Winning at Collective Bargaining.

No time is more critical to a school district than when it enters into collective bargaining with its employees. Winning at Collective Bargaining by William L. Sharp is a resource that superintendents will find invaluable when preparing for and dealing with the many challenges of collective bargaining.

A professor of educational leadership at Ball State University who earlier worked as a superintendent, Sharp draws from his years of experience in negotiating with unions to provide practical insights required for successful bargaining. He does this by detailing both traditional and progressive negotiation strategies including win-win bargaining.

In addition to covering the expected, such as bargaining laws, unfair labor practices, negotiations, strikes and contract management, Sharp also addresses topics not commonly associated with collective bargaining. Discussion of nonverbal communication and alternative approaches to negotiation provide readers with an astute perspective of the bargaining process.

He concludes with a negotiations simulation that may be more useful to university professors than superintendents. This is also true of the discussion questions found at the end of each chapter.

The appendix contains an outline of a master contract with a brief overview of each section normally found in these types of formal agreements. This outline provides a template that would be useful for superintendents who are entering into their first negotiation with organized labor.

(Winning at Collective Bargaining by William L. Sharp, ScarecrowEducation, Lanham, Md., 2003, 168 pp. with index, $27.95 softcover)

Ronald A. Styron Jr. Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Miss.