Posted on 01/22/2005 7:19:22 PM PST by Born Conservative
The union representative is angry about publication of salary, reimbursements and sick days amid contract talks.
WRIGHT TWP. - Every Crestwood teacher's salary, tuition reimbursements and related pay hikes, plus accrued sick days will soon debut on the school district's Web site.
School board member Gene Mancini Jr. said it's a way to inform the public as contract negotiations continue, but union representative John Holland called the move "offensive and irresponsible."
"It's the public's right to know," said Mancini, who serves on the contract negotiation team. He said the board held a public session in November and next week's planned release of salary and benefit information is a continuation of that.
Holland said school board President Bill Jones and the "other clowns" on the board need to stop playing political games.
"They can put whatever spin they want on it," said Holland, an attorney with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. He said the board is doing a great disservice by trying to generate public sentiment against teachers.
"It tends to make people disrespectful of the teachers," Holland said. He said the teachers' salaries are reasonable given the number of years they have worked at Crestwood.
"The numbers are staggering," said Mancini of teachers' salaries and health benefit amounts. The 2004-2005 spreadsheet the school district compiled lists 27 teachers being paid the top annual salary of $71,408. The district pays more than $14,000 annually for some teachers' health benefits.
Lesser paid teachers received $25,854 a year and some health benefits cost the school district $5,200 annually.
The information lists one teacher's salary increase of $20,000 for additional academic credits and another teacher as having accrued $11,970 worth of sick days at $35 per day.
Holland, the PSEA attorney, acknowledged that some information the district plans to release is public, but if it is releasing information on accrued sick days, people can easily determine what teachers have been sick based on the 10 allotted sick days per year.
Holland cited the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability or HIPAA act that safeguards medical information. "They can proceed at their own risk."
He noted that the district and the Crestwood Education Association are entering the fact-finding stage of negotiations. The state Labor Relations Board on Tuesday assigned fact-finder Alex Kaschock, who has 40 days to issue non-binding recommendations.
"Let the process work," Holland said Friday. He said this is not the time for the district to post teacher information on its Web site.
School district Solicitor Jack Dean said members of the public have requested the information and now they will be able to determine the financial impact of the proposed contracts.
The district Web site already contains a side-by-side comparison of the union and district collective bargaining proposals, the millage impact and the district's last offer on Nov. 9, before the strike.
The school district's 160 teachers, librarians and some other employees are working under the terms of their old contract, which expired in August 2002.
I have a dream job...sorry you don't.
Those are tax deductible.
Your accusation of whining is utterly ridiculous. I did not say my wife was complaining of the expenses, nor was she whining about it. I merely stated that the salary alone is not the whole picture.
A lot of you people are so warped by the NEA that you cannot see that there are excellent individual teachers that work very hard and do a good job even in the public schools.
It is one thing to whine and complain about how terrible one's pay is or how bad one's work conditions are, and it is quite another to realistically state what the situation is.
I know some excellent teachers and I know some lousy ones. I do get tired of people lumping all teachers together in the NEA pot and failing to recognize the good ones.
Your accusation of whining is utterly ridiculous. I did not say my wife was complaining of the expenses, nor was she whining about it. I merely stated that the salary alone is not the whole picture.
A lot of you people are so warped by the NEA that you cannot see that there are excellent individual teachers that work very hard and do a good job even in the public schools.
It is one thing to whine and complain about how terrible one's pay is or how bad one's work conditions are, and it is quite another to realistically state what the situation is.
I know some excellent teachers and I know some lousy ones. I do get tired of people lumping all teachers together in the NEA pot and failing to recognize the good ones.
Sorry for the double post.
"There has also been a study that showed education majors have the lowest entering SAT scores of any other majors at most colleges."
I saw that study several years ago but I've forgotten where and I'd love to have a source to cite. Do you have one?
BTW, as I remember the two lowest SAT scores were education and journalism. I believe the study also rated the difficulties of the course curriculum in these two majors as the lowest too.
.....of $20,000 for additional academic credits.....
Plastic Masters Degrees issued by plastic state teachers colleges taught by plastic college instructors. What a racket.
Is teaching an important job in society? Sure. But so are most other jobs.
Are teachers under-paid? Not really.
Is there any reason teacher's salaries ought not be public knowledge? None at all, except that it would destroy the illusion that the teachers themselves have created {They ARE Teachers After all}, that teachers are vastly under paid.
I also think they should make all public employees (including senators and other mooches) take drug screening tests on a regular basis. The unions should have to pay for them. For elected officials, the cost should come out of their own pockets.
Actually, it's 30 years service or age 60, whichever comes first. Given my most recent retirement statement, you're mistaken about that "almost 90% of salary" however.
But hey, you think it's a good deal? Georgia has Fast Track, if you have at least a bachelor's degree. Become a teacher, and you too can "retire at 55"....
I have not one single time said that teachers' salaries should not or could not be made public.
I did not state that teachers were underpaid. Some are, and some are not. I have not said that teachers should not be held accountable.
Unfortunately districts, administrations, unions, state education officials and parents are not as accountable as they should be. They let lousy teachers continue to teach and children suffer for it. They also undermine the creativity and effectiveness of good teachers and make it more difficult for good teachers to work.
The problem is not simply teachers, but they make nice scapegoats.
For crying out loud, some of you people are utterly unreasonable.
I agree that it is the administration and union leadership that reaps the big bucks, not the teachers. Blame for the lousy public school system lies at the feet of the unions in bed with the various government agencies who set educational standards, award contracts, and so on.
It is not that easy for teachers to change their union, thanks to the partnership mentioned above. And it is the union-government stronghold that keeps public education crappy and expensive.
Getting politicians to approve "vouchers" (aka give back the money that already belongs to you) would be a great first start. But even some Pubbies are against vouchers.
Yes, they can. Sometimes the administrators don't want to go through the hassle of documenting the reason for the firing.
Teachers here in Illinois do not work late. In fact, they even give off days of school to hold Parent Teacher conferences (heaven forbid the teacher would have to stay late a few nights a week like they used to).
At my school, we do both, but we find more parents will actually come to conferences on a specified conference day.
If you think it's a waste of time, why don't you contact your local school board? Notice that in most states, the students still have to be at school at least 180 days per year, so it's not actually giving the teachers any "time off".
Teachers don't even have to drive to school when it snows, they have snow days. The parents are 1,000 students are supposed to find alternatives to watch their children or take a day off of work, because a teacher doesn't have the education to get his/her car out of the driveway (in Chicago where we have plows....)
More likely, the school system doesn't want to be sued if a bus skids, or some teenager driving to work has an accident, etc.
I'm sorry, but it sounds as if your biggest problem with the schools is that they aren't dependable year-round baby sitters.
Well, it has been almost 15 years since I was in the corporate world. Things may have changed since I began teaching school.
At that time, my company paid for 100% of my expenses for required training. If I decided to advance myself by taking optional courses, the reimbursement depended upon my final grade - 90% for an A, 80% for a B, 70% for a C, and nothing for a D or lower.
Since when does a "salaried professional" have hours and overtime? And, just what were your "hours"?
At every school I've ever seen, teachers are supposed to be on campus 15-30 minutes before the students arrive, and are supposed to stay at least 15-30 minutes after the students are dismissed.
You are correct that most teachers (at least the ones I know) work the number of hours required to get the work done, even if it cuts into "personal time."
Apparently, when the employer begins requiring one to sign in and out, to insure that a minimum number of hours are worked, one ceases to be a "salaried professional" and becomes an hourly employee subject to overtime. It's the law.
You know you're doing something right when the union reps and lawyers are PO'd.
Clearly you aren't in Pennsylvania! I live 2 blocks from one of our elementary schools (and across the street from an elementary teacher), and about 5 blocks from a middle school. The teachers not there at 0730 - they are pulling in with the buses. They're also leaving with the buses in the afternoon. The only cars around after 4:30 or so are the night janitors. When they have Back-to-School night for parents, the teachers whoosh us out the door so they can get out to the post-parents night parties.
While there are some dedicated teachers who know each students abilities because they spend alot of time grading papers, they are by far the minority. In most of my kids classes the students graded each others papers, and you had to appeal to the teacher if you thought you were graded wrong.
In the middle school and high school, with 8 class periods a day plus lunch, the teachers teach 4-5 class periods a day (that includes any study halls they have to cover), and don't have 'lunch duty'.
Last I looked our AVERAGE teacher salary was about $62,000/year, with the max up around $88,000. They only have to pay for supplies if it's something the school didn't buy ahead and have on hand.
Clearly, there are very wide variations across the country in what teachers are paid, what they do for their money, and how they are treated. Unfortunately, there aren't any easy answers to that. We need to have our school boards be more transparent about negotiations (as the School District in this article is), and have the tax-paying citizens be more vocal about what is appropriate.
Did I mention that our school district embarked on a massive rebuilding program a couple of years ago? They are replacing ALL schools older than 30 years or so. Since many of our buildings were built in the late 50's and early 60's, I just have a hard time seeing them as unserviceable. It's more about the school board wanting the best of everything, and not getting enough outrage from the tax-payers.
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