At the February 23rd Howard County Board of Education meeting in Maryland, a dispute erupted over whether they should, of all things, solicit mediation services. The President of the Howard County Education Association (HCEA), Paul Lemle requested that the School Board seek mediation from either the Howard County Community College's Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center or the Maryland Association of Boards of Education to resolve what he calls debilitating personality conflicts.

Sandra French, the School Board President, dismissed this request. In her opinion, the presence of Robert's Rules of Order and her own efforts to improve the civility and efficiency of the meetings are admittedly not perfect, but sufficient. Specifically, she did not believe that outside mediation was necessary over the particular issue of letting board members telecommute to the meetings.

At A Glance, Civil Mediation is Necessary

Just from the two opinions mentioned above, workplace mediation should be a high priority for the Board. On one hand, an individual—whether justified in his perception or not—sees that there are interpersonal issues among the board members that would justify mediation. On the other hand, this request was dismissed by the School Board President by way of a separate issue.

Either Mr. Lemle attempted to not follow Parliamentary Procedure in this case and deviated from the subject at hand, or Ms. French is being dismissive of the relevance of mediation services...maybe a little of both. Either way, there are problems in communication in this exchange alone that mediation could help. It should also be noted that the two mediation services mentioned above are free of charge, but would probably eventually refer the Board to a “for pay” agency.