My name is Fred, and I’m a recovering school board president.
I’ve been on the board of the Carlisle Area School District, located in Cumberland County (south-central Pennsylvania), for 16 years. In June, 2008, halfway through my thirteenth term as board president, I resigned that office so that I could start this blog. I did that in order to be absolutely clear that I’m speaking only for myself here, not for our school board.
During my tenure on the board, the district negotiated five contracts with our local teachers union. Two of these were signed only after protracted disputes, both of which included strikes. The first of these battles was well underway when I was first elected to the board, so I had no part in actual negotiations. During the second dispute I was board president and chair of our negotiations committee – that is, always a participant in the closed-door negotiations and usually the public spokesperson for our board.
That experience convinced me of the need for transparency about the issues at stake during the negotiations process – that is, convinced me that the public is badly served by a process that rewards secrecy and fosters gamesmanship. I should add that the other three contract settlements were “early birds” – meaning agreements negotiated very quietly and well before the then current contracts were due to expire. At the time, I was relieved to be able to sign them. In retrospect, I’ve decided that I should have fought for a period of public comment. In this respect and many other points I’ll try to make on this blog, readers may as well know that I’ll sometimes be talking a better game than I played.
By trade, I’m a writer. Most of my work has been magazine journalism. I’ve written about 400 published articles. Some are on serious topics like economic development, health and technology. Quite a few are on lighter topics like the Asian strategy game Go. I’ve written three books: Conflicting Interests, a scholarly study of political issues in corporation law; Infomedicine, a co-authored book on locating medical information, and The Camelot Contract, a self-published spoof on consulting for government agencies. (If you want a copy of the last one, it’s yours for two bucks to cover postage and a mailer. “Handling” will be free.) I’ve also worked for federal agencies, private consulting firms and a university-based think tank. I’ve done a modest amount of college teaching.
I’m married and have two adult children, and one grandchild. One of my children is a public school teacher in another state.
