After Monday night’s joint school committee meeting, only the signatures of chosen candidate Mike Nelson and respective regional and union-side chairpersons Cary Humphrey and Shannon Finning stood in the way of the Old Rochester Regional School District having a new superintendent effective with the June 30 expiration of retiring Superintendent Doug White’s contract.
The return of the ORR District School Committee and Massachusetts School Superintendency Union #55 from executive session to announce an agreement with Nelson was made with more relief than the joy expressed upon the Committee’s selection of Nelson as a finalist in March.
“This has been an incredibly long process of meetings with the groups. And working with (consultant) Jim Hardy – I know some didn’t like his communications style – but he was very valuable to work with so I’m very appreciative. All’s fair in negotiations, and it was frustrating for all of us to go back and forth… what was acceptable and then was not,” said Humphrey after both sides unanimously voted to accept the contract terms negotiated by the subcommittee. “I would like to encourage the region (side of the joint committee) to, number one, hold (Nelson) accountable but, number two, to support him. At a time when we have no idea what’s going to happen in the next few months… he’s our leader now.”
Applying the finishing touches to contractual agreement with a favored son promoted from within turned out not to be the fait accompli one might have assumed. The finalizing of a standard-length, three-year contract, the sequel chapter following the drama of the interview and hiring process, apparently had its own adventure.
“When we advertised for the position, there was a range (of annual salary) between $170,000 and $190,000. We knew if we were getting somebody who was getting their first superintendent’s position or this was their third. While certainly not saying that the $20,000 isn’t significant, there was a floor and a ceiling,” explained Finning. “We honored the spirit of what the contract was advertised as.”
There is much more that goes into a contract negotiation beyond quibbling over the bottom line, and a variety of concerns could factor. Nelson is a doctoral student so the timeline in which he is expected to complete his degree program is one thing, and another is potential tuition reimbursement in the mix with a negotiated benefits package.
“I think this is an opportunity when somebody’s taking on the chief role of an organization to advocate in their best interests and to ask any and all questions from what they have learned or heard from the MA Association of (School) Superintendents,” Finning told The Wanderer following the meeting. “It was a spirited, fairly intense, negotiations that occurred… There’s something about being at the same table that would have cut down on the time it took.”
Humphrey also suspects that the context of a school year turned on its side by the coronavirus pandemic brought its own measure of distraction and delay into the negotiations. Now that the process has ended, he was eager to praise those involved and thanked Finning and Michelle Smith of the negotiating subcommittee.
“I could not have had a better partner in this,” said Finning in the committee meeting, thanking members of the committee for their work and support. “We will work tirelessly to support Mr. Nelson.”
Finning told the joint committee that she and Humphrey will reach out to Nelson and White to initiate a transition period.
ORR Joint School Committee Superintendents Union No. 55
By Mick Colageo