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This handbook is designed to serve as a guide to help school boards understand collective bargaining and the labor-management relationships in their districts. Chapter 1 describes what school-board members need to know. Chapter 2 discusses some of the political and legal realities that school boards face in the collective-bargaining process. Chapters 3 and 4 depict how bargaining works and describe some alternative bargaining styles. The fifth chapter examines the board's reaction to union demands, with a focus on building credibility. Chapters 6 and 7 offer guidelines for preparing to bargain and understanding roles and responsibilities. The eighth and ninth chapters describe strategies for resolving a negotiation impasse and responding to a teachers' strike. Ten concluding recommendations are offered in the final chapter. Four tables and a glossary are included. (LMI)

This is an analysis of the current Education Association model collective bargaining agreement. This document is intended to provide aid and assistance to board bargaining teams and negotiators; it is not a substitute for professional assistance where such help is indicated. The board of education-oriented clauses included in the analysis indicate sample language only; the clauses do not present model or recommended language. The substance, content, and consequences of American Federation of Teachers contract proposals in most districts will be quite similar to those included in this model. The areas covered are recognition, employee evaluation and termination, employee compensation and fringe benefits, leaves, grievance procedure, negotiation procedure, the effect of the agreement, reduction of teachers, and minimum necessary contract clauses to be proposed by the board of education. These latter clauses cover strikes and lockouts, management rights, and waiver of additional bargaining. (Author/IRT)

This manual is intended to help school boards in Illinois and other states measure the costs of their benefits programs and to control expenditures for these programs in order to obtain maximum value for employer and employee. It presents a systematic method of computing fringe benefit costs, the comparative costs of benefits programs in Illinois, criteria for evaluating programs, and suggestions for controlling costs and negotiating benefits. The book also contains a special section on negotiating salaries, which offers insight into traditional pay practices, union demands, and alternatives for distributing money on the salary schedule. To achieve its goals, the manual includes (1) step-by-step instructions and a worksheet for computing fringe benefit costs, (2) a discussion of actual and potential costs of benefit programs with tables of comparative data, (3) criteria that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a fringe benefit program, (4) a detailed discussion of legally required fringe benefits and of other benefits commonly provided, with suggestions for monitoring and controlling costs, and (5) recommendations for negotiating benefits intended to be of maximum value to the board and employees alike. (Author/JM)

To help new school board members gain a quick understanding of their job, this handbook's seven chapters and five appendices present useful guidelines and information. The first chapter discusses the general nature of school board membership, lists 12 characteristics of a good board member, and presents the Illinois Association of School Boards' code of conduct for school board members. Chapters two and three describe the structure of Illinois school government and of local school boards. The school board's powers and duties, including policy-making and school district monitoring, are addressed in chapter four. Chapter five looks at school board operations and meetings and suggests how to conduct effective meetings. The last two chapters introduce the new board member to school finance and collective bargaining. The appendices add further hints for conducting productive board meetings and provide a list of additional readings as well as guidelines for a board's relations with its chief administrator. (RW)

This handbook and the accompanying workbook grew out of a series of workshops on superintendent appraisal designed to find a way to clarify and strengthen the board-superintendent relationship and to enable boards to constructively evaluate superintendent performance. The guidelines are intended to acquaint board members and superintendents with some important principles of evaluation and, in particular, with performance appraisal procedures. (MLF)

This workbook is intended to help the school board and superintendent tailor a performance appraisal system to suit their own needs. It consists of ten separate exercises that guide the board and superintendent through the planning and decision-making that must precede successful performance appraisal. The workbook contains exercises through which the board and superintendent will (1) determine what they want from evaluation; (2) deal constructively with board member concerns related to the traits, skills, and behavior of the superintendent; (3) reach agreement on how to conduct regular appraisal of the superintendent's performance; and (4) provide a sound basis for appraisal of past performance and for planning future directions. (Author/MLF)

This handbook is intended to help school boards become more effective governing bodies by becoming more efficient in conducting routine business, improving their abilities to reach constructive decisions and to solve problems, making their meetings sources of good will among members, students, and the community, and developing and following written policies and procedures for conducting board meetings. In addition to furthering these general goals, the handbook provides an introduction to the laws regulating the conduct of board meetings in Illinois. The work is presented in 10 chapters that focus on organizing the school board, Illinois legal requirements, planning for meetings, conducting meetings, the duties and responsibilities of meeting participants, recording the meeting, decision making, dealing with the public, working with the news media, and evaluating board meetings. Among the topics covered are the election and orientation of new members, designing an agenda, handling minutes, conducting closed meetings, adopting policy, and dealing with school administrators. Sample policy statements are provided to illustrate ways to put the text's suggestions into practice. Appendices and exhibits include articles, statements, checklists, and other materials supporting and enriching the text. (PGD)