Without a further contract bargaining session on the schedule, Teachers Union President David Mielke plans to use tonight’s 7 o’clock School Board meeting at Lin Howe School to publicly unveil the union’s counter-proposal.
Having made what the union considers a “huge concession,” agreeing to five furlough days for all members next school year, Mr. Mielke says it is only fair that everybody on the School District payroll share the fiscal pain.
Therefore, the union will propose the highest-paid employees, the administrators, agree to eight furlough days, and the lowest-paid, the classified workers, agree to three days.
Just as springtime means that the state budget crisis is the centerpiece of every School Board agenda, union bargaining sessions with the District once again have slowed to their annual pace of molasses.
Peripheral Issues
“We are not happy with the way negotiations have gone,” Mr. Mielke said. “We have made a proposal about a bunch of issues teachers have concerns about. For example, they often have combination classes. Your child could be not in Grade 1 but in Grade 1-2. Or Grade 2-3. This has been an ongoing matter. But it is more of an issue in hard times.
“We are reasonable. But we are looking for regulations and limits to be put in place. Both sides have brought lists of concerns to the table. But what has surprised, and disappointed, us is that management did not make any move at all to address our issues in a meaningful way.”
The more Mr. Mielke reflected, the grimmer the atmosphere felt.
“We got off to a bad start,” he said. “A more enlightened management team would have said ‘We have got some movement on your issues, and we also want you to think about our issues.’ But that is not how it unfolded.
“Maybe their main problem was that they were so focused on the five furlough days they couldn’t think of anything else.”
Mr. Mielke said his beef with District management is that the team — starting with Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote — does not seem to understand the first commandment of negotiations.
v “If you are going to a union to ask for financial concessions,” he said, “you try to give them some things they want that don’t cost money. Then, perhaps, they would be more likely to accept the concessions. That was Problem No. 1 with the sessions we have had so far.
“ Here is Problem No. 2. A million dollars is the amount the District wants to save with the furlough days. They proposed getting there with two years worth of furloughs.”
The Teachers Union, however, is not ready to talk about a second year of furloughs because they think fresh money will be available by then that will circulate through the system and ease the present crisis. The popular Parcel Tax that passed last November is expected to yield well over $1 million for the District before the second school year, 2011-12, begins.
One Year at a Time
“We just want to talk about Year One,” Mr. Mielke said, “because we have the Measure EE (parcel tax) money coming in. And we know that many districts offer early retirement incentive programs to get veteran teachers to retire so they can replace them with younger, lower-paid teachers.
“Management wants to get to a million dollars by having everybody in the District take five furlough days. But the union’s position is, America has a long history of progressive taxation.
“Therefore, our proposal is to get to the million dollars by not having everybody take the same amount of time, five furlough days.
“We will take our five. But we want management to take eight and the classified support staff to only take three. Still adds up to a million bucks.
“Our team feels good about this proposal. We have been telling the District for months we will work with them. We are not opposed to furlough days. We understand they are a necessity.
“But when we looked at how it would actually play out, five days is a week. Our support staff — secretaries, security, custodians — is not paid well. They will really feel the loss of a week’s pay. They can’t lose a week, especially when you have people making thousands of dollars more, plus mileage allowances in a District that is merely four square miles. That is just not right.
“This is what I am going to tell the School Board tonight:
“‘We have a way to get your million dollars in furlough days. But it is a way in which the people who can pay the most actually will pay the most,’” Mr. Mielke said.
The School Board is scheduled to vote to discontinue a number of student services currently provided by teachers.
Said Mr. Mielke:
“It is unclear right now whether these are ‘precautionary’ notices (teachers must be notified by March 15 if they are going to be laid off) or whether this is part of the Board's plan to balance the budget.”
The following teacher cuts are on the agenda:
Adult School: 1 teacher (medical billing)
Middle School:
Art: 0.6 percent of a fulltime position
French: 0.4 percent of a full-time position
Home economics: 1 position
Music: 1 position
Spanish: 1 position
High school:
Spanish: 0.2 percent of a fulltime position
Social sciences: 1.4 positions
Math: 0.2 percent of a full-time position
English: 1 position
Mr. Mielke noted that agenda includes the “Phase 3” cut list. Among potential eliminations are instructional aides, elementary librarians, adult school programs, security and cuts to secondary guidance and nursing services.
“As you know,” said the union president, “state law mandates that layoffs are done by seniority in the District. That means cuts at one school site get the ‘bumping’ process started.
“This results in veteran teachers sometimes changing schools and assignments. And less senior teachers lose their positions. We want the community to know we are working to save those jobs.”
