Impasse continues

Teachers, school board brace for round two

Six hours behind closed doors with a mediator at a cost of roughly $1,000 for the day wasn't enough to break the impasse in contract negotiations between the teachers' union and Conway School Board Thursday. They did agree, however, to meet again."I'm not going to say anything about the negotiations other than they are ongoing," Carl Nelson, school superintendent, said Friday. "The two sides were not able to conclude anything (Thursday)."Nelson said the sides are tentatively looking at a second meeting during the first week of December with the same mediator. "It went went the whole day," Nelson said of the negotiations, "and then there were board members who had to attend the budget meeting (Thursday night), it was just one of those days.""We are going into a second day," Curtis Finney, president of the Conway Education Association, said Friday. "We spent an entire day and went through many many issues and landed on a couple, but I can't say what they were." Both sides reached impasse earlier in October, prompting the need for a professional mediator to see if negotiations could be salvaged.At impasse, the union submitted three names of professional mediators to Nelson that he has shared with the school board. Rebecca Hill, a science teacher and chief negotiator for the teachers' union, said the school board agreed to one of the recommended mediators. Neither she nor Nelson would divulge the name of the negotiator, although Nelson said it it not a local person."There are professional mediators who do work all over the states (in New England)," Nelson said speaking in general terms. "When the sides agree to mediation, a mediator comes in and hopefully he or she can resolve negotiations." Finney described what happens in the process with the mediator. "This person comes in and will go back and forth with both sides. He'll meet with both chairs (Hill and Kovalik) initially. They will layout what both sides want or are looking for and then he will meet with each team, going back and forth the rest of the day. It could go on for six or seven hours until an agreement is reached or he determines we're stuck at impasse."I am optimistic," he continued. "I think both side's proposals were fair. Hopefully, through mediation we will come to an agreement."He said the teachers union sent an e-mail to its 196 members explaining the impasse, which started with the definition of the word "a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible."Nelson also hopes for some sort of resolution. Traditionally negotiations wrap up in November."We haven't had an (impasse) situation occur in Conway in quite some time," Nelson continued."We wish it didn't have to be this way," Hill said. "It's been a long time since our negotiations have gone to impasse."The cost for the mediator are being shared between the teachers' union and the school board. "It's in the neighborhood of $1,000 per session with travel expenses," Nelson said.Conway School Board members Kovalik, Dick Klement and Janine McLauchlan are serving as the district's negotiating team while Hill, George Cole, math teacher at Kennett High; Kimberly Mathison, sixth grade teacher at Conway Elementary; and Chris Bailey, teacher at Kennett High, make up the Conway Education Association's negotiating team.