Both sides of District 48 to meet on how to negotiate

Federal mediators.

Picket signs.

A salary stalemate.

Richard Auskalnis and John Zelman have seen all three up close as previous teacher contracts expired in Salt Creek School District 48.

All three are what both men want to avoid when the latest contract ends in 2008.

To achieve that goal, school trustees and teachers union representatives are scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday for the first of two 5-hour training sessions to learn a different style of negotiation.

The second session is scheduled for 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday. Both meetings are open to the public.

"Traditionally, negotiations have been adversarial," said Auskalnis, president of the Salt Creek school board. "This time, both sides are looking at how to respect one another while coming to common ground."

In 2000, federal mediators were called in to revive stalled discussions that led to students seeing their teachers carrying picket signs after the 2001 winter break.

Classes started on time in 2005 because of a school board-imposed contract after the board's negotiating team declared an impasse. An agreement was reached in early 2006 after teachers worked months without a new contract.

That agreement is set to expire at the end of July 2008.

Zelman, who's served as president of the Salt Creek Education Association for two years, said he doesn't expect the upcoming round of talks to be as lengthy or adversarial.

"It's history," Zelman said. "And we're not going to rehash it. We are trying to be positive."

There's reason to be positive, said Renae Rebechini, of the Lombard office of the Illinois Education Association, who's taught interest-based bargaining used for several years by unions in Glen Ellyn Elementary School District 41 and Lombard Elementary School District 44.

Zelman recommended that District 48 consider the technique, a suggestion that was welcomed by Superintendent John Correll, who was familiar with it from his time as an assistant superintendent with District 41.

"One of the things that's most unique is that both parties brainstorm for an agreement that may work and they could live with," Rebechini said.

Legal language is broached only after representatives talk about their interests and educational best practices.

Then, Rebechini said, "you wrap the words around the conceptual agreement."