Introduction
The Miami School District has announced that it will redraw its school boundaries due to unexpected increments in enrollment. As a result, parents have raised their concerns on several matters.
This is a plan to address stakeholder’s concerns with the aim of identifying stakeholders, developing a negotiation strategy, and determining how ethics and culture influence decisions in the plan.
Who are the stakeholders?
It is imperative that we identity all affected stakeholders of the Miami District School in the plan. This shall enable involvement of all stakeholders in decision-making and negotiation. Stakeholders have a stake in the public school system or may include people or groups affected by changes in school boundaries. It is necessary to target only affected stakeholders in order to avoid wasting of resources.
Key stakeholders in the Miami District School include:
- Students
- Administrative staff
- Teachers
- Parents
Other affected stakeholders include:
- Private foundations or other charitable organizations
- Faith communities
- Local government
- School elected officials
- Neighborhood watch
- Youth organizations
- Business community
- Social and health service providers
- Alumnus
We have to consider these entire stakeholders because of the role of the public school in the community. The school shapes the intelligence of learners and helps in solving problems among students. In the community, the school shapes community values, and this explains why broad ranges of community-based organizations are part of the stakeholders.
What negotiation strategy do you use to support the school board’s need to redraw the boundaries while addressing the concerns of the stakeholders?
Collaboration is the best approach to apply to aid the school board’s proposal to change the school boundaries and deal with issues of all parties. Collaboration entails working together in order to deliver a win-win situation for all. It enables all stakeholders to generate creative ideas for concerns raised.
Collaboration shall provide effective solutions to all stakeholders in the negotiation because it addresses all concerns of stakeholders. It also handles processes, programs, and outcomes of the negotiation. Collaboration requires the school board to look at its processes of redrawing the boundaries and outcomes of such processes. This process must address concerns of parents and other stakeholders.
Collaboration can only be effective in addressing the needs of all stakeholders if it is inclusive and democratic. Therefore, any attempts to exclude any stakeholder in the processes can derail the entire process. At the same time, negotiation must be fair to all parties, including minority groups.
Studies have suggested that including all stakeholders in a collaborative negotiation process brings credibility to the process (London, 2012). In addition, support from high-levels leaders can only ensure the success of the process. Barbara Gray notes that meaningful collaboration occurs if all stakeholders are interdependent.
Therefore, collaboration fosters the spirit of give-and-take among various stakeholders, which none can attain if they work separately. As a result, all school stakeholders shall depend on one another in order to find mutually beneficial outcomes.
The collaboration process at the school negotiation should take three phases. The first phase should involve identification of problems and stakeholders’ concerns. This is the most difficult stage in the negotiation. At this stage, the school stakeholders should focus on six issues.
- All stakeholder must define the problems and have shared definitions and their effects on different stakeholders
- All parties must agree to collaborate
- Parties must also identify all other stakeholders to ensure success of the school boundaries plan
- All parties must agree on the relevance of other stakeholders’ concerns
- The parties must a leader that can bring them together
- All stakeholders should identify resources and inputs they require for the success of the process.
In the second phase, all school stakeholders must identify issues, interests, differences, and set direction in order to create a shared goal of redrawing the school boundaries. In this stage, we look at the following aspects of negotiation.
- Creating rules of negotiation
- Setting agendas for negotiation
- Creating sub-groups to cater for large numbers of stakeholders
- Holding joint discussions
- Exploring pros and cons of all suggested alternatives
- Finding the most appropriate solutions and establishing a course of action
The final phase involves implementation of the outcomes. It entails the following processes:
- All stakeholders handle their members
- Those who shall implement the outcomes seek consensus and support from the rest of the stakeholders
- Stakeholders create structures of implementing the school boundaries
- All stakeholders implementation processes to ensure compliance
Collaboration in negotiation shall ensure that all stakeholders of the school have best ways of implementing the proposed changes. It allows people to share ideas and establish common grounds for all. At the same time, it enables stakeholders to get the necessary supports during various stages of implementing changes at the school.
How do ethics and culture affect your decision?
Cultural practices and values shape schools. Schools show the norm of communities that around them. Therefore, ethics and cultural consideration must refer to concerns of parents and other stakeholders.
Quality of education
Parents have expressed their concerns about the quality of education due to redrawing of the school boundaries. The quality of education may decline if students attend various schools. During negotiation processes, the school and educators must assure parents and students that the standard of education shall improve because of the redrawing of the boundaries. The school district must let parents and students know that all teachers have the right qualifications and have undergone background checks before joining schools.
Increased travel time
All stakeholders must acknowledge that the amount of travelling time to reach new schools shall increase significantly. Parents and students must alter their programs in order to account for new alterations. This implies that such changes shall also affect their time management, and they must accommodate such changes.
It important for stakeholders to note that students learning shall continue as scheduled. The most fundamental factor is that students will receive education of high quality in new schools.
Crossing Economic and Cultural Boundaries
School stakeholders must understand various cultures and economic factors, which shall affect teachers, parents, students, and administrative staff. It is crucial for the school board to understand both culture and economic situations of their students and parents. Parents consider both cultural and economic factors as important when choosing schools for their children.
However, Lewicki, Saunders, and Barry argue that judgments on cultural and economic grounds are inappropriate and unethical (Lewicki, Saunders and Barry, 2006). The school board must let parents realize the importance of various cultures in school and community settings.
Affect on Property Value
Movements shall affect the value of the property in the area. Still, parents may move close to schools where their children relocate. Schools with good performance also have high values. Therefore, school board must address property value issues in affluent areas, which may affect parents.
Social Affects
Students may also have troubles in readjusting to the new school environments. Sudden changes are not favorable for students who have challenges in relating to their peers. Schools also promote community cultures around them. This means that students will have to adjust to various cultures of new schools and communities.
Parents have diverse opinions about different areas of Miami. As a result, some parents may oppose such relocation. Miami district school board must allow parents to gain access to other forms of education and training programs. Effective negotiation must address concerns of all key stakeholders and other interested parties.
This implies that stakeholders must find suitable methods of implementing the proposed changes through a collaborative negotiation. Therefore, the school board must have valid reasons for redrawing the school boundaries. The school board must present all benefits of redrawing the school boundaries.
This shall ensure that the proposed changes get approvals from parents and other stakeholders. The aim of redrawing the school boundary is to ensure at the Miami District School provides quality education. Therefore, the school board must ensure that parents, students, and other stakeholders understand the goal of redrawing the boundaries.
A collaborative strategy shall enable all stakeholders to have win-win outcomes from the negotiation. Effective implementation of outcomes shall ensure that all stakeholders achieve their desired goals. Therefore, all parties must have the power to implement outcomes of the negotiation.
References
Lewicki, R., Saunders, D., and Barry, B. (2006). Negotiation (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
London, S. (2012). Building Collaborative Communities. On Collaboration, 2012, 1-4.