Meet and confer: Don't forget about helping the adults to help student learning

Whenever a school district and its employees meet and confer about an issue it’s a good thing for everyone. Our school district really places a high priority on working collaboratively to come up with positive high quality solutions that give every student the opportunity to reach their full potential. While most people wouldn’t argue that student learning is the most important thing a school does I often feel like not enough time and energy is placed on supporting the adults in the district. Whenever meet and confer takes place in addition to doing what is best for kids I believe that there are three other things that must also be carefully considered. First, I feel that the education of teachers in a district is something that should always be considered. A district should want its teachers to be highly educated and reward them for continuing their education because this directly affects student learning if the education is directly related to their role in the classroom. For example, a teacher working with at-risk youth who goes back to school and gets their alternative education license will have new and more accurate ways of helping meet the needs of their students. I am totally against teachers being encouraged and rewarded for getting generic degrees and licenses outside what they are actually doing and will have no affect on their students. This is why I worry as education lanes are removed from salary scales statewide. Veteran teachers will not be up to date on new ideas and how will we be able to draw the best and the brightest into the profession? The second issue that should always be considered in a meet and confer setting is that teachers are professionals and should be treated as such. I believe that paying teachers fairly and making them feel like professionals directly affects school moral and climate which affects student learning.  Also as professionals teachers should be brought into discussions about the profession and their ideas should be valued. The last thing that I believe should always be considered in a meet and confer opportunity is relationships. As chapter nine talked about, the role of administrators is changing and he or she will find themselves having to work more collaboratively with staff in the district. When meet and confer opportunities take place people often revert back to road block tactics or the use of poor communication skills as described in chapter nine.  People begin to use personal attacks, put downs, judging of each other, threats, or flexing of authority instead of listening honestly and communicating effectively.  If a district and its staff use these tactics they will tear apart the relationships they may have previously built and the rift may never be able to be repaired fully.  In order to keep the relationships open and positive between the district and its staff the good communication skills listed in chapter nine should be used. First, individuals may not be talking to each other in a way that can be understood.  It is imperative to make sure that everyone understands all vocabulary involved in the discussions. The second problem is listening, too many people aren’t listening to the other side because they are too busy reloading their next rebuttal. The third problem is people misunderstanding the words of others. That is why in a meet and confer setting it is important to make sure each side clearly understands the others points. If a school district and its staff focus on the education of its teachers, treat its teachers like professionals, and work to build positive relationships student achievement will go up and that’s what everyone wants in the end.