COEUR d'ALENE - The public had a chance Wednesday, for the first time in history, to observe negotiations between the Coeur d'Alene School District and representatives of the local teachers union.

The meeting took place in the old board room located in the school district's central office, and brought out seven members of the public to watch and listen to the proceedings.

A new state law, part of Idaho schools chief Tom Luna's Students Come First education reform package, requires that all school district labor negotiations be conducted in public meetings.

"Upon visiting with Superintendent Luna and other people that helped devise the law, we have some ground rules that they strongly recommend that we operate under," said Superintendent Hazel Bauman.

The rules will help the negotiations move forward in an efficient and timely manner, Bauman said, so they can meet a June 10 deadline to complete the labor talks.

The guidelines, provided to members of the public and members of each negotiating team, state:

* Meetings are in open session, and the public is free to attend, whenever the two teams are discussing compensation and benefits;

* Caucuses are closed meetings when the teams separate to deliberate and can be called at any time by either team;

* Accurate minutes of negotiation sessions will be kept per Idaho Code.

Members of the public are asked to sign in on an attendance sheet, silence cell phones, enter and exit quietly, refrain from conversation, and keep non-verbal communication neutral.

No public comment will be accepted during the negotiations. Bauman advised members of the public that comment cards were available for those who have questions or concerns about the negotiations, which the district will address when collective bargaining is not taking place.

"Why didn't you hold this meeting later in the day, when everybody could attend," asked Debbie Morris, a public member who resides in the district.

Morris said she is concerned that the 9 a.m. meeting made it impossible for teachers to attend.

"Historically, our teachers have felt very confident in our representation," said Kristi Milan, president of the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, which is the local teachers union.

The first meeting was mainly informational, and highlighted some of the fiscal challenges facing the negotiating teams during this year's collective bargaining sessions.

In addition to a reduction in state funding of nearly $2 million, the new education reform laws reduce the funds the state appropriates to districts to be used to pay salaries.

The district's salary-based apportionment, the amount designated for salaries based on the district's attendance rates, is going to be reduced by 1.67 percent in 2012, 4.05 percent in 2013, 6.3 percent in 2014, 6.42 percent in 2015, 6.21 percent in 2016, and 5.74 percent in 2017 and every year after that.

Those funds will be redirected to the school districts, but will not be discretionary funds. School districts will have to use that money to pay for technology upgrades, pay for performance bonuses for teachers, and dual credit for high school students.

"At face value, I look at this as we're going to have teachers making significantly less," said Tim Sandford, music teacher at Lake City High School and chief negotiator for the CEA.

He questioned how they were going to attract new teachers to Idaho with "guaranteed salary increases built into the budget."

The negotiating teams also learned that health and dental insurance premiums for next year are increasing. The cost to maintain the existing Blue Cross coverage will cost 4.8 percent more next year.

How to cover that gap with declining funds for salaries will be another focus of the negotiations.

School districts throughout Idaho are awaiting guidance from the State Department of Education before planning their budgets for next year.

Superintendent Luna and his staff will be in Coeur d'Alene Monday to meet with North Idaho school leaders to discuss how districts can best put the new education reform policies, processes and procedures in place.

On the district's negotiating team were Steve Briggs, the district's finance officer; Pam Pratt, the director of elementary education and the district's chief negotiator; Edie Brooks, chair of the Board of Trustees; Kelly Ostrum, the district's human resources director; Lisa Pica, principal of Hayden Meadows Elementary School; Bauman; and Rosie Astorquia, the district's director of secondary education.

Representing the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, the local teachers union, were Marty Meyer, custodian at Fernan Elementary; Royce Johnson, teacher at Coeur d'Alene High School; Kristi Milan, Woodland Middle School teacher and president of the CEA; Rick Jones, counselor at CHS; Sandford; and Jeri Kilburg, a teacher at Skyway Elementary.

The next district negotiations will take place May 5 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the school district's central office, 311 N. 10th St.