Bringing Unions into Management:
Montgomery County. Jerry Weast’s initial description of MCPS as a school system divided into two separate and unequal districts — a Red Zone of poverty, color and low achievement and a Green Zone of affluence and high achievement — led directly into “Our Call to Action,” which was designed to mobilize both the district and the community to embrace all students and ensure that achievement would not be predictable by race. This same call to move across boundaries and develop shared responsibility for all students went out to the three employee unions. Beginning as collaboration and building on the district’s earlier move to interest-based bargaining, it resulted in a restructured governance process. The three unions were invited to participate in the district’s capital and budget planning process. To ensure all voices were heard, the superintendent also invited administrators to form a fourth union to participate on equal footing with the others. Once the initial planning processes were completed, the heads of the teachers’ and administrators’ unions became permanent members of the district’s leadership team. The resulting decision-making structure has allowed MCPS to cross verticalLessons Learned in Systemic District Reform, September 2008 (Page 25-26)
and horizontal boundaries within the organization, speak with a consistent voice and model a culture of shared responsibility.
