Ed associations offer CIR plan (Ne)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110430/NEWS01/704309824#ed-associations-offer-cir-plan

By Matt Wynn
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The past two weeks have been cruel to the state's education associations. The head of the Nebraska Association of School Boards was called out at a legislative hearing. Senators told them to get to work. Even Gov. Dave Heineman made a dig.

“To be perfectly frank, the education establishment punted,” the governor wrote in a letter. “I am extraordinarily disappointed.”

All because of a proposal to overhaul the state's Commission of Industrial Relations, the board that handles labor disputes between public employees and their government employers. Specifically, all because the associations that represent schools hadn't proposed any meaningful changes to the way the wages of school employees are calculated.

Maybe all that tough love paid dividends. Now, three months after the 64-page overhaul bill was introduced, the Nebraska Council of School Administrators and Nebraska Association of School Boards have come up with a few ideas.

John Bonaiuto, executive director of the school boards group, said critics' claim that the education establishment has been unwilling to make hard decision is unfair.

The associations needed time to put together a cogent plan, he said. While cities have worked on the portion of the bill as it relates to municipal wage negotiations for more than a year, school districts didn't know CIR reform was coming until the bill was introduced in January, Bonaiuto said.

FULL story at link.