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Show "Editorial Why did accord for teachers take so long? It is a relief that Alpine School District officials and representatives of the Alpine Education Association have apparently reached an agreement on a contract for the 1985-86 school year. That agreement comes after six months of negotiations, threats and posturing on both sides that, in the end, proved unnecessary. It included calling in a fact-finder - Donald W. Ulmer from the Utah State Office of Education - who came up with a routine solution to the predicament that held up the contract settlement for so long. When Mr. Ulmer entered the picture, the school district had offered teachers a 4.5 percent salary increase in-crease - and had declared that to give any increases above that level would adversely affect the district's finances - especially the district's already shaky reserve funds. The teachers' organization, on the other hand, insisted on a 5 percent salary increase, and argued that the district had more funds than administrators were willing to admit. Mr. Ulmer's solution to the conflict was classic compromise, and recognized that the unwillingness of either side to reach such a compromise earlier was more a philosophical than a financial matter. Neither side, Ulmer said, wanted to appear weak. What was Ulmer's solution? He suggested that the school district give a little more on the salary increase, and the teacher's association give a little in the opposite direction - and that's how the two sides arrived at a 4.8 percent salary increase and the current proposed contract. It is little wonder that the public, looking on while both sides stubbornly held on to fixed figures to score minor victories, is left asking: Why did this take so long? |