Final Budget Awaits Outcome of Negotiations

Despite the Board’s approval of a list of cuts, there still remains some uncertainty about next year’s budget for the Rapid City Area Schools. Administrators are assessing the impact of federal stimulus money. Some final decisions about retirements are still pending. Meanwhile, negotiations have begun with the District’s various unions. As those negotiations are completed over the next few weeks and months, the District’s financial situation will be clearer. 

Every year, as the snow begins to let up and the grass starts to grow, bargaining groups from each of the District’s unions sit down with a negotiating team of administrators to talk about wages and working conditions. The unions include a local affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which bargains on behalf of bus drivers, boiler technicians, high school custodians, security officers, warehousemen and a host of other employees. There is a Secretarial and Clerical Unit. Administrators and Technicians have a bargaining group that currently includes school principals and most District administrators, as well as network technology associates, payroll managers, psychologists and others. 

The most important agreement, because it covers the largest group of employees, is with the teachers who belong to the Rapid City Education Association (RCEA). The RCEA is the local chapter of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest professional organization and largest labor union. NEA represents more than 3.2 million members in 14,000 communities. With their annual dues, RCEA members receive a number of benefits from the union, including representation at the bargaining table. The contract negotiated and approved by the RCEA, however, covers all teachers, whether they are members or not.

The Bargaining Process  

As bargaining begins in the late winter and early spring, each of the District’s employee groups engages in a separate negotiating process.  The first of a series of meetings starts with both sides discussing ground rules and establishing a preliminary schedule. Some of the bargaining groups have a professional representative join them.  Others are represented by leaders chosen from among the employees.

The Board of Education is represented by a team of administrators led by Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Steve Hengen. Although the Board can decide this issue anew every year, in recent years Board members have chosen to participate only as observers in the negotiations rather than take an active part in the back and forth at the table.

The actual negotiations are tightly bound by the rules established in the beginning. They govern who can speak, who can ask questions, and how proposals will come to the table and be considered. Salary increases are always a critical part of the bargaining process, but so are other issues related to leave, work rules, the number of days covered by the contract and more. Often, the two sides will reach a “tentative agreement” on an issue and set it aside so they can continue to work on unresolved questions.

The process ends when the issues have been resolved, the union’s membership ratifies the agreement and the Board of Education approves it. If the two sides cannot agree, they can turn to the South Dakota Department of Labor and ask the department to hear the issues from both sides and then issue findings and recommendations. The findings and recommendations, however, are not binding. They are intended to put pressure on the two sides to reach an agreement. If the sides still can’t agree, the Board of Education is required to impose its last best offer. The union can then appeal the Board’s decision by going to the courts.

Usually, the Board and the unions are able to reach agreement, but in recent years, the Board has occasionally imposed contracts — once on the teachers, and another time on the Teamsters — when the bargaining teams were not able to reach agreement. This year, with the District once again facing financial hard times and the economy as a whole in trouble, bargaining may be especially difficult. The State Legislature has promised a three percent increase to the school districts. Employees will want some of that increase to flow into their paychecks. But since the federal stimulus will provide a significant portion of the District’s three percent raise, the District’s money managers may need to be cautious.

Stay tuned for some resolution on the negotiations and the budget by early this summer. To read about last year’s negotiations, see Kayla Gahagan’s article from September, 2008 and the article she wrote when teacher negotiations were resolved in October.