Free Essay

Miami School District Negotiation

In: Business and Management

Submitted By AMAKOVSKY1988
Words 1337
Pages 6
The Miami school district is experiencing a common problem which many thriving cities face, rapid increase in enrollment. Increase in enrollment occurs due to the following reasons; demographics, location and economy (Miami Dade County School District, 2012). In order to adjust and accommodate the unexpected increase in enrollment, the school boundaries for the following year will be revised. The school board has hired experts to redraw the boundaries and notified parents of the changes that will occur next year. This paper addresses the concerns of the stakeholders, the negotiation strategy used by school board, and the ethical/cultural effect of the decision.
Under the revised plan many students will not be able to continue their education at their present school. The decision was unexpected and many parents are outraged by the school board’s decision. The school board received several complaints from parents which voiced their concerns regarding the decision. The parents raised the following concerns:
- Quality of education
- Increased travel time
- Crossing economic and cultural boundaries
- Effect on property values
- Social effects on children
Parents are concerned that the quality of their children’s education will be compromised by the new plan. Parents argue that their children are established in their current schools, with their current classmates, and moving them will be disruptive to their learning. Many parents have chosen the schools their children are currently attending, and purposely purchased homes in the area because they wanted their children to attend the schools in the area. Parents of high school aged children entering their senior years are upset that the students will have to change schools during their senior year possibly affecting scholarships and the academic grade point averages of the students.
The new school boundaries may increase travel time, if school is not located within the residential community where the student lives. Many students have the option of walking to school which allows parents to work and avoid commuting. A hardship may be placed on the student and the parent due to the unplanned change. The rezoning of boundaries will have a social effect on children because of separating students from their social outlet and comfort zone. Exposing students to a more diverse student faculty may expose students to less disciplined students and change or influence the work ethic of new students.
Low income students and families would be greatly impacted by the new boundaries as they would have limited options and be forced to comply with the school districts decision. Students with higher household income have the option of attending private school if unhappy with the boards zoning which low income students do not. Property values may be affected by the rezoning because families seek properties within the desirable school districts to offer their children better education opportunities and prestigious name recognition when applying to college. Buyers seek homes that are located close to quality schools and is a major decision during the home buying, renting, or relocating process. The rezoning could increase property values if the boundaries cross into lower income areas or may decrease wealthier community’s property values due to less prestigious students attending the schools and make it a less desirable neighborhood.

Stakeholders
In this negotiation the education stakeholders includes parents, students, school district, teachers, staff, school officials, and impacted communities. The dictionary defines stakeholders as “a person or group that has an investment share, or interest in something” (“Stakeholder“, n.d., p. 1). The stakeholders in issue regarding new school boundaries the stakeholders are individuals that have an indirect or direct stake in the schools and who stand to gain or lose from the actions. Students are the stakeholders that are most heavily impacted because of they have to adapt to a new environment, new students and teachers. Social problems that students will encounter are fitting in to the new school and the new school social society.
The parents may have to make changes to their work and personal schedules in order accommodate for the decision. The parents will have to evaluate the new school that their child will be going to see if it is a quality leaning institution. If the new school is not to parent’s standards or expectations parents may decide to send their children to private school which would result parents having to pay tuition fees. Teachers may be relocated to different schools to accommodate the teaching need and may impact the teacher’s personal life. The school district will be responsible for dealing with parents’ concerns and complaints regarding the rezoning. Some stakeholders may have more influence on the decision than others and the school board needs to address the various interests of the different stakeholders. The Miami School District is a key stakeholder in this matter. The decision made by the parents for the students will have a wide range of consequences based upon their actions. It is the school districts responsibility to ease the concerns of both parents and students alike and give assurance that quality of life and education will not suffer from the rezoning. The school district will need to invest funds in facilities, transportation, and teachers to accommodate the issues that are expected with such a large change for various stakeholders.

Negotiation Strategy for School District
The school board did not take the right approach by simply informing parents of the decision to rezone or create new school boundaries. The school board should have involved the parents in the decision making process before making a decision that would impact all the students and parents in the district. In the present situation the school board needs open up negotiations with the student’s parents. The parents need to feel that they have a say in their child’s education experience. The school board needs to change the environment of the negotiation from hostile to an environment that both parties have equal say in the outcome.
The Miami district school board should attempt to use the collaborative strategy in this negotiation process. The stakeholders have valid concerns and complaints that the board must hear, examine, and must be prepared to re-evaluate the boundaries, if necessary. The communities stakeholders in return much listen to the board explain their needs to establish new boundaries. To be truly collaborative, both parties involved must separate the people from the problem; separate positions from interests; create options for mutual gain; and look for appropriate criteria or standards ("Collaborative Negotiation Techniques", n.d).
Ultimately, the board must make choices and decisions based on what the federal guidelines outline for schools. If the board approaches the stakeholders in a manner that appears negotiable, understanding, and problem solving in nature, the stakeholders will be more receptive to the board’s arguments and need for the new school boundaries. The stakeholders are not going to come to the table with negotiations in mind, they will approach with demands, and reasons why they feel the boundaries are a bad idea. It will be up to the board to win the stakeholders over in a manner that is calm and informative with an emphasis on collaborating with the community and parents.

Ethics and culture
The school board needs to take into consideration any ethical or cultural issues regarding the rezoning of school boundaries. The school board needs to constantly check that they are conducting business within the school district ethics, the ethics society and what is in the best interest of the community. The school board needs to be careful that they don’t inadvertently discriminate against any group of people. The school board also shouldn’t favor the wealthy families over the families with lower incomes. The decision and negotiation strategy should promote fairness and collaboration ("Collaborative Negotiation Techniques", n.d). The school board needs to do what it can to reduce complaints within the community and some compromises on both parties may be needed.

References
Collaborative Negotiation Techniques. (n.d). Retrieved from http://laverne.edu/students/clubs/assets/collaborative_negotiation_techniques.pdf

Miami Dade County School District. (2012). Geographic Information System . Retrieved from http://its.dadeschools.net/technologyDelivery/GIS/gis.asp

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Miami School District Negotiation

...Miami School District Negotiation This essay on the Miami school district will help analyze the negotiation on the dramatic increases in enrollment and the proposed plan to redraw school boundaries. Also what are some of the major issues that will arise from this change and who are the key stakeholders that may be impacted? Anytime there is change it is expected to raise some eyebrows because of the number things affected, in this case there were several issues that needed to be addressed. What would be the best negotiation strategy for this change and will it work, also should the cultural and ethical aspects be taken into consideration because it may influence this decision. The Miami school district has recently announced a drastic increase in enrollment for the upcoming school year. Therefore, because of the nature of the change the school system had to hire some experts to redraw these school boundaries for next year. What this did was bring a natural reaction from the parents and that was complaints and voicing his or her concerns regarding this major decision. The chief concern with parents was with the soon to be quality of education there kids would receive and the affect from the implementation of the new changes. Most of the parents are curious and have tons of uncertainties with his or her child learning environment and the quality of teachers. With this new change it would leave many students no other choice but to change schools with maybe looking at...

Words: 2075 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Miami School District Negotiation

...Miami School District Negotiation Paper Anonymous Organizational Negotiations MGT/445 August 1, 2011 Instructor Introduction The Miami school district has announced that as a result of unanticipated escalation in student enrollment, school boundaries for the upcoming year will be redrawn. Consequently, the school board signed on professionals to delineate new school boundaries, which were to be submitted the subsequent year. Compliant with the redrawn boundaries many students will be required to leave his or her current schools. As word of this news spread, parents began expressing their concerns to the school board. The objections put forth by the parents included effects on the quality of education, increased in travel to and from school, blending of economic and cultural boundaries, effects on property values, and social influences on children. In this paper a plan to address stakeholders concerns will be provided and the stakeholders will be identified. Next, this paper will determine what negotiation strategy to employ in an effort to effectively support the school board’s need to redraw the boundaries while addressing the concerns of the stakeholders. Finally, this paper will explain how ethics and culture affect the decision from the Miami School District. Stakeholders and a Plan to Address Their Concerns Numerous stakeholders are affected by these negotiations. According to Lewicki, Saunders, and Barry, stakeholders are the various individuals and organizations...

Words: 1361 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Miami School District Negotiation

...Miami School District Negotiation MGT 445 August 30, 2011 Miami School District Negotiation When children move to a new school, it not only affects the children. It affects their families, the community, and the school. The school boundaries in Miami must be redrawn to concentrate on overcrowding. Experts are choosing and evaluating these boundaries. The affected stakeholders are experiencing concerns. One must first identify the stakeholders and their concerns before he or she can establish each of the concerns. Choosing a strategy for negotiation and reviewing the ethics and culture effects will ensure that the negotiation approach is applicable for the circumstances. In this paper the subject to analyze is a negotiation strategy that favors the board’s requirement to redraw school boundaries, identification of the stakeholders and how culture, and ethics affect the strategy. Stakeholders To originate an efficient negotiation strategy, one must identify the stakeholders and stakeholders concerns. The stakeholders in the Miami School District project are the students, parents, teachers, and school staff, and the community. The students are primary stakeholders because students who change schools will encounter a new teachers, campus, and classmates. Students will depart from the comfort of familiarity. The parents will experience the effects of a new environment for their children, and a different location of the new school. Teachers and staff will experience class...

Words: 1557 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Miami School District Negotiation

...Miami School District Negotiation Paper The stakeholders in this situation are the school authorities, students and their parents, experts involved in the redrawing plan, school employees and community or society in which the school is located and the vendors associated with the school. The negotiation strategy pursued in this situation to support the school board's need to redraw the boundaries while addressing the concerns of the stakeholders will be integrative negotiation strategy which aims at reaching to a win-win situation for all the parties in the negotiation. The word integrative means to join several parts into a whole. Conceptually, this implies some assistance, or a joining of forces to achieve something together; Usually involves a higher degree of trust and a forming of a relationship. Both parties want to walk away feeling they've achieved something which has value by getting what each wants. Ideally, it is a twofold process. Integrative bargaining also called interest-based bargaining, win-win bargaining is a negotiation strategy in which parties collaborate to find a win-win solution to their dispute. This strategy focuses on developing mutually beneficial agreements based on the interests of the disputants. Interests include the needs, desires, concerns, and fears important to each side. In the above mentioned the school board can effectively use integrative bargaining to develop an optimum solution in the best interests of both...

Words: 1054 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Miami School District Negotiation

...decision to redraw the Miami school district boundaries for next year. The paper will include who are the Stakeholders, what negotiation strategy should be used, how the ethics and culture will affect the decision and indentify at least 3 tactics to support the strategy. The Miami School district has announced that in the upcoming year, school boundaries will be redrawn due to an increase of enrollment. The board of directors has hired experts to create a strategic plan that will alter the boundaries to accommodate the increase of student enrollments for next year. The change is very unsettling to many of the stakeholders such as the students, parents, teachers, staff and the community. The students are saddened because they will not be able to stay at their current school, while the parents, community, teachers and staff are mainly concerns about the quality of education their children will receive, increase travel time, crossing economic and cultural boundaries, affect on property values and social affect on the children. The parents of the students are the main stakeholders followed closely by the students, school’s teachers, staff, school district and the surrounding community. The parents are affected by a different location of the new school as well as a new school environment for their children. The teachers and school staff are affected by the redistribution of students and class size. The last stakeholder is the general community. Changes in school boundaries could influence...

Words: 359 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Miami School District Negotiation Paper

...Miami School District Negotiation The Miami School District is negotiating on redrawing the school boundaries for the upcoming year because of an unexpected increase in enrollment. The following reasons are what affect the issue on redrawing the boundaries in which affect the parents, children, and the community. The reasons are quality of education, increase travel time, crossing economic and cultural boundaries, effect on property values, and social effects on children. The plan essential to meet the needs and wants of both parties in negotiation will address or meet what is important. Stakeholders Stakeholders are the individuals who are essential in which the redrawing will affect. The stakeholders who affect or have an issue with redrawing the school boundaries are the children attending or want to attend the school district. The parents with who attend the school district and the employees who works for the school district. The communities around the areas of the schools that are affected from the district that needs to be redrawn. Even though the issues from these parties are important the school boards needs to create a win-win strategy. Negotiation Strategy The negotiation strategy in which the school board need to create is needs to meet both the concerns for the stakeholders and their own party. Without addressing both parties the redrawing of boundaries can create a win-lose situation in which can affect the school board in the end...

Words: 1641 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Miami School District Negotiation Paper

...In every organization the individuals of the company have to make daily decisions that include operational and strategic in nature. The decisions in the organization are determine by a centralized or decentralized structure. All organizations involve different structures. As far as centralized and decentralized organizations, the allocating-making power is totally different within the organization. Neither one of the systems are a definite answer for a final resolution. Liberia will have various degrees to operate as a centralized versus decentralized organization. Centralized organizations usually consist of corporate headquarters who also offer legal services. A decentralized organization consists of a general counsel. In a centralized organization vital material is basically available for senior management. The authors of "Business" say that this system concentrates power in the upper levels of the organization. It is an autocratic, instead of a democratic, approach to decision-making: The top tier has all the power. In such a system, a limited number of people have all the power in the organization and enjoy a wide spectrum of control. (Pride.2009) As a timeworn management system, centralization has several advantages in an organization. The objectives have clarity, which provides the employees with reasonable ideas of the expectations of the organization. In a centralized organization the management team consists of experienced individuals that make prompt assessments...

Words: 536 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Mgt/445 Miami School District Negotiation Paper

...Miami School District Negotiation Paper Janice Horton MGT/445 September 3, 2012 Natalie Roll Introduction For the upcoming year, Miami School District has announced that they will be changing the school boundaries due to the increases in enrollment that was unexpected. The school plans on coming up with a solution that will even out the classrooms and rezone some school district areas. Parents acknowledge their concern with the rezoning boundaries because that will mean their children may have to go to another school. They took their concerns to the school board and the school board told them that they will come up with a plan and decide on a negotiation strategy to address everyone’s concerns. In this paper, I will discuss the negotiation strategy, the stakeholder’s concerns, and explain how ethics and culture affect my decision. Stakeholders To form an effective negotiation strategy, we must first identify all the stakeholders. The stakeholders that are involved in this negotiation strategy are the school board members, parents, and the students. The school board members are affected by the decision because they must even out the classrooms and make sure each school is not overcrowded. The parents concern about the changes because it may increase their travel time if they have to take their children to a different school, their property value may go up and the social effects on their children may be disturbed. The students’ affect on the decision...

Words: 1504 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Business Mgt/445

...Miami School District Negotiation 1 Miami School District Negotiation University of Phoenix Inthiravanh Amphonephong MGT/445 Carlos Campos August 06, 2012 Miami School District Negotiation 2 Miami School District Relocating children in different school due to reconstructing the school building is not only affecting the children individual, but also affect their families, their municipal, and the school itself. The stakeholders are very concerning, because of high volume of compliant from student guardian. Choose a strategy the bargain and reevaluating the ethics and culture effective is very relevant for the circumstances. This paper will explain the detail of the negotiation strategy that largesse the boards provisions to redraw school boundaries, identity of the stakeholders, and how it affect our ethics and culture strategy. Miami School District must identify the stakeholder concerns regarding the changes. The school project is the students, teachers, families, staff, and the community. The school main stakeholders in this case are mainly the student themself, because of changes made them fall apart from having new instructor, campus, and classmates. Changes will affect not only the student of being depart from their comfort of family but parents will experience of new environment for their children. The teachers and staff will experience class less because of redistribution of students. The community also will experience the effect of whether or not the location will have...

Words: 885 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Miami Schools Negotiation

...Miami Schools Negotiation University of Phoenix Organizational Negotiations MGT/445 April 4, 2011 Miami Schools Negotiation Miami School District has decided to change the school boundary parameters due to the high applications of enrollment. This would be good for the school to rezone the boundaries but it is not favorable to the stakeholders in some circumstances. The stakeholders are the parents of the children in this case. The big issue for the current students is the disruption of the current curriculum and a possible change of school systems entirely. Numerous opposition plans influence the parent’s behavior to stop the rezoning, which are education quality, traveling time of the students to and from school, crossing economic and cultural boundaries, impact on property valuations in the communities, and social impacts on children. This document is intended to create a simpler understanding of the negotiation strategy used by the school management to support the rezoning boundaries by considering the concerns of the stakeholders. This paper will assist to understand the ethical and cultural differences that can impact the decision and negotiation process. According to the scenario provided, the parents have issues with rezoning the boundaries of the school system. The main opposition to rezoning is the education quality that is served by the school. Due to the rezoning of school boundaries the parent’s are concerned that their children will not be...

Words: 1725 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Miami School

...Miami School District Negotiation paper Mike Austin MGT 445- Organizational Negotiations August 8, 2011 Carlos Campos Miami School District Negotiation paper The Miami school district had an unexpected increase in the school’s enrollment. With the enlarged enrollment, the district, forced to look at the upcoming school year and the boundaries of the school district. The Miami school district will work with experts to redraw the boundaries of the school district to help reduce the size of the school enrolment. Therefore, with the boundaries redrawn some students will attend the upcoming school year at a different school. The parents, of the students attending Miami schools are upset and protesting the school districts new plan to change the boundaries of the district. In order for the school board to move forward the district needs to hold a public meeting explain the need for the change in the districts bounders and explain to the parents what the outcome is if the boundaries are not changed before the upcoming school year. In the paper, the paper will cover the concerns of the parents and the ways the Miami school district or board plans to deal with the parents concerns. Quality of education The parents of the students attending Miami school districts are concerned about the type of education his or her child will receive with the district’s new plan in place in the upcoming school year. One of the biggest concerns for the parents is that the students have...

Words: 1259 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Negotiations

...Miami School District Negotiation MGT/445-Organization Negotiations April 18, 2012 Miami School District Negotiation The City of Miami-Dade County, Florida boasts the fourth largest public school district in the United States. The district comprises 392 schools, employs more than 40,000 people dedicated to the education of the district’s 345,000 students. The diversity in Miami’s schools in unmatched, represents 160 countries, and the students speak 56 different languages (Dade schools, 2012). An issue common to large cities in the United States is over-crowding in public schools. The Miami school districts attempt to address the unexpected enrollment increases by redrawing its school boundaries for the upcoming school year faces tough opposition from the parents. This paper researches the concerns of the parents, other stakeholders, and develops a negotiation strategy that supports the school boards need to redraw the school boundaries. Six controlled choice boundaries with 14 choice schools make up the Miami-Dade County Public Schools district. Parents have the option of choosing a preferred school for their child using the controlled open enrollment method. Through this initiative, Miami-Dade’s school offerings have increased to provide parents with options best suited to maximize their child’s learning experience...

Words: 1369 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Miami

...solutionlibrary.com/business/management/miami-school-negotiations-paper_8g1f Miami School District Negotiation Paper Miami School District Negotiation Paper The Miami school district has announced that in the upcoming year, school boundaries will be redrawn due to unexpected increases in enrollment. The school board has created a plan for the students as the school is not large enough to accommodate each and every one of them. They have hired experts to redraw school boundaries to be submitted for the following year. Upsetting many students as they will not be able to stay at their present school, several parents have voiced opinions based upon the school district proposed plan. Most of the parents are concerned about the quality of education their children will receive, increased travel time, crossing economic and cultural boundaries, affect on property values, and social effects on children. With the following reasons against the proposed plan, I will address all of the stakeholders and their concerns. This paper will also discuss a developed plan to address stakeholders’ concerns as well as the negotiation strategy used to support the school board’s need to redraw the boundaries with the concerns of the stakeholders. Lastly, the paper will explain how ethics and culture affect the decisions. There are many stakeholders in this situation with the students being redrawn from their current school. The students, school officials, staff, teachers, school district, and even the students’ parents...

Words: 1242 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Miami School District

...Miami School District Negotiation MGT/445 An increase in student enrollment has caused the demand for a restructure of the Miami School District. The school board has hired experts to redraw school boundaries to be submitted for next year. Under the restructure, there will be many students that will not be able to stay at his or her present schools. There will also be local businesses, homeowners, and other areas that are affected by the redistricting. At first talk of the redistricting the school district did not mention anything to the current stakeholders of the district. When the word of the redistricting gained the attention of parents, they starting voicing their opinions to the school board with the concerns of the quality of education, increased travel time, the crossing of economic and cultural boundaries, the effect of property values and the social effects of this move on the children. The following paper will address the concerns of the stakeholders, and the best way to handle the negotiation process between the Miami School District and its stakeholders. Quality of Education Parents of the children in the Miami School District are concerned of how the transition into a new school is going to affect their children. For the younger children in preschool and elementary the concerns are being in new surroundings, having new teachers and trying to make new friends. Some children will be taken away from their comfort zone. In the middle school and high school...

Words: 1272 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Miami School District Papoer

...Miami School District Paper MGT/445 Miami School District The purpose of this paper is to help understand negotiation strategy that can be used to assist the Miami School District. It will also deal with understanding economical and cultural differences that rezoning can cause. The school district has made the decision to redraw the school attendance boundaries. This decision is based upon a higher number of applications for enrollment. This decision while a positive for the school system could pose unclaimed issues for parents. Another issue may be in effect on the students and their ability to deal with a new school. Many parents have banded together to oppose the rezoning of the school district. They are basing this on quality of education at new schools, increased travel for children and issues with socioeconomic differences. Objections Many parents are unhappy with the school districts plans for re-zoning the schools. Most opponents feel that re-zoning will decrease the education their child receives. One key issue is the lack of knowledge concerning the faculty of the new school. Another reason is that busing students to schools increases travel time to areas away from their home. It is possible that traveling far away from home can cause a hardship on the student as well as the parent. Lastly, some parents in more affluent areas will choose to register their children in private schools rather than have the mix with lower economic status students. Parents also feared...

Words: 1190 - Pages: 5