Story posted Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Board Again Asks Teachers Union To Re-Open Contract
By DWIGHT ESAU Journal & Topics Reporter
If the Maine Teachers Association (MTA) and the High School District 207 board of education can agree on the value of $2 million, maybe a lot of jobs in the district can be saved.
For the second time since the district's budget-deficit crisis surfaced last fall, the board has asked the MTA to reopen its contract and negotiate possible wage-increase cutbacks to save possibly half of the 75 teaching jobs that are due to be cut from the 2010-11 budget effective this fall.
The offer came this past weekend as the board finalized details to approve a $15 million cost reduction plan for 2010-11 that includes layoffs of nearly 150 certified teachers and non-certified staff members, among many other cutbacks.
The board faces double-digit budget deficits due to a steadily expanding gap between revenues and expenses now and projected for the next few years.
The latest board proposal offers to tap deeper into the fund balance reserve (currently at $86 million) and commit up to an additional $2 million in deficit spending in both fiscal year 20-10-11 and fiscal year 2011-12. It would save 40-45 teaching jobs, the board said in a statement.
"It is conditional on the MTA matching that commitment by lowering their overall pay increases by up to $2 million in each year," the statement says.
"The administration hopes that this recommendation will provide an opportunity to engage the teachers union in dialogue to save teaching jobs," the board says. "In order to achieve the job savings of 40-45 teachers, the MTA would only need to commit to a one-year cost-of-living freeze because of its compounding effect. The teachers would go from a salary increase of about $3 million in 2010-11 to an increase of about 1.3 million.
"However, the board remains committed to discussing any salary or other monetary adjustments in order to save teaching positions. Teachers and teacher assistants are the only district employees scheduled to get cost-of-living increases next year.
"Most teachers would still receive step pay increases, based on years of experience, in both years. All of them would receive s cost-of-living increase of 3.5% for the 2011-12 school year. The only teacher adjustment in this scenario is that teachers would forego a one-year cost-of-living increase of 3.2% for 2011-12.
"In order to save the other 40-45 teachers mentioned above, the MTA would need to consider other salary adjustments," the statement says.
The board remains committed, the statement goes on, to maintaining an appropriate cash fund balance that will avoid forcing the district to engage in the costly practice of short-term borrowing to meet payroll and other obligations.
This second "request to negotiate" proposal was made following communications from hundreds of students, parents, teachers, and other community members; most of them urged the district to either negotiate with the MTA, or spend down the fund balance, to deal with the projected deficit.
"While this proposal won't solve our financial situation, it buys us some time to do long-term planning with various stakeholders to better position ourselves to deal with these difficult economic times going forward," said Supt. Ken Wallace.
At Monday's meeting, MTA President Emma Visee said her union leadership would meet this week to consider a response, and will also meet with the administration soon.
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