From My Puppy Pulpit

This is another series Bongo intends to post on his blog. This is Bongo's version of an editorial. Read on:

The top story in today’s Northwest Herald is about the upcoming teacher contract negotiations in District 158. Seems like several humans from the school district side want most of the negotiations to be done in public. Usually contract negotiations are done in private. According to the paper, Dr. Burkey is on board with the idea and so is board president Shawn Green, vice president Tony Quagliano and board member Kevin Gentry. Bongo doesn’t know about the others.

It is certainly an interesting idea. It’s also not the normal way school districts handle negotiations with their teachers. But since when is District 158 normal?

Bongo thinks all sides should really consider this idea. Because there is a level of distrust in the district right now, what better way to ensure that there are no shenanigans going on than for humans to have the opportunity to watch the negotiations for themselves?

If no one has anything to hide and there are no back room deals in the works, why not have the negotiations done in public? The only reason Bongo can think of for school board members wanting to keep negotiations done in private would be if, hypothetically speaking of course, last time they played both sides of the fence and told teachers one thing and their supporters another in an effort to look good to everyone.

If memory serves, two years ago Larry Snow wanted the negotiations to be public but the others didn’t. It will be interesting to see if he still feels that way. Either way, Bongo will be watching and sniffing out the truth.