Idaho’s controversial new school reform laws gutted teacher associations’ collective bargaining powers, but local union leaders say they can still work effectively with their district administration to help shape policies.

“This (legislation) basically said to districts that if you don’t want to work with teachers in these areas, you can say by law you don’t have to do it anymore,” Boise Education Association President Andrew Rath said. “But I think they’ve found that districts want to work with the teachers.”

Association leaders Sam Stone of Caldwell and Luke Franklin of Meridian agreed.

“We can always talk to our district,” Franklin said. “Our relationship isn’t really ‘us against them.’”

The Students Come First laws, unveiled by schools Superintendent Tom Luna one year ago and approved by the 2011 Legislature, limits teacher contract negotiations to the issues of pay and benefits and eliminates working conditions and other issues from master contracts.

The first round of contract talks under the new laws took place last spring and required districts to “sort out and find a home for things” that traditionally had been part of the contract and now must be handled differently, Nampa School District public information officer Allison Westfall said.

Nampa teachers and administrators still consulted on issues such as the school calendar and workday schedules, Westfall said, collaborating voluntarily but not through binding negotiations. The resulting agreements wound up in the employee handbook, school board policy and a memorandum of understanding.

MEMBERSHIP WANES

Nampa Education Association President Angie Spracher said the idea that the new laws sapped teachers’ rights is a “misconception” that cost the association numerous members.

Unlike other local union leaders contacted by the Statesman, Spracher would not reveal how much the Nampa union’s membership has declined.

In Caldwell and Meridian, membership has dropped below 50 percent, endangering the simple-majority status a local union must prove in order to negotiate with the district, Stone and Franklin said.

But that majority doesn’t have to consist of dues-paying members, and Franklin said the Meridian association, now slightly below the simple-majority mark, is campaigning to get nonmembers to authorize the association to negotiate on their behalf.

In Caldwell, the district has nearly 350 teachers, and late last fall fewer than 150 belonged to the local union. Stone said he expects a membership drive will restore the association to simple-majority status.

In Boise, the education association has lost some members in the past year but still boasts about 92 percent of district teachers as members, Rath said.

Statewide, Idaho Education Association President Penni Cyr said, “Our membership is down in some areas, (but) we’re stable or gaining in others, including among the education support professionals like classroom aides, janitors and cafeteria personnel who work throughout our schools.”

The IEA has represented about 13,000 members in recent years. Communications Director Julie Fanselow wouldn’t say how far that number has dropped but said most local chapters are “within 5 percent of where we were a year ago.”

ECONOMIC WORRIES

That’s about how far Meridian union membership has slipped in the past year, Franklin said. “I wouldn’t necessarily relate it to the new laws,” he said.

Insurance premiums are up, state education funding is down, and teachers face personal budget challenges, he said.

Cyr said layoffs and a languishing economy have played a role in dwindling membership across Idaho in the past year.

Spracher said economic problems were the prime reason the Nampa association lost members; it cut its local dues in half to $52.50 per year.

OPPOSING THE LAWS

Although union leaders say they don’t feel hamstrung by the new laws, they still strongly oppose them. They are rooting for statewide measures on the November ballot that would repeal Students Come First.

Parents, teachers and others successfully collected 75,000 signatures to put all three school-reform laws on the ballot. That indicates how strongly many Idahoans oppose Luna’s reform package, Fanselow said.

A similar effort to repeal a law restricting collective bargaining succeeded in Ohio last November, and other public employees across the nation are fighting efforts to reduce union clout. Unions in Wisconsin are pushing to recall Gov. Scott Walker, the prime mover behind a new state law that constrains unions.

Luna has said repeatedly that the laws are really a boon for Idaho teachers, unfreezing salaries and launching a pay-for-performance system to reward high-performing educators with merit pay or bonuses.

“Students Come First was never about teachers unions,” Luna spokeswoman Melissa McGrath said. “Students Come First was about making sure every student has the opportunities and access they need to be prepared to go on to postsecondary education or the workforce without the need for remediation once they get there.

“In order to do that, we had to make sure there was a highly effective teacher in every classroom, that every teacher has the tools they need … and local school boards have the authority and flexibility they need to manage schools.”

TYING LEADERS’ HANDS

Before the new laws, McGrath said, the State Department of Education heard from district leaders who felt “their hands were tied by master contracts that were set five or 10 years ago.”

Under the old system, she said, contracts had “evergreen clauses” that could only be changed if both sides agreed. Now, she said, the contract has to be negotiated anew each year, with issues limited to salary and benefits.

The IEA challenged that portion of Students Come First in court, calling it an unconstitutional infringement of teacher rights. A district court upheld the law in September; the IEA has appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court.

“Teachers care about class sizes, student safety and other issues that most parents want us to be able to address in negotiations.” Cyr said. “And Idaho parents and educators alike have big questions about the untested pay-for-performance plan and the technology mandates that take away local and parental control.”

MORE THAN NEGOTIATORS

Reasons for joining unions include “camaraderie, social activities and professional training opportunities that help them grow in their jobs and do a better job for Idaho’s children,” Cyr said.

She noted that the IEA has been around for 120 years, but collective bargaining has been allowed in Idaho only since the early 1970s.

“Traditionally, unions have wielded a little more voice and power,” Stone said. “The current legislation takes away some of the power, but it doesn’t take away the communication part of it.

“You don’t always need to have a big club. You just need to be in the conversation.”

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447