for three years. The teachers' contract will cost $40 million for the same period.
Representatives for both unions
'and the administration praised the "win-win" bargaining techniques used in the settlement. Using this process, neither side comes to ne•gotiations with a predetermined position; both sides work together to identify negotiating items and eventual solutions.
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'Win-win' pact: a lesson for labor

By Dennis love Post staff reporter
It was a study In extremes. Striking Metro bus workers, with ne•gotiations at an Impasse, braved the evening ch1ll Monday to march through downtown CinCinnati. Meanwhlle, Cin•cinnati pubUc school teachers, with a tentative agreement reached tor a new three-year contract, tlguratively warmed their feet by the tire. "It's hard to compare the two sltua~ tlons," Tom Mooney, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, said Monday. Yet the contrast was clear. "The main difference In the two Is that the teachers were dealing with a school board that was w1ll1ng to sit down and arrive at an agreement," Robert Baker, president ot Local 627 ot the
Amalgamated Transit Union, said at the Monday rally at Government Square. "We haven't had that luxury."
But some ot those involved with the teacher contract give credit to a style ot negotiation called "win-win," a bargain•Ing tramework developed by the Harvard Negotiating ProJect. That approach re•places traditional, or ."poslt1onal" nego•tiating strategy with problem-solving principles.
Cincinnati Is believed to be the tlrst
urban school district In the nation to try
the new concept, whose most notable
success came In the Camp David ac•
cords.
Success ot t.he win-win approach with the teachers' contract was even more Impressive In view of the pOisoned atmo•sphere In which the 1984 agreement was reached. That process was characterized by a long stalemate that nearly resulted In a work stoppage -circumstances similar to the current bus strike.

"Our last setUement was very com•bative," Mooney said. "The relationship (between the teachers' union and the school board) historically had been very uneven."
That environment changed with the Introduction ot win-win. Lynn Goodwin, deputy superintendent ot Cincinnati Publ1c Schools and chlet negotiator dur•Ing the talks, said the key was "a serious commitment to Improve our relation•ship with each other."
Still, "I don't know that we had as high an expectation as the reallty we ended up with," he said. "Certainly our results exceeded my best hopes."
I _. Win
Proposed teachers salaries
..
From Page 16 StartIng"We look at how one party
No experience
deals with the other," Barnett
Current $16,864
said. "Are we downgrading each
Retroactive to
other? Trying to be persu3.51ve?
January 1988 $17,539
Coercive? '" Those Involved with the teacher talles spent a lAugust 1988 $18,424 lot of time discussing those August 1989 $20,260 things. August 1990 $21,679
"The result was that a rela•

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tionship was developed In

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which they trusted each other.

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They felt tree to talk out Ideas." slon tor negotiators.

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It Is a very time-consuming All this, ot course, seems In process that makes extensive direct contrast to the tradition•

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use of Joint committees and, at al style ot adversarlal bargain•

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one Juncture ot the teacher Ing which preCipitated the

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talks. a rour-day training ses-transit union strike.

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other.
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Master'tl degree Doctcrate 10 years' expo 12 yeara' expo
Terry Barnett, the Washington-based chairman of Contuct Management Inc. a consulting firm which helped guide the teacher contract talks, said Monday that a chlet element of win-win Is to encourage both parties to "teel tree to talk about Ideas or solutions without teeling committed to them."
"Under that syst~m, many new and dltterent -and very good -Ideas are generated that otherwise might never be offered. "It expands the pie before the pie Is divided," Goodwin Said .... It post•pones commitment untH the very end."
Betore the negotiators begin to pro•pose solutions, the "win-win" process encourages bot.h sides to study the dy•namics ot their relationship with each
$29,859 $36,362
$31,053 $37,817 $31,053 $37,817 $32,605 $39,708 $34,888 $42,487
Under traditional bargaining -such as the bus talks -both sides bring demands "cold" to the table, take positions and work trom that pOint. "That process really doesn't allow any
Please ~~e WIN, 3;/
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creativity," Goodwin said. 'Win-win' "Is a much more col•laborative process."
Would the win-win process have achieved better results with the negotiations between the transit union and Metro management?
The transit union's Baker said he Is not tam1l!ar enough with the concept to speculate, but said "the current system clearly doesn't work." His an•swer Is mandatory binding arbi•tration, which would allow an Impartial mediator to set terms ot the agreement.
Metro General Manager Mike Setzer said he was only vaguely tamUlar with the negotiation strategy, but said he may exam•Ine It atter the strike Is con•cluded.
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Tuesday, February 9, 1989 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER


Proposed teacher contract would set up career ladder

BY KRISTA RAMSEY the smaller Cincinnati Teachers ladder will offer more support for the national average for beginning School board officials said Mon•for all teachers, the plan provides The Cincinnati Enquirer Association (CTA), said the CTA beginning teachers and, at the top, salaries, Mooney said. day night the raises are across•for shifting supervisory duties to opposes the proposed pact. advanced responsibilities and pay "We wish we could have done the-board. non-teaching staff.
A new teacher contract I"ay
Deputy Superintendent Lynn for experienced teachers. more to create truly professional Under the new agreement, high The agreement also calls for:
lead to higher pay, fewer supervi•
Goodwin said that, if approved, the The plan will allow teachers to school teachers will have a lighter • Increased funds for profes•
levels of compensation," he said.

sory duties and a stronger voice in
contract would cost the district advance their careers without hav•class load -reduced from six to sional development. .
"We hope next to establish a salary

policy making for 3,300 Cincinnati
about $40 million over three years, ing to become administrators, schedule to match the career lad•five periods -and fewer students • A Trust Agreement to imple-.
schoolteachers.
a 5 to 6% increase in overall school Goodwin said. "It's an opportunity daily -from 180 to 150. ment suggestions such as teacher .
der. But we're satisfied that this is

Negotiators for the Cincinnati
costs. to still teach and yet playa leader•everything that could be done recruitment and early childhood:
Federation of Teachers and the Goodwin said 80 new high
Highlighting the pact is a four•ship role in policy making." now." programs that were negotiated but ;
Cincinnati school board announced school teachers will be hired. He
tentative settlement of a three•rung career ladder, to be in place For all teachers, the proposed Alford said the proposed con•sdid the reduction in pupil load was not included in the contract. year contract at Taft High School by 1990, which both ·sides said will contract will offer pay increases of tract "is not really that great" and made only at the high school level Goodwin described negotia•Monday. mean improved status for 4%, 5% and 7% over the next that she was fairly certain the first because larger numbers -and tions, conducted under a new joint '
Teachers are to ratify the tenta•teachers. three years. year's 4 % pay increase was not higher costs -prohibited it at problem-solving approach, as set-I tive agreement Wednesday. CFT president Tom Mooney Next year a first-year teacher across-the-board but for entry lev-lower levels. ting "a new tone of cocperation ! But Sharon Alford, president of said that at the lowest rung the will make $18,424, which matches . el teachers only_ To increase instructional time and coUaborat.ion."

lems instead ot advancing sepa-mid-leVel teacher w1th a mas•system's teachers, objected to rate agendas. ter's degree and 12 years of ser-the Insertion ot an "agency tee"
Teachers
The new pact helps make vice w1ll rise trom $34,732 to clause In the contract. Fi'om Page 1A Cincinnati more competitive In $39,021 annually. The salary of a
beginning teachers' salaries by beginning teacher wIth a bach•Teachers who are not. mem•problem the school district or raising their pay to Just over elor's degree w1ll Increase from bers of the CIncinnati Federa•education faces, but we've tack-$20,000 by September of 1989, $18,424 In the 1988-89 school year t10n ot :Teachers wlll be led several of them with this Mooney said. to $21,678 In the 1990-91. required to pay a yet-to-be-de•contract," Cincinnati Federa-The current starting salary • A "career In teaching" pro-termined tee to the union tion of Teachers President Tom tor a Cincinnati teacher Is gram to allow teachers to take through payroll deductions tor Mooney said today.. $16,800, which Is in the bottom on greater responslblllties and the union's services toward
Deputy Superintendent Lynn third ot Hamnton County's 22 leadership roles and lead to reaching the contract. Goodwin said the contract distriCts, Mooney said. greater status and higher sala•
Bob Byrne, past prasident
agreement reached Sunday "re-The tentative three-year rles. The detans ot the program, and vice president ot t!le Cin•
flects improved education tor contract agreement between which designate intern, resl•kids In this city." the school system and its dent, career and lead teachers, clnnatl Teachets Asso~latlon, The contract agreement was teachers also calls tor: will be worked out by Aug.!. said the union -which cannot
vote on the contract -. wouldreached tollowlng three months • Salary increases ot 4 per-The Cincinnati Teachers As•urge colleagues who ,f re CFT
of negotiations involvIng the cent, 5 percent and 7 percent, soclation, a non-recogn1zed"Win-Win" process In which respectively, over three years. union that claIms to represent members to vote aga~.lst the talks are aimed solvIng prob-Over three years, the salary ot a about 25 percent of the school contract due to the ageJ:;!y tee.
-,

Tentative pact raises
teacher salaries 5..3°1'0

By Randy Ludlow and France Griggs Post staff reporters
Cincinnati Public Schools and a unIon representing Its 3,300 teachers have reached tentative agreement on a new three-year contract billed as improving education and en•hancing teaching as a career.
The contract, which mem•bers ot the Cincinnati Federa•tion of Teachers wlll consider In a vote Wednesday, wlll raise teachers' salaries an average oi
5.3 percent annually over the next three years.
The contract also wlll reduce each high school teacher's class load from six to five a day and Increase the length ot class pe•riods from 45 minutes to 50 or 55 minutes to allow tor more Instruction. Eighty new high school teachers wUl be h1red to accomplish the change.
Also, the contract calls tor teachers at all levels to be as•signed tewer non-teaching du•ties to allow tor classroom preparation or tor teaching in•dlv1duals or small groups.
And, the middle school sys•tem w1ll change to operate more llke an elementary school with students grouped 1nto a class that w1ll move together throughout the school day.
"We haven't solved every
Please see TEACHERS, SA

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POST 2/8/88



Tentative pact boosts teacher pay
Union scheduled to vote Wednesday
By France Griggs
and Randy Ludlow
Post staff reporters

Teacher salary Increases averaging 5.3 percent over the next three years and fewer but longer classes each day for high school teachers are called for In a tentative agree•ment reached with Cincinnati school teachers.
It also calls for about 80 new teaching positions for next school year. The tentative agreement VIllI be present•ed Wednesday to teachers' union for rat1f1•.-. cation.
In a Joint statement released today, Cin•cinnati Publ1c Schools Deputy Superinten•dent Lynn Goodwin and Mooney said, "We belleve this presents the Cincinnati Publ1c Schools with a unique opportunity to make a slgnlftcant change In the cl1mate of our system and In the education for children In bur city."
The new pact, If approved, would raise that salary to Just over $20,000 by September of 1989, he said.
The current starting salary for a Cincin•nati teacher Is $16,800, which Is in the bot•tom third of Hamilton County's 22 districts,
Please see TEACHERS, SA
Teachers

From Page 1A

Mooney said. The union's bar•gaining team Is recommending teachers ratify the new pact.
The contract calls for ex•tending high school classes from the current 45 minutes to either 50 or 55 minutes. And the middle school system wlll change to operate more llke an elementary school with stu•dents grouped Into a class that wllI move together through the school day .
Lengthening the class time means high school students will get more Instructional time without lengthening the school day. Teachers wlll have one less class to teach each day, and about 80 new teachers wlll have
to be hired, Mooney said. The tentative three-year contract agreement between the school system and Its 3,300 teachers calls for:
•
Salary increases of 4 per•cent, 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively, over three years. Over the three-years, a teacher with a master's degree and 12. years of service wlll see salary Increases from $34,732 to $39,021 annually. The salary of a begin•ning teacher with a bachelor's degree wlll Increase trom $18,424 In the 1988-89 school year to $21,678 In the 1990-91 school year.

•
A "career In teaching" pro•gram to allow teachers to take on greater responsibilities and leadership roles and lead to greater status and higher sala•ries. The details of the program wlll be worked out by Aug. 1.




Tentative
THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Monday, February 8, 1988
I I

pact OK
expected

Board, teachers to meet today
BY MARTIN HOGAN JR. The Cincinnati Enquirer
. Negotiators for the Cincinnati Board of Education and Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT) are expected to announce tentative agreement on a new three-year contract today.
The school board and CFT have scheduled a joint news conference for 10 a.m. today at Taft High School. The previous contract ex•pired Dec. 31. I
Tom Mooney, CFT president, declined to say Sunday if negotia•tors have developed a package that ~
he could take to the 3,000-member eFT for ratification.
"We've come a long way" in negotiations, Mooney said Sunday. "J hope it's (the news conference) going to say that we're recom•mending ratification of an agree•ment. "
But, Mooney said, the schedul•ing of the news conference "doesn't mean everything's final." He said the 26-member CFT exec•utive council was examining the proposal Sunday night.
Board of Education President Robert Braddock said he was opti•mistic that there would be a tenta•tive agreement and a union ratifi•cation vote by Wednesday. He declined to reveal details of the proposal, but said the negotiating process "covered everything."
Braddock said the union and the school board have been negotiating under a joint problem-solving ap•proach called "win-win bargaining" in which both sides worked togeth· er on issues to be discussed.
"We negotiated what was good for the s\'stem," !lot what was good for' the individual sides," Braddock said.

POST 11/20/87
Claudia Winkler

f\Jovel negotiations

"Collsl1er rhe story of tn'O men quarrelJng III a library. One 'mnts the window open and tile other I,'an ts It close:J. They bIcker back and forth about 110IV much to leave It open: a crack, half•way, three quarters of the ,,·ay. No solutIon satIsfies them both.
"Ent~r tile IJbrnrlan. She asks one why he IV/lnts rhe "'indol\' OpM: 'To get some fresh aIr.' S.~e asks the other ",.~y lIe wants It closed: 'To avoid the dr:lf~' After think•
ing a mJnute, stle opans wide ~I window In the nc.Y~ room,
bringIng in fresh aIr wIthout a drafl."
And both sides win. Th:lt's I'Ihole point of "Getting t~ Yes: tlegotlatln. A~rec:tlent Wlthou~ Giving In," :>. small "ork of exalted !rood sense. A best seller In 1031 (and published In pa•perback by Penguin In 1983). this little book should be read by anyone likely ever to
be r'. SPO\lS~, parent, e:np!oy ..
cr. ,mployee or partner In dealings 01 any consequence ..... 'fh other human beings.
In nddltlon, "Getting to Yes." [rom which the above
p~·t,)S~l(:P cuwes, should be ot p~nlcular Interest to Cln•
cinnatlnns Just now. Its In•
liuence IS Increasing. The authors. RogP.r Fisher ancl WII!!am Ury, founder.! tile ilarvard Ney,otlatlon
Project. [I.~ Han:r.rj Unlver.. $IIY. They ~Iso act as com•n:erclal con.ultants on "pnnclplecl negotiation"
. tllrougll their company Con•rtict ;\!:magement Inc. Anr.! they perform pro bono work In piaees like South Africa and COlltral AmerIca through the Confilct Man•ager:lent FouncJatlon.
Clnclnnntl Is already home to a successful venture they encouro.ged: a media•tion rrogram that for O'/er :Ive years has been quietly ,ettllng cases at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the SI:<th Circuit.
N.)w, Conflict Manage•ment Inc. Is training some 30 representatives ot the Cin•cinnati Public Schools, the Cincinnati Federation of Teacllcrs ane! the school ot•Clce-workers' union In prep•aration tor upcoming contract negotiations.
This Is a significant de•parture (rom the schools' an(1 the CFT's adversarlal past. Contract negotiations
three years ago were iln ~x•
erc!se In brinkmanship. Now . both sides are talklEg Roger Fisher's languaGe.
The metllOr.! Itsell can on•ly be suggest"d here: It In•volves both parties' clearly def!nlng their Interests and basiC principles-then en•gaging In a broad explora•tion of ways of securing those Interests. Ratller thnn ilagg::ng over detailed posi•tions. tne sides seek to mul•tiply options and evaluate them by objective criteria.
This could be a propitious
time for such an approach
In Clnclnnat.l.
Lately, the old mistrust between the union and the district has started cracking. One reason Is the new super•Intendent. All sides want-.d to sec Cincinnati's first black woman superinten•
dent succeed. She. In turn,
reached out and has earned wide respect.
Meanwhile, the CFT was developing serious proposals tor er.!ucatlonal Improve•ments-and replacing old methods borrowed from the trade union movement with approaches suitable tor a professional organlza\lon.
About the same time, the election to the board 01 for•mer teacher and CFT ofncer Virginia Rhodes built anoth•er bridge. So did the surpris•Ing courtship between the union and longtime board member Virginia Griffin, wllO won reelection this month with the CFT's en•dorsement. Both Vlrglnlas and a new deputy superin•tendent, Reginald Green, at•tended the union's national conference on educational Issues In Washington, D.C. this summer-at the union's unprecedented InVitation.
. By then, the district and the union were actua.lly ex•perimenting with collabora•tion. At two pilot schools, teachers are playinG a great•er role In management. And a peer-appraisal plan for teachers has shown dismiss•al rates lor Inadequate teachers twice n. high as the rates resulting from ordi•nary administrative review of teachers' performance.
These developments pa ved the way for the new move to non-adversarlal contract negotiations. They open up the posslblltty of a real partnership.
On the other hand, the Interests 01 union. and dis•trict are not Identical-and "principled negotiation" can be plenty tough.
Indeed, It should be. The biggest Issue for the next few years, aside from salary, Is one with far-reaching Im•plications: teachers' part In setting educational policy.
A "win-win solution" woult! somehow harness for the good 01 schools the CFT's reasonable aspiration. to greater professional re•~ponSlblllty-but would do so without blurring the lines of authority and account•ability that neceosarlly run from prlnc!pals up the ud•mlnlstratl'Ie pyramid to the superintendent and ulti•mately to the elected board and the voters who pay the bill.
If our principled negotia•tors can accomplish that. they will boast quite a feat.
ClaudIa WInkler Is edIto•rIal page editor of TIle Post.
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POST 10/20/87

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A new 'approach to school contracts
By Carmen Carter
Post stall reporter
Cincinnati Public Schools of•ficials and the Cincinnati Fed•eration of Teachers hope Harvard University consultants wlll help make contract negoti•ations more harmonious In up•coming bargaining.
School and union officials announced today that Harvard University trainers will make a preliminary visit Wednesday and Thursday aimed at getting next month's bargaining oft to a good start.
Lynn Goodwin, deputy super•Intendent, said the trainers wlll assess Issues and problems and discuss the "win-win" concept of collective bargaining.
Tom Mooney, eFT president, called the process very different (rom traditional collective bar•gal:llng.
"This Is a joint problem-solv•
Ing approach Invented hy the
Harvard Negotiations Project," Mooney said.
The new approach Is In marked contrast to negotiations In the 1984-1985 school year, which stretched from November through February, and which Mooney described as publ1cly confrontational and acrimoni•ous.
During a period of three to four weeks, each side will be split up into Joint subcommit•tees working on various prob•lem areas, he said. Harvard trainers will set up a calendar to solve Issues by the end of the year, and will corne back when•ever there's a stalemate, Moo•ney said.
The cost of the project can•not be estimated until nfter Harvard trainers make the first viSIt, said Goodwin.
"We !'xpect. It to be less than expenses of bargaining In tile past." said Goodwin.


ans Active to Support Education plans' a rally in support of the levy at 11 a.m. Saturday at Union Terminal. The Issue is on the November ballot.
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