Last-ditch antics aside, the good news coming from the Daily Camera hails a tentative contract resolution between Boulder Valley Public Schools and BVEA, the teachers’ monopoly union agent. The union settled for a modest across-the-board pay raise — a generous offer in the rough economic climate — but forfeited the good will of some along the way.

And in the end, no apparent progress toward streamlining central administration nor in advancing a professional performance-based compensation system. Maybe next century.

Yet one area in which Boulder and other Colorado school districts might hope to see some progress soon is tax-subsidized leave for union officials and union activities. Back in February I pointed out how Utah was making strides in exposing the problem and clamping down.

Legislation to prohibit the practice narrowly failed, but the Salt Lake Tribune reported last week that state auditors are bringing more focus to how the practice is monitored:

But auditors found that none of the six districts they examined had guidelines defining which activities benefit the district versus the union. And only Davis asked its association president to log her time. Since the audit was done, the Granite district has asked its association president to submit activity calendars, said Mike Fraser, Granite’s human resources director.

“Without accountability and guidelines, districts are not fulfilling their statutory responsibilities to ensure that association leave has a direct benefit to the school district,” the audit said. According to state law, districts are supposed to document paid leave and seek reimbursement for costs related to activities that do not directly benefit education in the district.

The audit recommends the State Office of Education work with districts to develop guidelines defining which activities benefit districts and which don’t and that association presidents log their time and activities, among other things. State Superintendent Larry Shumway said his office will encourage districts to better track association leave time and to create written criteria to evaluate leave activities.

A little reasonable accountability? Not a bad idea for Utah’s neighbors to the east to pursue the same path — especially since the practice is more common here in Colorado. Cutting back on the practice would be a drop in the bucket compared to the millions in proposed cuts to K-12, but why shouldn’t the union subsidies be among the very first things to go?

At the very least, school district boards interested in public taxpayer accountability should seek to ensure the process for union officer release time and other leave days is well documented. Because union bargaining contracts like the one apparently just settled in Boulder enable the activity — frequently without any measure to monitor their usage.

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