Update: School Superintendent Rita Olson has informed me that the School Board did indeed approve contracts for five of its unions on Wednesday. The deals still need to be ratified by each union. I will keep you posted when I get more details.
The South Milwaukee School Board is working to approve union contracts with teachers and other represented employees ahead of new restrictions on organized labor coming soon out of Madison.
Check out the Journal Sentinel story here. From it:
In South Milwaukee, Superintendent Rita Olson said her school system does not have a tentative agreement with its unions yet, but she hopes the board might be able to make offers that would be accepted by all of its employee bargaining units at the Wednesday meeting. She said the sides have been negotiating for a long time and are not far from settling anyway.
“We want to offer a voluntary settlement before everything goes into effect,” Olson said of Walker’s proposal.
School administrators have been told that Walker’s changes would go into effect immediately and affect any unsettled contracts.
I am anxious to see what kind of contract settlement is reached, if one is at all. I will keep you posted.
In the meantime, I commend the district for its willingness to work with its union employees in the 11th hour to get a deal done that I’m expecting will be fair. It goes back to the crux of my argument on this issue: Let local units of government decide what’s best when it comes to how they bargain with their unions and what they bargain for.
Let the School Board and school unions, in this instance, hammer out a contract how they see fit.
There is simply no room for the governor and state legislature to get involved here … except, of course, when the goal is to decapitate public sector unions, which is Scott Walker’s ultimate aim in this whole charade.
South Milwaukee Blog 
What is it that you don’t get about thw fact that the state is broke? How do you negotiate when you have nothing to offer? How do you negotiate with those who aren’t willing to give up anything? Sure, NOW thy’re talking like they want to negotiate. Where were they before?
Fair enough. Let the local governments make their own decisions without any interference from the state. As a concession to the state giving up all authority over the finances, let the local governments finance the school systems without any interference (i.e., funds) from the state.
In reality, what is happening here is no different than what has been going on for generations. The federal government decides that it wants drunk driving to be set at .08 rather than the .1 it was in a lot of places. It has no right to mandate it, but coerces it by denying federal funds for the highways to any state that doesn’t.
Let’s not forget that the government has wormed its way into private business and property. A new college graduate needs experience in her field. Can she negotiate with Acme Inc. to work for free to gain that experience? Can my company decide exactly what medical insurance covers with no interference? Can I rent my house to whoever I want?
amazing how quickly some contracts are being ratified after months of negotiations, i.e. MATC and South Milwaukee.
Agreed. And from what I read about the MATC contract, it seemed ridiculous, oblivious to the realities of the economic outlook of the state and a great example of why many people (rightfully so) have grown so upset with unions over the years. I have not seen details on the South Milwaukee one, but I can bet it’s much more fair and sensible, with both sides giving something to get something.