Shaun Rinier Quotations

We're expecting a contract (today). The association has pretty much made their point to me, they want this resolved (today) or there could be another work stoppage.

We'll be back. I don't blow smoke. I tell the truth. I don't think that's the case on their side.

We might have a deal done. It looks like we've worked out all of the details we can. So now we can vote on it.

I have a little bit of optimism, mostly hope. I don't want to go backward, I know that.

If Tuesday works out, we'll come back Wednesday. If we don't make any progress and people decide to backtrack on ideas, there won't be a Wednesday meeting. I don't even want to fathom to think (what would happen) if it falls through.

If the district tries to cut our benefits off again, we will file a lawsuit.

I always go in open-minded, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I think it's a good contract. I think it's fair to both sides. I think it's affordable to the taxpayers. I don't think this contract is going to break the bank.

I think the ideas we threw back and forth seemed positive.

My personal opinion is this isn't even about what the district can afford. It's turned into a personal and petty battle. I think if the state would drive a dump truck full of money to the administration building, they still wouldn't budge on the offer.

We just went through some of our unresolved language items. I think we got most of them resolved. We're going to work on it a little more (today).

We were probably at about 35 percent across the district. I'm not real sure why the district picked these days to have school.

The union wanted to go on strike two months ago. The association has been on my case. They feel we've been wasting time.

It was a very good meeting. There's lots of support. We're standing by our offer. We're willing to do whatever we have to do.

It's still behind most of the neighboring districts, but it's comparable. These are salaries that are going to keep people here, and it's going to attract teachers here and keep them, and that's what we want.

I told all the teachers to come down, and any members of the community that want to. A teacher mentioned (the idea of a rally) to me. I thought it would be a good idea. It just kind of spontaneously happened. Some parents have helped to organize it as well.

They wanted to go out a couple months ago. I held off as long as I could.

They have requested a meeting for Monday. Hopefully, this isn't just a meeting for them to save face with the public. If they were serious, we'd be meeting right now. I'm not real optimistic.

I'm very disappointed. I thought from some of the talks we had earlier in the month we'd get something accomplished. We've been led on, a little bit, to believe we were going to get a settlement and we didn't.

I'm letting myself be a little bit happier. Hopefully, we can get this done in the next couple of weeks.

I don't really have any comment on it. My opinion about that is about the same as fact-finding. (Final best-offer arbitration) might be something we consider in the future.

I do honestly feel that we had a favorable meeting Feb. 1. We still have a lot of work to do. We are by no means finished, but I keep my fingers and toes crossed we can continue to make progress.

The district would have to negotiate with us. If the board isn't going to meet in good faith, there's no need even having a meeting.