When a Board Member Breaks Confidentiality

Board-Savvy Superintendent

Barb Bagwell is a retired teacher who was active in the school district’s teachers’ union, serving as an officer and a member of the contract negotiating team. She has just been elected to the school board and has plenty of ideas for how to change things.

The superintendent, Donna Danning (like Bagwell, a pseudonym), senses trouble but keeps a positive outlook. She is encouraged when Bagwell seems reasonable during a closed board session concerning upcoming contract negotiations with the teachers’ union.

“We will need the board to set some parameters for the negotiating team,” the superintendent offers. “The teachers are asking for a 6 percent raise. Our financial team tells us that we can accommodate 2 percent to 3 percent.”

After a lengthy discussion, the board authorizes the superintendent to put 3 percent on the table.

Negotiating Session

The next week the negotiating teams for the teachers and the district are back together. Danning asks her assistant superintendent for business to summarize the district’s financial picture, which he does with graphs, tables and smooth talking. Next, the superintendent lays out the district’s highest and best offer of a 3 percent raise.

The chief negotiator for the teachers’ union, Sally Sitwell, smiles and thanks the superintendent. “Thanks for your offer, Donna, but we know there are board members willing to go much higher, so we are sticking with our original request of 6 percent. We think it is reasonable, and we know there is support on the board.”

The superintendent and the rest of the district’s bargaining team are taken aback. How could the union negotiator know what numbers the board was discussing in a closed, confidential session? The superintendent feels her bargaining position has been compromised because the union appears to have inside information.

Favored Options

The superintendent suspects Bagwell has leaked confidential information to her union friends. What should she do about it?

  Option 1: Call Bagwell and ask her if she has been leaking confidential information to the teachers’ union.Although generally a good idea to be straightforward with board members, Bagwell may perceive Danning is attacking her. The result: The superintendent has created an enemy on the board.

 Option 2: Ask the board president to talk to Bagwell.In this approach, the superintendent loses control of the situation because she will not know what Bagwell and the board president discussed. Instead, the superintendent perhaps should tell the board president what happened during negotiations at their weekly meeting. Then Danning will have the president’s support when next raising the issue of confidentiality.

 Option 3: Confront Bagwell at the board’s next closed session. It’s never ideal to accuse someone without evidence, and even with evidence, it is not wise to humiliate someone in front of colleagues. This approach could long sour the relationship between the two.

 Option 4: At the next closed board session, discuss what happened at the negotiating meeting — that is, the teachers’ union had confidential information. This gives Bagwell a chance to come clean, if she was the one who leaked information, without accusing her. It also gives the superintendent and board a chance to discuss the importance of maintaining confidentiality of anything said in closed session.

 Option 5: Hold a workshop for the board members on board duties and responsibilities. This training is called for and could be implemented on top of Option 4.

A Teachable Moment

The superintendent seeks a solution that accomplishes two goals — stopping leaks and maintaining strong working relations with all board members. The first three options can seriously injure her relationship with Bagwell and may not prevent leaks. Options 4 and 5 meet both goals and enable the superintendent to turn the problem into a teachable moment, which improves the professionalism of board members.

Richard Mayer is a school board member in the Goleta Union School District in Goleta, Calif., and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is author of How Not to Be a Terrible School Board Member (Corwin Press).