No Progress Yet in Negotiation Fact Finding

No agreement was reached when the board of education and held its first fact-finding session July 26—and another session is scheduled for this month.

According to Steve Beatty, president of the B-REA, the first session was spent with the fact finder getting information about the current status of the negotiations and where both sides stand.

A second fact finding session, with expected continued mediation, will be held Aug. 16.

This initial fact finding process begins with mediation as the fact finder is hearing timelines, offers and perspectives from both sides. From there, the fact finder will try to reach an agreement with the two sides.

The fact finder could determine after many hours that they will not get anywhere, and a deal cannot be formed through mediation.

In that situation, they could either try again on another day, or the real fact finding process could begin with the gathering of figures and other information about the process so far.

From there, the fact finder would take a couple weeks and write a nonbinding report about what he thinks the agreement should look like. The board of education and B-REA can determine from there if they accept that agreement or draft a new one with pieces of it.