Question 3 for School Board Candidates: What Needs to Happen With The Teachers' Contract?

The biggest issue facing Saline Area Schools these days is the budget. Last June, even after layoffs and concessions from the teachers’ union, the district borrowed from its rainy day fund to balance the budget. Now, on top of identifying ways to cut costs to balance the budget, the district must pay back the $1.5 million borrowed from the fund balance.

After years of concessions from support staff and administrative staff, the district is looking at the expiring Saline Education Association contract as an opportunity to find some of those savings.

According to the 2009-10 Bulletin 1014 issued by the Michigan Department of Education, the district’s teachers are the highest paid in the county and among the highest paid in the state.

It’s not an accident. Even though Superintendent Scot Graden is trying to win concessions from the teachers’ union, he acknowledges their value.

“From our standpoint, we want to be able to compensate our teachers to the greatest extent possible. They do an outstanding job and get an outstanding result,” Graden said.

Former SEA president Tim Heim, in an interview last summer, defended the compensation received by Saline Area Schools teachers.

“What do the parents of this community expect? Great schools and great teachers. (The district) always hires experienced teachers. We don’t to hire teachers to develop them,” said Heim. “We’re not a farm club.  Manchester is a farm club. Camden Frontier is farm club.”

And according to Heim, teachers, along with engaged parents and bright and motivated students, are why Saline is a big league school district.

“You talk about great schools anywhere and we stand right with them. We graduate 99 percent of the kids and 90 percent of them go on to colleges. 75 percent go to four-year colleges. This district is a college factory,” Heim said. “People might not think of us like that because as long as their children are getting an ‘A’ in physics, they’re happy. If they’re getting a ‘C,’ then how is their child going to get into the University of Michigan?”

Still, the district up against the wall and pressing for concessions.

“The reality is the market has shifted and we need to look at all ways to contain our costs,” said Graden. “I think all of us in education have needed to look at what we are making, from a salary and benefit standpoint and adjust to a new reality,” Graden said. “As we sit down with our teachers’ union we’re going to have that conversation—similar to the talks we’ve had with our support staff and administrative staff over the last couple years.”

How has Saline managed to pay its teachers like Ann Arbor despite having a funding source more in line with Dexter and Chelsea?

Graden said the district has been able to afford it, in some measure, because the district is thrifty in virtually every other area.

Essentially, those administrators and support staff have rolled back salaries to 2008-09 levels. Support staff salary and benefits have been cut back so far that, according to Graden, privatizing the services no longer seems financially attractive. While Saline's teacher pay ranked eighth highest among Michigan school districts, Saline's spending on administration and business ranked 755th among school districts. Spending on operations and maintenance ranked 427th.

"There's just not much else to cut in these areas," Graden said. 

Graden estimated that if teachers accepted the same rollback as administrators and support staff, the district about $1.2 million annually.

Last year, when the district was trying to balance its budget, Graden asked the teachers, who were still under contract and not obligated to give anything back, for $1.5 million in concessions. The union agreed to pay 10 percent of its health care benefits.

Critics, including school board candidates David Zimmer and David Holden, said the district didn’t ask for enough, and that the teachers didn’t give back enough.

New state legislation will require that number to jump to 20 percent, or require that the district cap health care expenditures at $15,000 per employee.

New SEA President Juan Lauchu said that teachers and the district are back at the bargaining table.

“No decisions will be made anytime soon. The tone of the meetings is positive and open-minded. There is a sense of collaboration and dialogue that is limiting the crisis and emergency tones that some may interpret and emphasize,” said Lauchu.

The following data comes from a 2009-10 report from the Michigan Department of Education.

Here is today's question:

What needs to happen with the next teachers' contract and how do you plan to get it done?

Due to the fluctuating economy and the structural deficit we currently find ourselves in, both labor and non-labor costs need to be adjusted to meet revenue. We need to look at a shorter term deal and know that everything is on the table. Teachers and administration want to work together and having an open, collaborative climate in the district will be conducive to that end.

Actually the administrators, support staff as well as our teachers contracts are up for renewal next year. This creates an opportunity for us to systemically address the structural deficit we face as a school district. As part of the systemic assessment, we must address our broken operating model that we have as a district.

This broken model is the result of a decade long short term fix approach toward managing our financial obligations, without stepping back from the daily routine and looking at the longer term needs of our district.

We need to focus on our core charter of providing a high quality education for our young people, financial stability, and ensuring our educators have the tools they need to do their job. We need to build our budget from that point of view. This also requires us to focus on the short term and long term needs at the same time. For far too long, we have sacrificed our long term objectives for short term and the self created “crisis” in our annual operating plan.

As a current board member, addressing this issue is somewhat subject to the Public Employees Relation Act. Once again, as an individual board member it is not prudent to make claims that one can not achieve. We have a Board of Education, not a me or an I.

Upcoming negotiations will be subject to the economic realities, that have been dealt to the district by the State.

There are certain elements that must be contained in the new agreement including:

1.  Flexibility and future cost certainty is essential so we can identify what expenses will be in an environment where revenue from the state and federal governments is unpredictable at best.

2.  Healthcare Reform – The MESSA insurance is not competitive and needs to be eliminated and replaced with a direct carrier. The District should manage the contract. Comparable coverage can be provided at a significant reduction from the current MESSA rate.

3.  Merit Pay – Recent legislation will place metrics on teachers. If those metrics are achieved in whole or fractionally we have a formula where the teacher is compensated based on achievement.

4.  Hire additional teachers – Part of the good faith of the new agreement is that a percentage of the cost savings be used for the hiring of additional staff. This will aid in reducing class size.

(Thursday, we ask candidates how about the infrastructure needs in the district)