Collaboration Lab
Through the Collaboration Lab, the Education Minnesota Foundation will work with a district’s administration and staff to build positive relationships between staff and management to:
- Create systems and structures that support collaboration, deepen understanding of stakeholders, and provide honest feedback that can lead to better outcomes for a specific project.
- Support sustainability of these systems and structures so that there is collaboration that takes place regardless of the personalities of specific individuals in leadership.
- Reach positive outcomes on a shared goal, project or objective.
The Education Minnesota Foundation believes that how the staff-management group achieves their shared goal will be just as important as achieving it; process weighing equally with product. Our theory of change is that a better process will lead to a better product.
For districts that desire single-day professional development or collaborative opportunities, the foundation will work directly with stakeholders from staff and management to design these opportunities if they are related to:
- Racial Equity – FIRE (Facing Inequities and Racism in Education) collaboration.
- Relationship building around Teacher Development and Evaluation or specific building issues.
Interested? Fill out the Collaboration Lab interest form!
The basis for this new professional development opportunity started in three pilot local unions, who attended the Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN) Conference to start work on a labor-management project of their choosing.
Mounds View Education Association
The Mounds View Education Association considers itself lucky to have a pretty good relationship with school district management, said Stacey Vanderport, MVEA local president. “We had systems and structures in place for many years,” said Vanderport. “We created a joint task force once the teacher development and evaluation law came to be and with Q-Comp. But we looked at the systems that we have and wanted to make sure all of the pieces were connected.”
Read more about how working together is strengthening work relationships in Mounds View.
Deer River Education Association
Deanna Hron, the president of the Deer River Education Association, was interested in bringing the full-service community school model to her district when she was asked if she and the district would like to pilot the labor-management collaboration project. “We’ve been able to build a bridge between us and be proactive about things,” she said. “It feels like we have a different relationship, a collaborative relationship. And it’s stretching to other things we’ve worked on, like talking about professional development.”
Read more about full-service community schools in Deer River, Minn.
Chaska Education Association
Collaboration has been a value in the Eastern Carver County School District since a teacher strike in 1984, but Chaska Education Association President Chris Commers knew there was still room for improvement. “We’ve been able to make some significant changes with our PLCs,” Commers said. “We try to make our PLC more parallel and align with student work and teacher development and evaluation. We’re looking for quality and here’s how we’re measuring it, instead of just counting minutes. What’s a great need for the local and how can it be framed so the district can see its self-interest?” he said.
Districts will be charged a $1,000 base partnership fee that will be a charitable donation to the foundation. This fee will get districts:
- Facilitation at four meetings for a one-year-long project, including all of the tools for collaboration to make that project; OR
- One full professional development day including all trainers; OR
- Two half-day professional development sessions including all trainers.