Teachers must wait until we know more, says school committee
TIVERTON — In the face of a cascade of state budget bad news and rumored funding cuts to towns and schools, Tiverton’s School Committee last week voted to put off any consideration of the teachers’ contract it had been negotiating for the last year and a half.
The postponement likely kills hope that a Nov. 5 arbitration contract proposal for settling the dispute will be agreed to. That arbitration award expires on Dec. 5, thirty days from the date it was signed, although there is nothing in it that precludes a future approval.
The postponement also imperils money — an estimated $272,000 according to Doug Fiore, the school department head of finance and administration — that had been carried over into this year’s budget and set aside for teachers.
And the postponement reflects an abrupt reversal in the sentiments of the school committee and the school department from what appeared to be their positions two weeks ago.
Back then, on Nov. 12, Superintendent William Rearick told the school committee that, “I’m recommending the school committee approve the arbitration award,” saying that the money for the new contract is already in the budgets “in exactly the dollar amounts” previously approved by town meetings.
But now it’s different. “Get braced for some serious cuts,” Mr. Rearick said last Tuesday night. Mr. Rearick projected cuts that could reach 10 percent, or $500,000 that would impact the school budget. “What’s changed is the economic dynamics within the state.”
“This is new and a real danger to our very existence,” Mr. Rearick said. “To knowingly move forward with that threat out there could do real damage.”
The implication was clear. If state cuts in aid, cuts in educational programs may only be avoided or minimized by using funds set aside for a compensation package for teachers.
As School Committee Chairman Jan Bergandy said, “we are not voting this contract down,” referring to the vote to postpone. He presented the choice as one between cutting a program, such as the school band, or giving teachers a one percent raise.
Amy Mullen, President of National Education Association (NEA) Tiverton, who two weeks ago said the arbitration award was fair and should be approved, said last week that, “teachers have been without a salary increase for over a year now.” She asked the committee if cuts come whether, “you’ll be asking the superintendent to give back his salary or other bargaining units” to do the same.
The postponement came cloaked with uncertainty. Committee member Leonard Wright made the motion “to postpone until we have further information from the state” about what cuts might be needed.
The vote on his motion was 3 to 2, with committee chairman Bergandy and newly-elected member Danielle Coulter voting with Mr. Wright in support of his motion. Member Carol Herrmann, also new to the school committee, and committee vice chairwoman Sally Black voted against postponement.
Neither an amount of money to cut nor a timetable is known.
“That’s right,” Mr. Bergandy responded to an audience member, who asked, “we really don’t know when that will be, do we?”
To underscore its preference for taking a wait-and-see approach, just before voting to postpone, the committee earlier rejected, by the same 3 to 2 split, a motion offered by newly-elected member Carol Herrmann and committee vice chairwoman Sally Black to approve the contract.
As it happened, the “no” vote on approval provided the dramatic moment of the evening. It was about 9:30 p.m., and a crowd estimated at between 150 -200 spectators occupied the high school auditorium.
An executive session of nearly an hour opened the meeting as the throng waited. Then for an hour and a half, from 8 p.m. until the vote was taken, the public and committee members took turns addressing the crisis. Among those present were three members of the town council, members of the budget committee, parents, members of a taxpayer’s group (Tiverton Citizens for Change), and easily 100 or more teachers.
Immediately after the “no” vote, the teachers left en masse, and committee chairman Bergandy took a few minutes to let the commotion die down. The following vote, to postpone, was almost anticlimactic.
Besides pay and health benefits, left unresolved are issues relating to parent-teacher conferences, senior projects, academic literacy, mentoring, advisories, and interventions with students having behavioral issues.
“teachers have been without a salary increase for over a year now.”
-Amy Mullen, President, NEA Tiverton
This quote underscores how out of touch the NEA is with the voters of Tiverton and the current economic reality. The tax base is shrinking and the country is in a recession. Tiverton residents are losing their jobs and taking voluntary pay cuts just to stay employed. I think it's a little selfish for the NEA to fight for a pay raise in the worst economy since great depression.
OH NO!!!! A whole year without a salary!!! How could the people of Tiverton be so cruel. I know all of us are getting annual raises...ummm....yea.....NOT!!! Get over it Ms. Mullen, be glad you have a job. Maybe the SC should tie any raises to annual teacher evaluations by a committee of one administrator, one teacher and three parents. Also give them the raise if they agree to no tenure under the same plan.
I get an annual raise (well, not this year). and I am in nothing more than a lowly office job. My benefits are comparable to what the teachers get, and I dont even have a degree! Ask any college grad with any kind of REAL degree and they will tell you that they expect to make $100,000 per year out of the gate... and they do. But teachers never do.
That being said, I am in favor of postponing teh vote until the financial picture of teh town is clear.
Metaldoc
Anyone making $100k out of the gate is over paid. Don't you think that may be part of the problem. What do you think causes inflation? It is when the cost of goods and services increase but there value does not. Basically everone is over paid when pay increses occur without produtivity increasing. I don't think people should get raises just because a year has elapsed. If nobody had gotten any pay raises over the last 50 years products and services would cost roughly what they did 50 years ago. Hence no inflation and much less of a chance of recession or depression.
big: actually, if that had happened, we would have been in a depression for the last 50 years. Moderate inflation, regardles of how much we may dislike it, is a nessecary economic evil in a free market society. Wages MUST go up. and prices must go up accordingly. A stagnant economy is not a good thing, not at all. all things being relative. 50 years ago my father was making 60 cents an hour in a rail yard and a loaf of bread cost 10 cents. Now, same job makes $30 an hour and a loaf of bread is $2. So, in reality, we are doing much better. If gas prices had matched inflation over the past 30 years, gas would be $20 a gallon. i remember paying $1.75 for a gallon of gas back in 1991. Yesterday, while driving home from work, I saw gas for $1.67 a gallon. the real issue with the gas price increases this past summer is that they went up too fast. If they had gone up to $4 a gallon over the last 17 years, it would never have been an issue.
We would not have been in a depression if that had happened. It would not have been a stagnant economy but a stable economy. When you say "we" are doing better with the $30 an hour and 10 cent loaf of bread, that is for the individual only and not the country. What has changed in that job to make it worth 15 loaves per hour instead of the 6 loaves 50 years ago? The loaf of bread is actually a very good measure of real life costs. If nothing in that job has changed except a yearly raise it is vastly inflated. The problem is automatic wage increases are killing this country. I can just guess at what that increase has done to shipping costs. There was no increase in productivity therefore there should have been no increase in pay. If this was unilateral the cost of living increase would have been minimal at most. Take a good look at the auto workers: Their productivity has actually gone down while the wages have shot thru the roof. Mainly because of the annual wage increases with less production per person. Do you really think someone running a screw gun on the assembly line is worth $85,000 to $100,000 per year? It has to stop! Extrapolate a 3% increase out over the next 50 years. Go ahead do the math and I promise it will choke you.
Teaching is not an easy job by any means and many of us are thankful for the work and patience that quality teachers demonstrate with our youth. However, not all teachers are the same, and this show of entitlement and expectation in a time when most are struggling to keep up with a troubled economy is a smack in the faces of the taxpayers paying thier salaries, healthcare, retirment, and the other benefits they recieve. Thanks for the quote Ms. Mullen, it helps us see how ridiculous this type of thinking is--if you don't feel you make enough get a new profession. Teachers choose to be teachers--bottomline.
Cedar: we can flip that around you know. You feel you are entitled to good teachers but dont want to pay for it. Cannot have your cake and eat it too.
One cannot equate a teacher's perspective with that of a taxpayer. Teachers can changes jobs much more easily than a taxpayer can change homes. If you don't pay your tax bill, the government eventually shows up with guns and kicks you out of your house. No such thing happens to a teacher because they didn't get the raise they wanted.
I think taxpayers should feel entitled to good teachers, right now, because they ARE paying for them, right now. Remember, we're not talking about minimum wage workers here, we are talking about people earning over $50 an hour. If you pay someone $50 an hour to a job, I say you're entitled to expect them to do it well.
Ok, so how about this:
We get rid of the teachers union and then promptly pay less than most other towns in the state for teachers (which we already do) and then see if we still have some of the best teachers in the state. Sound good to you?
If it does sound good to you, you either:
A) have no business sense at all.
B) Dont have children and dont give a rats ###
Why don't we just pay the best teachers more, and pay the rest a fair wage? If we pay all of the teachers the same, we will never be able to afford to retain the best teachers, and THAT HURTS KIDS. It's the union that keeps us from doing this, or at least has so far.
Tiverton just doesn't have the money to keep up with the richest RI communities so we have to be smart about it. When you pay everyone the same regardless of performance, you drive away the best and tend to attract the worst. Speaking of business sense, what (successful) business pays all of their employees the same regardless of performance or market need?
"Speaking of business sense, what (successful) business pays all of their employees the same regardless of performance or market need?"
Toyota, Hyundai, Boeing, Southwest Airlines, Hasbro, Microsoft, Stop and Shop, Shaw's... should I go on?
I grant you that there needs to be a performance standard met. But you talk like Tiverton has a real low income threshhold, when in fact, it is one of the top 5 in the state. Tiverton taxes also rank as some of the highest in teh state, property values rank as some of the highest in the state. Yet, consistently, Tiverton pays teachers less than most other towns... suspicious?
Good response, metaldoc. I should have clarified that what business pays its PROFESSIONALS, as the teachers insist they are, all the same rather than hourly workers.
I don't have the numbers in front of me now, but I do believe the 2000 census shows Tiverton in the bottom half of almost every measure of median, household, family income, etc. Please direct me to your data showing us as in the top 5.
(By the way, metaldoc, you have got to check out anchorrising.com. I think you would really be a good voice on that forum.)
Teacher salaries and benefits, as well as the higher-ups compensations, devour the budgeted allowances that we tax-payers are asked to pay. When salaries go up programs get reduced, and things like art & music are pushed aside for the 3% increase in salary. There must be limits and conditions, especially when the economy is in the shape it is. The money-driven state of mind the academic sector displays is disturbing.
I wouldnt know about Professionals, most come in to a company based on performance, and then screw up and get annual bonuses anyway. (See CEOs of any multinationalcorporation which asked for bailout). I work in an office with "professionals" and let me tell you, most are anything but professional. It takes alot to get someone fired from a job like this. Incompetence is rewarded with "training" and "promotions" while competent people languish in the same job for years with only their annual raises to compensate for lack of mobility. And I have seen this in more than a few companies I have worked for. "Professionals" are protected in similar ways as the teachers are, withoout union rules, benefits and dues.
I got my figures from the Tiverton Town site. When I was looking to move recently, I looked up the town info and this town was one of the best in the sate as far as I could see. So I moved here. The schools are great, the teachers are fantastic, even the administration, in my opinion (I have 2 school age children) is wonderful. Warwick was a disaster.
And Cedar: do you do your job simply because you love it? Seriously, I love my job, but if they werent paying me, I wouldnt do it. And actually, if they tried to cut my pay I wouldnt do it either.
Check out:
http://www.riedc.com/data-and-publications/resource-documents/data-and-links
and go to full census data. If you look at median household income, median family income, and per capita income, you'll see Tiverton in the bottom half for all three.
The town's ability to pay has to be part of the equation, particularly in this economy. Given that we are nowhere near the wealthiest in the state, we're doing pretty well staying within 3% of average union teacher comp.
