With the School Board having turned the early-spring community flap over adjuncts into a fairly silent movie for the present, Board meetings have returned to their prosaic form.
In the midst of annual contract negotiations, Teachers Union President David Mielke distributed an 18-page document from the County Office of Education that showed how far down the list the School District ranked in comparative salaries.
Referring to the booklet dated August, 2010, and covering the 2009-‘10 school year, Mr. Mielke told the School Board members they had seen this document before.
“How are we doing with paying our employees?” he asked.
“Our school psychologist is paid 39th among 47 districts in the County.
“Our school counselor ranks 41st.
“Our elementary school principal is 39th.
“Middle School principal is 41st.
“There is a pattern here.
“High school principal is 40th.
“Middle School assistant principal is 38th.
“High school assistant principal 40th.
“Then we get to the people we represent, teachers.
“Beginning teachers with a B.A., 43rd.
“Beginning teacher with a Master’s, 33rd out of 34.
“Let’s take the most you can make with a Master’s, and we are 34th of 34.
“Maximum salary schedule. I don’t even want to read this, 47th out of 47.
“Finally, the super max, the most you can make, 42nd out of 47.
“Health and welfare, not bad, just a little above the median, 20th.
“Real quickly, raises over the last three years, we are 40th out of 47.
“For the five-year period, we are 40th of 47.”
Mr. Mielke concluded that there were both short-term and long-term problems.
“Short term, we are bargaining now, and we need something from you,” he said. “Long term problem, we need to have a five-year plan. A 10-year, a 20-year plan.
“I worked on the Strategic Planning Committee in ’01. It was wild and crazy because this was where a community group was encouraged to think outside the box.
“Wave a magic wand. What district would we want if we could have it? And that group said, I hate to say it, ‘we want our people paid at the median.’
“Let me set that goal, and have a plan to reach it,” Mr. Mielke said.
