Stalemate At Schools Seems Over Bonner Trustees, Teachers Agree To Meet

A bitter stalemate over contract negotiations between teachers and the Bonner County School District may be at an end.

District officials agreed to meet with union members Monday and resume talks. The two sides hope to hammer out a contract in one day and have the school board ratify it at their Tuesday night meeting.

“We are ready to meet around the clock, we have always maintained that,” said Bonner County Education Association President Enid Trenholm.

Teachers have worked two years without a new negotiated agreement and considered walking off the job to protest the stalled talks.

“We are delighted to see the board has listened to the teachers and the community and is ready to settle this dispute,” Trenholm said.

District officials were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Last spring, the school board hired a team of professional negotiators for $14,500 to deal with teachers. Talks nearly came to a halt at that point, with the two sides agreeing only to adopt a 70-plus page document on how to proceed with negotiations.

One of the hired Seattle-based negotiators contacted the union Wednesday asking to return to the bargaining table. The union immediately agreed to meet, Trenholm said.

“I’m not privy to how it came about, but obviously something has happened here, and I would have to thank the board members for this one,” Trenholm said.

Teachers have tried for the past month to get school board members and district administrators to sit down with them. They resorted to newspaper advertisements criticizing the administration. Teachers also called residents, urging them to contact board members and insist they settle with teachers.

Administrators still refused to meet, and accused the union of using illegal tactics and bad faith bargaining. The district also threatened to get a court order to stop teachers from talking to residents about the contract dispute.

“We believe the community was concerned this has not been settled and finally expressed that to board members,” Trenholm said. “It’s heartening that board members seem to be listening.”

An analysis of the district’s finances, to determine what money if any is available for teacher raises, was supposed to be presented next Tuesday.

The district negotiators wanted to cancel the meeting, but union members have not agreed to that. Teachers have been told there is no money for a salary increase, but administrators already received a 2.8 percent raise.

, DataTimes