The Hamilton Southeastern Education Association (HSEA), the union representing teachers in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School District, is planning an informational picket outside the district’s Central Office on Cumberland Road this Wednesday beginning at 4 p.m.
The union continues to encourage teachers to follow a “work to rule” approach, meaning educators perform only the duties explicitly required in their contracts. Teachers often put in additional unpaid time, and HSEA says the action is intended to highlight those extra efforts.
The dispute stems from the ongoing lack of a new contract agreement between HSEA and the district. As of November 15, negotiations have moved into mediation, during which a neutral mediator will be appointed, with both sides sharing the cost. If the two parties fail to reach a ratified agreement within 30 days, a state appointed fact-finder will review each side’s final offer, select one, and impose that contract on both parties.
Meanwhile, retired teacher Mike Fassold has weighed in on the situation in a post on his personal Facebook page. Fassold, who guided several Fishers Junior High “We the People” teams to national championships, wrote that while there are “valid considerations on both sides,” he is most concerned about maintaining civil discourse. Before becoming an educator, Fassold served for many years in the military, where he says he learned key lessons about leadership.
He encourages HSE officials to explore creative solutions to the impasse and also notes that low voter turnout can lead to the election of officials who may or may not reflect the broader community’s views on important issues.
You can read Mike Fassold’s entire Facebook post below:
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I have watched and followed the contract “negotiations” between the HSEA and the District with a sense of needless loss. While I no longer have a direct horse in the race as my children have already graduated from the district, my grandchildren will not be in the district, and my retirement life is not impacted. However, I poured so much of myself into the district and know the quality of education in our district. My work with the Fishers Education Grant has given me a deep and expanded appreciation of the quality of and passion of teachers throughout the entire district.
There is no doubt that there are valid considerations on both sides, but it is clear to me there is a bigger issue and a worry about the long-term impact of that failure to civilly discourse. I had two long careers: one in the military and one as a teacher. During both careers I worked for many people in many organizations; some were good managers, some were good leaders, some were both, and, sadly, some were neither.
Organizations led by managers instead of leaders look at all the organizational assets as widgets. This is fine if those main assets are not people. School districts are like military units as their greatest assets are people. Long ago the military identified this problem and focused on developing and promoting leaders. Inside of all organizations there are places for great managers; CIOs and CFOs come to mind.
There is a long-term cost to bad leadership. The destruction of short and long-term morale. Distrust permeates the organization. It becomes the dreaded “us” versus “them” that kills everyone pushing to achieve shared mission goals as progress requires trust. Further, I worry that this will cause an even greater strain on the retention of young teachers (I have watched so much young talent leaves our district in the last couple of years).
The contract negotiations are in a need of a Dick Winters leadership lesson. Dick Winters from the best 10 hours of television (aka The Band of Brothers) is well known in military leadership schools. Dick Winters created 10 Principles for Leadership Success. The one that screams at me is his first principle…” Lead by example.” Shared pain is doable. Unequal pain requires coercion instead of cooperation. The optics for a new superintendent contract with increased compensation and an expansion of the central office staff (which I believe was too small) at a time when the district cries financial poverty in negotiations is an albatross around the necks of the central office negotiators. The best leaders always share the hardship!
I also wonder how creative the district has been with solutions. Are they only looking at monolithic solutions? For example, has the district explored combining health care solutions with Carmel and Noblesville School districts to achieve economies of scale? Has the district looked at combining health care services with the city of Fishers? Where is the creativity in offering financial options?
People have tagged me or contacted me on what they should do?
In short, elections have consequences. SB1 passed because of electing Braun as governor and the re-election of a Republican super-majority in the General Assembly. The school board composition is the result of elections, which results in the selection of a superintendent.
In America, we can have our own velvet revolution every two years. One of the results of redistricting of Indiana state districts is that districts are not wildly competitive; therefore, this gives sense of invulnerability and lack of accountability. Indiana has a poor record of voter turnout of eligible voters; in fact, Indiana ranks about 50th. I wrote a blog post about this last year:
https://mikefassold.com/…/the-twin-danger-of-low-voter…/ where I showed how our representatives are elected by small fraction of eligible voters.
If you do not like the school board policies, organize your neighbors and vote. Do not like the policies of General Assembly; organize your neighbors and vote. Do not like the policies of the governor; organize your neighbors and vote.
I would like to close with the idea that it is not too late in the contract negotiations process as nobody is beyond the ability to have a change of heart and tone.
Central office could rally a proposal that shares the pain with the teachers. Central office and a teacher committee could reach out to other schools and entities and find a better way to deliver health care at a lower cost. Teachers and central office could work as a team craft a financial compromise where there is maximum money is allocated and the teachers and administration craft referendum numbers that allow for financial solutions.
Most important to me is to avoid the destruction of the relationship between the teachers and the administration.