The Conflicts of Teachers on School Boards

Anonymous

Mon, 11/22/2010 - 05:13

Advisory Opinions

Teachers and teachers' family members seem to be just the sort of
people to run for school boards. They have either the expertise and/or
the interest in education. But with them come conflicts of interest,
and these can cast doubt on what they're doing there in the first place. 
 
Teachers in the particular school district generally can't run for
school board seats, but many teachers don't live in the districts where
they teach. This prohibition often applies to their spouses as well, but not to
their parents, siblings, and children. 
 
But when it comes to teacher contracts, even the parents, siblings, and
children have a conflict between the interests of the public and the
interests of their immediate family members in getting a raise and holding on to their benefits.

According to <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20101121/COMMUNITIES/101119071/1005/…; target="”_blank">an
article in yesterday's Daily Record</a>, this is a big problem in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_County,_New_Jersey" target="”_blank">Morris
County, New Jersey</a>. In one district, for example, three of five school board
members are teachers in other districts. 
 
A Conflict or Confidential Information Issue? 
Although there are <a href="http://www.state.nj.us/education/legal/" target="”_blank">state
advisory opinions</a>, it is up to each school board attorney to
determine what to do in each situation. <a href="http://www.nj.gov/education/legal/ethics/advisory/cat1/a1400pub.pdf" target="”_blank">A
November 2000 advisory opinion </a>comes up with these complicated
guidelines for school board members who teach in another district but
are members of the same teachers union: 
 
"[They] may vote on collective bargaining agreements with the local
teachers' affiliate in the district in which they serve. ... the same
board members would violate [the ethics code] if they
were to participate in negotiations or be present at negotiations with
the local affiliate of teachers. 
 
"... there is a need for the board members who are conflicted from
negotiations, but are able to vote on the contract, to have knowledge
of the terms of the contract prior to the vote. Therefore, the
Commission advises that the board members so situated may participate
in closed session meetings of the board in which the contract is
discussed after the memorandum of agreement has been signed..." 
 
This decision divvies up participation in matters where there is a
conflict in a way most people will not understand. A teacher member
must stay away from the negotiations (which are usually handled by a
committee, in any event), and not even know what is going on, until a
memorandum of agreement is signed, and then they may attend even closed
sessions on the contract, and ultimately vote on the contract. 
 
In other words, this is being treated not as a conflict issue, in terms
of a possible benefit to be received, but rather as a confidential
information question. The concern appears to be that information might
be leaked to the union by union members who would not themselves
benefit from the negotiations. In either case, however, the school
board member is wearing two hats. The difference between treating it as
a pure conflict issue or as a confidential information issue involves
when wearing the two hats no longer matters, and the state school
ethics commission draws the line at the point where at least a
memorandum of agreement has been signed. 
 
Why Are Teachers Elected? 
However, the public still sees teachers and their immediate family
members voting on contracts with their own teachers unions. There are
three reasons why most people elect teachers anyway. One is that school
board elections are usually pretty minor affairs, with little known
about the candidates and little media coverage. 
 
The second reason is that, though board members are required to
disclose conflicts of interest, candidates are not. As one citizen is
quoted as saying, "I would venture to say that the majority of the
taxpayers in town probably don't realize that 2/3 of their elected
officials can have no impact on [millions of dollars] of their taxes." 
 
The third reason is that teachers sell themselves as having special
expertise, without noting that they have a conflict. See below for more
on this topic. 
 
Disenfranchisement 
The school superintendent in the district that has teachers in three out
of its five school board seats doesn't help things by saying, "I think
my three members are extremely aware that they don't want to be
perceived as being the NJEA [teachers union]. They can separate their
responsibilities. When they sit at the board, they are board members,
they're not NJEA members." It's sad to see an educator who makes so little effort to understand conflicts of interest and who cannot see things from the public's point of view. 
 
The citizen quoted above understands the issue better. When individuals
run for office without saying that they will not be able to participate
or vote on the single biggest issue facing their board, this
effectively disenfranchises voters. 
 
Expertise 
What about the teachers' expertise? Isn't that worth their sitting on
school boards? One teacher-school board member is quoted as saying,
"Whilst I can't be participatory in contract negotiations, I can lend
expert evaluation on educational policy. I understand the public's
frustration, but they're only looking at one piece." 
 
But can't the teacher lend her expert evaluation on educational policy
without sitting on the board? If there are teachers who want
to get involved, can't they form an advisory committee on educational
policy, while leaving school board members without any conflicts to
deal with the unions and other teacher matters? That's the way school
management works: the administration runs the day-to-day
operations and advises the board, while the board makes the policy decisions. That way, there are no
conflicts, and expertise is always available. The more expertise, the
better, but that does not require that the experts make the policy
decisions, too. Otherwise, why bother with school boards at all? 
 
Robert Wechsler 
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics 
 
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