Teachers union, school district suspend contract talks
Published Thursday, May 8, 2008
The school district and teachers union have suspended talks for the summer after failing to reach an agreement during a three-day period of mediation.
Talks between the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and the Fairbanks Education Association started Tuesday and were scheduled to end Thursday to allow teachers time to review the agreement.
At the beginning of the negotiation process, the school district offered a three-year agreement with step movement — an increase in salary based on experience and training — each year and no increase in the base salary offered for new teachers with no experience or extra training. It also offered a stipend of $1,900 for teachers not eligible for step movement.
FEA countered with a one-year agreement and a 6.9 percent increase in the base salary.
Gayle Pierce, director of labor relations for the school district, said both sides have come to tentative agreements on smaller issues during the mediation period but larger issues, such as student activities sponsorship, health care, lesson plans and teacher transfers and reassignments are still being discussed.
According to a press release, the primary issue for the two groups is salary.
At the end of the three-day mediation period, both parties proposed a three-year agreements with step movements each year. Both sides came closer on their salary proposals but could not reach an agreement.
The school district proposed increases of 1.25 percent for 2008-09, 1.5 percent for 2009-10 and 1.5 percent for 2010-11 in new teachers’ base salary, while FEA proposed increases of 6 percent, 5 percent and 5 percent in the same time frame.
Both sides will go into mediation in the fall, but the current contract expires June 30.
Pierce said the same conditions of the 2005-2008 agreement would still apply, although teachers would be able to keep advancing through the step movement concurrent with their increased experience.
Spokespeople from FEA were unavailable for comment at press time.
Comments
6%, 5% and 5%
WOW, I need to become a teacher
Means nothing without the starting figures, hcky. A hundred percent increase from $1 is just $2. Teachers around here are making less than animal control, from what I've heard.
Preston_Lancashire ... you heard wrong then. Teachers make a fabulous wage and more than $44/hour as an actual pay for their time. How much do you make? You need to look at the entire package. What really needs to happen is that their salary needs to be cut about 25% across the board to bring it more in line with the rest of the nation. They as a group are just like the tree huggers taking an inch at a time. Screaming save the children, must invest in education, education is the future, etc. All the while what they were really saying is I want more money and the heck with the education. They are turning out kids from the FNSB schools that are illiterate. Of course there are some fine teachers, but as a collective group, FNSB schools are pretty poor and the kids are the ones getting short changed.
Let’s look at the package and see how these underpaid folks are barely getting by and why they need more money.
Some basics or you can read it yourself here. It is a sweet heart deal out of the taxpayer pocket and they want more: http://www.northstar.k12.ak.us/index.php...
Practically free health care worth about $800 a month (for $26/month), great pension that they make a token contribution to, vacation pay, 1400 hour work-year, sick leave, I don't want to go to work today leave, I think I’ll go to Europe (sabbatical) and study art) with pay.
The average cost per pupil in the FNSB school district in 2006 was a whopping $10,957 each per year! Of that, 81% was teacher salary.
It cost more to send a kid to Fairbanks public school/per semester than it does to most universities including the U of A.
Teachers get FULL pay when serving jury duty or similar activities.
Teachers get free life insurance
Teachers get practically free ($26/mo.) quality health care insurance that would cost more than $700 a month of after tax dollars for working people.
Teachers get a minimum of one sabbatical leave (gone for a year) with ½ pay and full health care benefits.
The average pay
"Teachers around here are making less than animal control, from what I've heard."
If that's true, they need to decertify the teachers' union and get better representation.
God I love disinformation.
I am a teacher.
I pay almost $300/month for healthcare - not $26.
I make about $33/hr - not $44
We get sick leave - just like almost every job
I get 3 days of personal leave a year
My 1400 hour work-year is what I get paid for - I would say that most weeks, I work an additional 5-8 hours that I don't get paid for
I have to pay for my own college classes just to keep my certification
The free life insurance that I get is equal to my base salary - thats not that much
In my 5 years in this district, I have known exactly 1 person who took sabbatical leave.
James, here in the United States of America what you are describing is a very ordinary union job. In this
state citizens are free to organize and by doing so are able to secure for themselves a lower middle class
stable income with benefits. I get tired of listening to these people bellyache about teachers pay.
They live in a fish bowl and have to deal everybodies poorly disciplined darlings. Would you want to do it?
If you do get your butt to school and start jumping through all those hoops.
In the meantime try looking hard at your government that wants to put you in direct competition with
people in foreign countries working for dirt cheap wages.
More teacher bashers. I encourage you to become a teacher if it is as "rosy" as you say it is. Don't just sit there and complain about how good we got it, become one so you can be on the high horse! You have no clue what we do, nor does it seem you really care. It is much easier to be an arm chair quarterback than it is to be the real one.
The figures also indicate a high drop out rate among students in the Borough. Yes there are good teachers out there, but there is something very wrong with a school district that does not have a good rate of success in motivating our youth to stay in school and get a good education. The argument needs to be focused on do we continue to pay for a system that is a failure. We seem to pay quite a bit for little in return. Economically it doesn't make sense(learned that in school).
The drop out rate may be high, but also take into account how many children and families leave due to military. When I graduated from Lathrop High School I believe my class' dropout percentage was 61% from our freshman year to our senior year. Outrageous! I know.. but its mostly because when a student starts there as a freshman, odds are they arent going to be there when they are a senior because they are forced to move per their parents being in the military. And I'm sure this happens at other schools too..now don't get me wrong there are kids that just completely drop out as well, just not realistically as many as the statistics say.
So dont be so quick to point the finger at the teachers all the time..
think about it this way... average certified union plummer in fairbanks gets paid around $80,000 per year with great pension and health care...average certified union teacher get's $48,000 per year with average pension and OK health care.... so we as a society value two things that start with "S" differently... hint the one worth more is NOT "Student."
The dropout rate is misleading, because it counts a dropout as someone who starts 9th grade in the borough but does not finish 12th grade in the borough. We have a high military population, and the military has a way of moving their people around. So when a military kid starts 9th here, and moves before he graduates, this student would count as a dropout, regardless of whether that kid goes on to graduate in Texas or Germany or wherever. Statistics can really be made to support any viewpoint, and this should be taken into account when you are forming an opinion.
suomi,
"there is something very wrong with a school district that does not have a good rate of success in motivating our youth to stay in school and get a good education."
When did it become the sole job of the schools and teachers to motivate students? My parents had high expectations of me that were communicated to me at home, on a regular basis. Parents are a huge part of the equation here, and they are often the missing piece. Parents hand their kids over to the school and expect the job to be done.
As for drop-out rates, not only are we a military town, but just a transient town in general. Families move into town for a parent to attend the university. Rural families move in and out regularly. People move to Alaska only to discover they hate it here, or need to be closer to elderly relatives or whatever. Yes, students dropping out IS a problem. But it is a multi-layered problem that can't be fixed by teachers alone.
Invest in education: send your child to private school where you get what you pay for.
I see Guppie and Borderdog are hard at work preparing for their students. If you have to spend so much extra time to get your job done, what the @#^%#$ are you doing on this site instead of doing what you are overpaid to do?
guppie9 ... you're wonderful. You are precisely liberal I complain of. Lets be real about the continuing education. All professional licenses require CEU’s but only teachers are impossible to fire for poor performance. I have two of them and I know. The “college classes” to maintain your certification are almost nothing. Don’t mislead people … here is the rule: A seminar a year and a couple of other nick knacks takes care of it all.
A TOTAL OF SIX SEMESTER HOURS OF CREDIT ARE REQUIRED FOR RENEWAL OF A REGULAR 5-YEAR CERTIFICATE. UP TO THREE NON-ACADEMIC CREDITS OR CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS MAY BE USED TO RENEW A REGULAR 5-YEAR CERTIFICATE. NON-ACADEMIC CREDITS OR CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS WILL COUNT AS LOWER-DIVISION CREDITS TOWARD THE RENEWAL OF A REGULAR 5-YEAR CERTIFICATE. THREE UPPER DIVISION OR GRADUATE LEVEL CREDITS ARE REQUIRED FOR RENEWAL.
NON-ACADEMIC CREDIT OR CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS MUST BE RELATED TO THE ENDORSEMENT AREA(S) ON THE CERTIFICATE WHICH IS BEING RENEWED.
THE COST OF EACH NON-ACADEMIC CREDIT OR CONTINUING EDUCATION UNIT IS $50.00.
As you know when you take these “college classes” you kill two birds. You obtain the CEU’s and you move horizontally on the pay scale … the old double dip … lol.
Well maybe you are paying $300 for health care but it must be some super coverage for you and all of your family. You get health, major medical, eyes, dental right … right. You also get $560/month tax free towards that coverage right … right. You forgot to add that in your $33/hour figure. Page 12 of the contract. I have JUST major medical with a $1500 deductable and it is $750 a month for me and the wife. We have never been sick either!
The facts are the facts ... read them for yourself.
Borderdog you miss the point completely, and you're a teacher?
The issue is that the teachers want more pay while performance declines and while they are already overpaid for what they do and the time they spend. This is a simple concept.
Soumi … excellent and you stated that very well. I agree.
They are trying to be a voice of reason. Teachers are not overpaid, unions are not a bad thing, the sky is blue. Invest 4-6 years of time and tens of thousands of dollars in an education then get a job that allows you to be abused by kids and parents alike. Then get bashed by some nameless internet slug. I think we should hold the parents responsible for kids passing the tests and the drop out rate. Teachers should be able to teach not parent a unruly mob. The reason private schools do better? Parent involvement pure and simple. Let me see…skim off the kids from homes where education is a priority. Where they have enough money for private school. Of course they will do better.
Again with the insulting comments.
h2os - As if it is any of your business, but I have been off sick the last few days. Probably something I picked up from one of the kids. You know, those kids that parents just dump off at school with a 102 degree fever because they don't want to take the time off of work to actually take care of their child. I had a child vomit in my classroom a few months ago and when I called the mother, she said to give her a plastic bag and keep her in class. Wonderful!!!
James - I have yet to see you post anything positive about anything. You seem to complain about everything. I am sure that you think you know what you are talking about, but I know what comes out of my paycheck every two weeks. Yes, the school district pays a portion of the monthly premium. Most private businesses I know do the same. I don't know anyone who, when asked about their pay, adds benefits into their hourly wage. That is just asinine. Those college classes cost about $300-$400 a class because they have to be graduate level in order to move up steps. While they may count towards certification, if you want to move up with the district, they need to be graduate level. That means that I spend somewhere around $2000-$3000 every 5 years just to maintain my certificate. I don't know many people that have to spend that much just to maintain their license. For instance, I have some friends who are nurses, and they spend about $100 for CEU's every 2 years for their license.
I also love that myth about teachers being impossible to fire. That is just plain bull. Check with the State Board of Professional Practices that deals with license revocations and suspensions all the time.
So again, I guess just like on the other thread, I think I am done here. People like James who are completely anti-teacher are going to keep on posting uninformed opinions and slamming on things. I am not going to waste my time refuting all the false information. People either value teachers and the job they do or they don't. I highly doubt that anything I say or do is going to change his mind on the subject. And you know what they say about arguments on the internet...
they are just ones and zeros...
most teachers i know are paying back student loans of $35,000 or more + interest.
teachers
pay tens of thousands of dollars to become a teacher
help parents and students who care about their education achieve more
ensure total safety for our children
provide our children with high quality education
grade fairly
protect them from bullies
use their own money to buy things that will help our kids learn
do not use the language that our kids use
help kids who are disruptions while keeping others on task
plan properly
pay attention to every student 100% of the time
keep each and every one of our children engaged and focused on learning 100% of the time
help the students who really want to excel become the best that they can be
help the students who are in school to socialize and visit with friends achieve local state and federal standards.
live and work by a long code of ethics
do not spank or correct our children even with our supervision
one spanking with a paddle was all it took for me to not ever deserve one of those in school again
take attendance
stop others from disrupting our childrens' learning
deal with some angry parents
live and provide for their families with a pay raise that does not even match the rate of inflation over the last couple of terms
work often times until late in the evening without any normal or overtime pay
take kids on academic and sporting events while assuring their complete safety day and night
help kids achieve who miss a lot of school
and this is just scratching the surface
perform a job that is never ending... there is no such thing as 9-5, there is always something else that needs to be done
one assignment multiplied by 120 kids a day multiplied by one week, one month, one year.
and this is just scratching the surface here because they do care about our kids
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