Miami School District Negotation

Miami School District Negotiation

An increase in enrollment has resulted in the Miami School District reviewing the enrollment levels at each school and determining that redrawing school district lines is required. Whenever school boundaries are redrawn, controversy, conflict, and negotiations become the center of attention. It is the same story with the Miami School District as they prepare to redraw school boundaries for the upcoming year. The following essay with explore the issues surrounding this proposal. The stakeholders will be identified along with the negotiation strategy used and how ethics and culture affects the decisions.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders are anyone with a direct or indirect interest in the school and school district lines. The stakeholders who will be reviewed are the community, parents, teachers, and students. The redistricting plans are to transfer children from lower income districts into higher income districts where seats are available at those schools. The concerns that effect the community are taxes, safety, and increased traffic. Another concern that has an effect on the community will be the probability of increased crime and the affect that would have on property values. The parents concern is for the children and the effect it will have on them as well as the disruption to their current schedules. Will the quality of education be raised for some, and degraded for others. Parents are also concerned about the increase amount of travel time back and forth to school. Other parents are concerned if gangs and violence will be transferred into the schools from the lower income districts. Teachers are concerned about the possibility of travel to different schools within the district. Teachers are also concerned about the ability to maintain a high stature-learning environment if faced with less disciplined students from lower income districts along with personal safety. The students will be facing the possibility of leaving long-standing friends and become trust into schools where they know no one. Students may have social problems with new students and teachers as they adapt to the new environment which will certainly affect grades.

Negotiation Strategy

The school board's decision and release of the redistricting plans created a distributive negotiation strategy of a win/lose situation. The win was for the school board and the budget, whereas the stakeholders are the losers without consultation. The school boards job will be to turn the upcoming negotiations into an integrative negotiation in which a win/win scenario is the outcome. The first task will be to convey to the parents that the school board is only looking at continuing to furnish the highest education experience to each student within the district. By showing the overcrowding issue facing them and, educating them on the strain it will have on the proper education of the students the school district can begin to sway the parents positive thought process. By involving each vested party