The CAT bargaining team met with the BOE bargaining team on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings this past week.

There are no "details" to report...and do NOT expect any.

Although the ground rules do NOT impose a gag rule on the proceedings, negotiations are best left to the teams "behind closed doors".

That being said, there is nothing to report at this time anyway. On May 29th, an initial meeting was held to establish the aforementioned "ground rules"...a general framework within which to work. As indicated earlier, the two parties have exchanged "lists" of interests/concerns which serve the dual purpose of indicating things to discuss and serving to limit the discussions so that they do not stray to new areas, prolonging negotiations ad infinitum.

The three sessions this week allowed the parties to engage in a "dialogue"...an exploration of the listed interests/concerns, providing the rationale for same.

It is hoped that "interest based bargaining" or "win-win bargaining" will avoid the turmoil and confrontation that characterized CAT-BOE negotiations "back in the day". It worked when Dr. Sam Harbin was here...we hope it will continue! Cairo School District Number One has seen more than enough "bloodshed"...2002 and before!

When I used to attend Regional Council meetings in Marion (that's some dirty laundry that I have chosen NOT to share...I can keep some secrets), one of the representatives from another school district characterized their version of "win-win bargaining" as "love-love bargaining". Well, I don't know if I want to go THAT far, but our meetings thus far have been amicable, characterized by receptiveness on both sides.

The two teams have scheduled three more meetings for this coming week.