OXFORD — Oxford Hills School Superintendent Rick Colpitts said the recent contract negotiations between the Oxford Hills School District teachers’ union and the board of directors was done using a nontraditional method called interest-based bargaining.

“It is not adversarial,” Colpitts said. Both parties bring their mutual concerns to one bargaining table.

Colpitts said the negotiating teams, which included five Oxford Hills School District board members and four teachers’ union representatives, has used the method to negotiate the last few teachers’ contracts.

Interest-based bargaining begins with understanding the problem and identifying the interests that underlie each side’s issues and positions. In this case, there are certain conditions that must be met in the process, he said. They include understanding the district’s taxpayers and what their capacity for spending is and what a sustainable wage is for the teachers.

In the past, the traditional negotiation would consist of both parties sitting in separate rooms hammering out what they want while each parties’ attorneys would go back and forth with the demands until a settlement could be reached.

While it takes a lot longer than traditional bargaining — in this case, they met about six to eight times this school year — it is a more satisfying and successful method for all, Colpitts said.

No one was available from the tecahers’ union to comment on the process.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link