Present: Sharon Henry-Blythe, Tom Madden, T. Williams, Chris Stewart, Pam Costain, Mauri Meelander, Alan Giles, Dan Lowenson, and Ava Neilson.  Emma Hixson is noted to be absent.

Starting near the end of a discussion about possible modifications to teacher placement and layoff procedures...

Tom concludes this part of the conversation by suggesting that a system of interview and select placement not only helps high-poverty/low-tenure schools, but also helps low-poverty/high-tenure schools, such as Lake Harriet.  Tom says that Interview & Select “gives principals the motivation to deal with problem teachers’, which in turn could create rare opening in high-tenure schools, so these schools could proactively change their staff.

T then shifts the topic, asking the administration if “we” are required by law to close the bargaining sessions.  T asks if there might be a time when it could work to someone’s advantage or disadvantage have open bargaining sessions.

Alan Giles responds to T’s question with a sputtering series of half sentences.  Alan states that all collective bargaining sessions are “public” and that to close a negotiation, you have to request that “the commissioner” close the meeting.  Apparently addressing T, Alan says “You could show up at the meeting.  Nothing says the negotiation meetings are private.” However, Alan then says that the negotiations are “not a public meeting, understand, because it’s not subject to the open meeting law”

T asks Alan point-blank “so public non-participants could come and observe?”, to which Alan replies “That’s right”, and which Mauri quickly follows with “And they have”.  Pam offer examples of potential non-participant observers saying “parents, community members?” and there is general agreement.

Pam reminds people that the time of the executive session is running out and that they have a full agenda at the regular Board meeting, so they need to wrap it up.  She asks the administration staff if they “need any more from us tonight?”

Dan responds in a no-worries tone, saying “I think it’s a very good reflection of where we can start.  I’m sure Emma will be back…”

However, Mauri speaks up over Dan’s comments to say that she heard the Board say they wanted to start the negotiations discussion understanding what the administration wanted from the negotiations.  However, Mauri says, she didn’t hear the Board reach closure on that, so she asks “Is everybody in agreement with what we [the administration] want?”.

Pam says that she didn’t hear any objections, but Chris points out that they “didn’t get to everything, just interview and select”.

Mauri asks if the Board is thinking that the administration is going to come back with a ‘this what we want’ statement.  Chris says that he assumed there would be another meeting before that sort of statement could be created, then T says that he would like to see something written from the administration staff summarizing the Boards discussion, and then they can pick up the discussion from there.

Pam says “Ava suggested the approach to recall by program area. I’m wondering whether or not we can easily say that sounds good to us, or if we have questions about it.” Chris says that he has questions, so Pam then says “all we can definitively say tonight is that we are really behind interview and select.”

Mauri keeps pushing, saying “Do you want to say that what you want is that every child has a teacher that is in alignment with the program they are in and the administrative staff in their building?”

Pam says “I don’t think we can say that at this point.  I think what we are saying is that staff should come back next time summarizing what they heard.”

Dan jumps in, trying to wrap up the conversation, and says “There are open items and we can summarize what we heard with bullet points, and you can reflect on that, and then Emma can lead the discussion about what the trade-offs might be, the specific language…”