THERE IS NO ambiguity concerning the end date of the AAPS teachers’ contract: 2016. The Board of Education members and the Superintendent want the teachers to come to the bargaining table based on a June 20, 2014 agreement that called for AAPS and union officials to meet in March 2015 to discuss finances and merit pay.

The Board of Education members recently released a statement whereby the group expressed its “disappointment that the AAEA does not plan to come to the table to discuss how we might positively find ways to support and reward our teaching staff while maintaining the financial viability of the district – now and in the future.”

Michigan is a work-for-hire state. The union’s contract was bargained and signed despite this change in state law. In point of fact, the AAPS Board of Education is not obligated to bargain a contract with the Ann Arbor Education Association. It is equally true that the teachers union has a signed contract that expires in 2016. Union officials are not obligated to begin bargaining simply because the Superintendent and the Board of Education members demand by fiat the union does so.

Passing resolutions that at once seek “to support a collaborative problem-solving process with the Association” while also directing the Superintendent “to take whatever steps may be necessary to ensure that the best interests of the District are protected” is sending mixed messages to the public and the teachers’ union.

AAEA president Linda Carter has, not surprisingly, responded to the BOE’s threats and bullying with her own stiff-necked bravado.   In actuality, Carter and her members are caught between a rock and a hard place. Intransigence, at this point, is more for show than anything else and we encourage Linda Carter to refrain from swinging at pitches in the dirt.

AAPS teachers have agreed to staffing schemes, wage freezes and salary cuts, among other reductions, in order to help balance the budget. The Superintendent and the members of the Board of Education must proceed cautiously. The district’s human capital, its teachers, are our greatest asset. Trying to bully their union to the bargaining table can’t possibly engender either good will or trust.

Finally, in a recent letter to teachers Dr. Swift attempted to rally the troops. In that letter, the Superintendent also wrote, “At the same time, we do not create good will for public education with hostile attacks on the district.” Disagreements with or criticism of the Board of Education, Dr. Swift, AAPS programs or policies are not attacks on the district or public education. The Superintendent’s attempt to squelch dissent and free speech is unwelcome and paternalistic. We are, frankly, surprised the Superintendent would resort to such rhetoric.

Teachers are professionals of whom we demand much and to whom we must be prepared to listen when it comes to the programs they staff, the instruction they deliver and the children they teach.  Teachers who’ve spoken to Board of Education members, who have spoken out at meetings, including their own staff meetings, have reported being implicitly and explicitly threatened. Such allegations by teachers must be investigated and any perpetrators given time-outs, as it were.

This brouhaha over when contract negotiations must begin is an unnecessary distraction and an inauspicious end to what has been a year of triumphs for Dr. Swift, the teachers and their district.