LETTER: Teacher Contract Negotiations

The following is a letter to the editor. To submit your own, email michael.ryan@patch.com

By Carolyn Therrien

With the ever increasing school budget, I wrote to the school board on October 5th concerning the teachers contract that they were negotiating. 

One of the responses was "Have you shared your perspectives with the WEA?" and another was: "have you shared your concerns with the teachers?"  I decided to share my perspective/concerns with everyone after just reading on the Patch that "This year's default school budget shows a 3.46 percent increase due to increases in New Hampshire retirement rates, health insurance, transportation contracts, special education and the SAU 28 split... This year's operating budget is a 1.12 percent increase above the default budget."  

Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 21:09:54 -0400
Subject: Teacher Contract Negotiations
To: banderson@windhamsd.org; mfarrell@windhamsd.org; swimmer@windhamsd.org; jrekart@windhamsd.org; mjoanis@windhamsd.org
CC: asteel@sau28.org

Dear School Board Members, 

I read on your website: "The Windham School Board (WSB) will enter into negotiations with the Windham Education Association (teachers) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) (Council 93, Local 1801 - Instructional Assistants) and reach agreements with both groups by December 2012."

It is my understanding that Mrs. Stephanie Wimmer and Mrs. Michelle Farrell will be the lead negotiators for the WEA (teachers) contract. As you seek to find common ground, please keep in the front of your minds that the economy is tight, and many families are already suffering financially due to the increases in our school taxes over the past few years, and some have even lost their homes.

I assume the negotiations will be challenging. The teachers union will have the support of seasoned negotiators armed with selective facts and statistics. Your fiduciary responsibility is to approach these negotiations on an equal footing and to achieve a balance; I believe it would be fiscally responsible for the school board to consider hiring an educational and negotiation expert who could also bring facts to the negotiating table regarding current trends in other towns in our state and across the country.

As our School Board, your mission is to maintain high quality education while keeping costs as low as possible. Our town taxes have remained virtually flat in the past four years, while over that same period our school taxes have skyrocketed.  I believe it should be the goal of the School Board to keep our school taxes flat as well. Before going into negotiations, a prepared matrix of all the salaries/benefits of a large number of similar school systems in NH for comparison would be beneficial. It should be noted that other school systems (Londonderry) have done such things as implementing half steps in the step raises. In NH there have been numerous layoffs, and real school crowding issues (40 kids in each class in Manchester), so there should be a pool of qualified teachers who would desire to come to Windham. I understand Windham Principals constantly receive highly qualified resumes but seldom any vacancies.

It should be noted that communications to the taxpayers regarding the contract should make it clear how much salaries would be adjusted yearly in the contract duration. In the past, it was deceiving to say the previous teacher's contract had a 3% annual raise, when there were also step raises of 3% which meant that some teachers were obtaining an effective 6% annual raise.

Many people in the private sector have seen decreasing salaries over the past few years.  Teachers have been laid off in Merrimack, Winnisquam, Bow, Franklin, Manchester, Concord.  It is time to ask the teachers to be reasonable in these extraordinarily difficult financial times.

In addition to salaries, I am concerned about the heavy cost burden that Windham currently pays toward employee benefits. It is my understanding that, if continued, some of the health insurance policy choices in the future will be considered "Cadillac Plans" under ObamaCare, and therefore be subjected to additional luxury taxes -- potentially causing the cost of benefits to increase substantially.

I believe it's reasonable to compare the percentage of health care premiums private sector workers in NH pay on average and use that as a goal for our teachers. It is time to look at the average cost of a family plan in NH and pay no more than that for our teachers. It is unreasonable in this day and age to even consider 100% paid premiums for any of our public sector workers, of which many in the school system currently enjoy. In addition, I suggest you seek employee contributions that match the average paid by those in those in the private sector.  If our teachers would like to have dental coverage, they should be required to pay 100% of the premium, and you should hold firm to that position.  In the private sector, dental insurance is optional and inmost cases paid for by the employee.  Alternately, the school board should explore and compare the plans our other town employees have. I believe the cost per person on health insurance in the school system far exceeds the costs at the town level.  In fact, I am dismayed to see that our school budget sets aside as much as $40K per teacher for benefits. 

All components of the compensation package should be reevaluated. It is my understanding that Professional Improvement Course Reimbursement is exceptionally high in Windham: $100,000 per year for tuition reimbursement, and an additional fund that exceeds $100,000 per year for all teachers with a $600 max per teacher  to satisfy their professional education requirements.  It appears that other towns reimburse somewhere between $150 and $300, and many do not offer anything or a much smaller cap. The Course contract language is very lax -- with no stipulation in the contract that the teacher even has to pass the course. Many other school boards require at least a "B" to reimburse and the course either has to be pre-approved by the superintendent; or the contract states that the course taken needs to be appropriate for the teacher's specialty. There is neither such stipulation nor any employment commitment regarding length of stay after accepting reimbursement. Our fire fighter's contract requires a minimum grade plus continuous service for a set period of time after reimbursement.

Teachers appear to be well compensated for extra-curricular activities. Has the actual annual hours worked and the number of students served in each activity been quantified by a study of the extra-curricular cost per student per hour? Perhaps some curricular activities may need to be scaled back or the pay scale for the activity may need to be adjusted downwards.

Pensions are on the increase. Effective July 1, 2013, NH Retirement System (NHRS) increases Employer Contribution rates from 8.80% to 10.77% for employees and from 11.30% to 14.16% for teachers. This is another built-in cost increase to the taxpayer over the life of the new contract and subject to more increases. Unions argue that lawmakers cannot alter the terms of their retirement benefits from the day an employee starts. If true, it is imperative that in the event the NHRS adopts a Defined Contribution Plan the contract stipulates new employees will be required to participate.

I would like to hear your thoughts regarding the above and the following:

Have current negotiations begun?

If party leadership changes in November, "Right to Work" may become law. Will this contract be flexible enough for non-union teachers to be hired? It should.

Will you seek to keep the current budget flat?

Will you consider the impact of any possible health care luxury tax that could be imposed under ObamaCare when calculating future costs to taxpayers?

NH has requested a waiver from the "No Child Left Behind Law," in regards to teacher evaluations will you consider negotiating performance rather than just tenure? Does the WSB have comparisons of total teacher compensation and performance of the students vs. other school systems?

Who will be negotiating on behalf of the taxpayers?

Appreciate your response.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Therrien

Windham, NH