Teachers’ Response to the School Board’s Published Contract Proposal

 

 

The board has been quick to inform the public that the union was offered the proposal that was published in the August 30 edition of the Mendota Reporter during the negotiation session on Thursday, September 21; this statement is only partially accurate.  What the board has neglected to mention is that a 22-page addendum was stapled to that proposal which outlined additional terms, conditions, and restrictions that were not included in the original newspaper ad.  The additional terms were the cause of the teachers’ decision to refuse the board’s offer.  The additional conditions described in the addendum include the following:

 

Pay Incentives

 

Salary increases at Mendota High School have always been negotiated in terms of a percentage raise on the base salary.  While the newspaper ad listed specific dollar amounts when addressing salary increases, the percentage raise figures were blacked out in the salary schedule section of the addendum.  In order to address salary increases in the contract, the dollar amounts need to be converted to percentages.  The addendum, in the teachers’ opinion, seemed to contradict the newspaper ad. 

 

In addition, the addendum made clear the board’s intention to do away with the current 5 X 5 salary schedule.  The 5 X 5 salary schedule has been in place for over 20 years and has been an extremely successful tool for recruiting new teachers to the district.  Furthermore, the 5 X 5 salary schedule is something that has already been promised to individuals who were hired by the district this year, and that promise may have affected their decision to turn down another job offer to come to Mendota.  It is difficult for the teachers’ union to see how such an action will help to retain new teachers.

 

Tuition Reimbursement Pay

 

The newspaper ad states that the school district will reimburse any teacher at a rate of $100.00 per credit hour for pursuing an advanced degree.  However, the ad fails to mention that an $8,000 cap has been placed on this benefit.  This means that there is an $8,000 pool available each year to the entire faculty, and when that money is gone, no further tuition reimbursement will be available. 

 

While the teachers greatly appreciate this benefit, it is important to understand that the school district does not continue to reimburse teachers for credits earned after the pool has been exhausted.  The teachers are satisfied with the terms of the policy but are concerned that the board has purposely misled the public to believe this is an open-ended pool of funds.

 

Health Insurance

 

In an article printed in the News Tribune on Friday, September 22, board president Tom Bauer stated that his negotiating team had offered to maintain the current contract language regarding health insurance.  By doing so, he implied that the union negotiating team had refused the offer. 

 

The teachers have agreed to accept this offer on a number of occasions, but the board has been unwilling to sign off on this issue unless the teachers also agree to several other unrelated items at the same time.  The board refers to this form of bargaining as “packaging” the issues.  It is an “ all or nothing” approach that has hindered the negotiating process.

 

Personal Leave

 

The teachers do, in fact, receive two personal days per year.  In the past, teachers have been unable to use these personal days “on a teacher employment day immediately preceding or following a school vacation, holiday, or summer recess period, nor on any scheduled in-service or institute day…or during the first and last week of the school year.”  The board wished to extend this restriction to three days. 

 

In setting this extended restriction, the board limited the opportunity to use a personal day to 18 of the 36 weeks of the school year.  Of greater concern is that many of the restricted time frames coincided with when parents would apply for personal leave to attend events for their children.  Providing an opportunity for teachers to be more active in their children’s lives is one of the main reasons why the personal day policy was added to the contract three years ago.

 

A compromise was reached on this issue on Thursday, September 21.  Teachers were granted one additional sick leave day in exchange for extending the personal day restriction to two days.

 

Paid Medical Leave

 

In the original newspaper ad, the board offered “12 weeks of paid medical leave as provided by the Federal Medical Leave Act.”  However, this clause was omitted from the copy of the ad that was given to the teachers’ negotiating team on Thursday.

 

Retirement Benefits

 

The union has offered to accept most of the board’s proposed changes to the Retirement Benefits section of the contract.  We are also concerned with ensuring that our policy is in accordance with current state law.  However, the board wishes to require teachers to submit their intent to retire four years in advance and has insisted that the retirement be irrevocable from that point forward.  This condition was not mentioned in the newspaper ad but was outlined in the 22-page addendum. 

 

The teachers have asked the board to consider adding an escape clause to protect individuals who may experience a catastrophic event, such as the death of a spouse, within that four-year time frame.  Four years is a very long time.  No one would logically choose to revoke his or her retirement, but unfortunate circumstances could make it financially impossible for an individual to retire when planned.  We fully concede that if an individual chooses to revoke his or her retirement the individual would be expected to reimburse the district for any retirement benefits that had already been received.

 

 

Minimum Pay for New Teachers

 

The board has implied that the Teachers’ Association is hesitant to raise the starting salary for new hires.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We are very much concerned about our low starting salary, and the solution to this problem is very simple.  Offer an adequate raise on the base that will increase the starting salary.

 

The board does not want to do this, however, because that would result in increased salaries for all teachers, not just the new hires.  Rather, they would ask us to allow them to grant new hires unearned years of experience that would place them at a higher level of seniority. 

 

The Teacher’s Association is asking that the board extend the same consideration to teachers who have proven their worth through years of dedication to the students of this district as they are willing to extend to new hires.  Creating the sense that teachers somehow depreciate in value after three or four years does not encourage teachers to remain in the district.

 

Faculty Duty / Teaching Load

 

The board has proposed that the teachers give up one of their preparation periods to complete a supervisory assignment.  Supervision options include

·tutoring.

·study hall supervision.

·lunch-room duty.

·before and after school hall and parking lot supervision.

·in-school suspension supervision.

·hallway supervision during the day.

 

However, when pressed to describe how assignments would be determined in a fair and equitable manner, the board is very evasive, and the newspaper ad was just as non-committal.  As the proposal stands, while some teachers would be assigned to a responsibility that would require the entire 49 minutes, others would be given an assignment that could be completed in ten to fifteen minutes.

 

With regard to this proposal, the Teacher’s association would like you to consider the following…

 

·In the newspaper ad, the board states that “Very few schools allow teachers two preparation periods.”   Later, the board expresses a concern that MHS is unable to compete with other schools when attempting to attract new teachers to the district.  When competing with other schools for new hires, wouldn’t it be to our advantage to offer such a positive and unusual benefit?  The administration has, in fact, used the additional prep period as a successful recruitment tool for quite some time. Like the

5 x 5 index, this benefit has already been promised to several new hires this year alone.

 

·The board would lead the public to believe that the teachers are unwilling to fulfill any supervisory assignment for which they are not being paid.  This is untrue.  Each year, a supervision schedule is created by the administration and included in the faculty handbook.  Teachers are assigned to supervise various locations before school, after school, and during the lunch hour.  The expectation of the administration is that these duties will be fulfilled, but the teachers are not paid any additional money to fulfill them. There are times when, perhaps, a teacher neglects to do his or her “hall duty,” but it is usually because he or she is meeting with a student or answering a phone message from a parent.  Aside from that, teachers already fulfill these duties on a daily basis.

 

·The teachers could not agree more that students have the right to a safe learning environment; however, we have three administrators and over $100,000 worth of security cameras to help ensure “a safer environment for our students” in the hallways and parking lots. The teachers are charged with the responsibility of providing a safe learning environment within their classrooms.

 

·Many teachers already stand outside their doors in the hallway during the passing periods (unpaid) to create a sense of “faculty presence,” but they also have the flexibility to retain students after class to answer questions or handle discipline if necessary.  Mandatory supervision during the school day would rob the teachers of these opportunities.  

 

·In recent newspaper articles, the board has expressed concern about raising standardized test scores.  It is difficult for the Teachers’ Association to understand how sacrificing preparation time to supervise the hallways, restrooms, and parking lot will help us to reach that goal. 

 

·For the board to imply, as they did in the newspaper ad, that teachers do not use preparation time in a professional manner is petty and inaccurate. Teachers use this time in a variety of ways to help provide the best possible education for their students.  Preparation time is used in a variety of ways including, but certainly not limited to, the following:

-Work individually with students

-Contact parents / return phone calls

-Grade papers

-Write lesson plans

-Average grades / enter grades into the computer grade program

-Make copies

-Administer make-up quizzes and tests

-Monitor students who are completing independent study (PLATO, correspondence courses, etc.)

-Write and deliver discipline referrals

-Create and type original instructional materials (handouts, quizzes, tests, worksheets)

-Create power point presentations

-Utilize the internet to find materials to share with our students or to create internet activities to complement our lessons

-Consult with Special Education department regarding special needs students

-Complete IEP paperwork

-Attend IEP staffings

-Work with SAP cases

-Consult with guidance regarding student needs

-Collaborate with other teachers to work on curriculum alignment / development

-Meet with administration if necessary

 

Final Thoughts:

 

The teachers would like to reach a settlement agreement, but for the board to imply that they offered the newspaper ad proposal with no strings attached is simply untrue.  They offered the newspaper ad proposal with 22 pages of “strings.”

 

In an effort to resolve the situation, the union offered to maintain the current contract language in exchange for a 4% raise (approximately cost-of-living) in each of the next three years.  We did specify that any tentative agreements that had been reached needed to be honored because to do otherwise would be regressive bargaining.  We also expressed a concern that the retirement benefits should be amended to satisfy state requirements: a concern that was also expressed by the board. 

 

We felt that this was a fair compromise and a logical way to prevent a strike.  The board flatly refused our offer. We are fighting to keep what we have, and the board is determined to eliminate items from the contract that are there as the result of MUTUAL agreement during previous negotiations. 

 

In conclusion, please consider this…

 

When all is said and done, the contract will eventually settle and life will go on.  However, the board’s decision to attack the teachers in such a vicious and public fashion, as they have done over the course of the last several weeks, will leave a lasting impression on our children, our community, and prospective new-hires. 

 

When the board chooses to demean the teachers in the press, it depicts the teachers as unworthy of respect.  Teachers work hard to create an environment of mutual respect in their classrooms everyday.  With very little regard for the consequences of their actions, the board has chosen to question the professionalism of the teachers in a public forum. Unfortunately, this will probably undermine our carefully crafted relationships with our students.  It is difficult to understand how this will help to raise standardized test scores, encourage student achievement, or improve student behavior.

 

Furthermore, the board will find it all the more difficult to recruit teachers to commit to Mendota High School.  Mendota will be marked as a community that “dislikes teachers” simply because the school board chose to so openly express their personal feelings in the press. Our reputation as a district that does not respect its teachers will follow the administrators into every job fair, recruitment seminar, and personal interview.  It will cast a shadow on every want ad that is placed in the paper.  Many potential new-hires will chose to send their resumes elsewhere because of this, regardless of how much money they stand to earn. 

 

Sadly, potential new-hires are not the only ones who may be sending resumes elsewhere as a result of the board of education’s ill-advised actions.  Because when all is said and done and the contract is settled life will go on, but for some of the excellent teachers currently employed by Mendota High School life will be “going on” in another community.