Fairbanks North Star Borough teachers return to classrooms without a contract
Originally published Friday, August 8, 2008 at 12:00 a.m.
Updated Friday, August 8, 2008 at 4:58 p.m.
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!Teachers in the Fairbanks North Star Borough will be heading back to the classrooms Aug. 20 without a new contract.
Negotiations in late May came to a halt when the school district and the Fairbanks Teachers Association could not reach an agreement. Both sides will now meet with a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service on Sept. 15 and 16 for a second round of talks.
District teachers will be working under the conditions of their old contract until an agreement is reached.
Steve Laroe, FEA president, said mediation will begin in September for a number of reasons. He said the association wanted its members to be able to use the days before classes began to prepare. The association also wanted its negotiation team to be in the classroom for the first week of classes.
“That week is extremely important to establish the relationship with the students,” Laroe said.
Both Laroe and Gayle Pierce, director of labor relations for the school district, said Sept. 15 and 16 were chosen because they also were days when the mediator was available.
Pierce said it is not uncommon for contract negotiations to go into a second meeting with a mediator.
Both parties said they want to finalize a new three-year contract in September, but if no agreement is reached, a third meeting will be scheduled. The third meeting consists of advisory arbitration — a hearing where an arbitrator would write an opinion about the case.
“It is our intention to come to an agreement in September,” Laroe said.
Pierce echoed the sentiment.
“We would like a settled contract that is fair, equitable and reasonable,” Pierce said.
FEA’s nine-person negotiation team is composed of teachers choosen by Laroe who have either served on prior negotiation teams or expressed interest in serving. Laroe said FEA is trying to build and maintain a strong team.
Because contract talks were suspended in late May, when both sides meet with the mediator in the fall, they will start where they left off.
Laroe said 11 issues remain unresolved — items such as health care and elementary school teachers’ preparation time.
But the largest issue is salary. When talks ended in late May, the school district proposed salary 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 — the amount given to new teachers without any experience or extra training — while FEA proposed increases of 6 percent, 5 percent and 5 percent in the same time frame.
“Both parties are trying to come to terms and be as flexible as possible,” Pierce said.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
teetchrs, hoo kneeds em?
Teachers are required to start Aug. 13, and students on Aug. 20.
1% pay increase annually? Wow! Our teachers here get 4% (in lower 48) and have for years. I was talking to a Board of Education member in yet another district who basically said their teachers were lucky to get 1.5% and almost passed out when I told her our negotiated salary increase. She said 4% in her district would bankrupt them. Of course she pays $700 per year in property taxes and we pay $4000 for a comparable home in different parts of the same state. Negotiations are no fun for anyone.
So how long before we start to hear about planned strikes
This is why my kids go to Monroe, they do more with less
a 4% COLA (cost of living adjustment) is an insult! taking into account the rising costs of energy and food the district is asking EVERY teacher to take a pay cut. If it was me i'd vote to strike
sshalaska and locobolo since the teachers are GROSELY overpaid to start with how can you think they need more ... lunacy. Cost of gas and all justifies an increase .. give me a break!
How about this instead. When the quality of the education increases and the student graduation level and performance isn't one of the lowest in the nation we can talk about more $$.
And as long as the student performance does not improve we reduce the salaries and benefits by 6% annually until they do. Now this make sense.
FEA can make no argument justifying any salary increase and the health care benefits should be reduced to cover the working employee only. Most are double dipping the system. FEA has publicly stated that they are not interested in education and that their only interest is in members pay and benefits. This group is why the borough taxes are so high.
James, there is no "E" in "grossly", and you didn't raise your hand.
Will be interesting to see what the enrollment numbers look like in the October official student count. Enrollment has been down every year for awhile and this year it may take a real hit. Watch they will want to reduce the number of children in a classroom to maintain the same number of teachers.
James...what exactly constitutes "grossly overpaid"? Anyway, I dont teach in AK if you read my post accurately so I dont contribute to the status of the education system there. I do, however, own a home in Fairbanks and contribute to the tax base. What do you do for a living and how much do you make so the public can scrutinize your profession/performance? Dont be so judgemental about something you obviously know nothing about. Or better yet, walk a week in the shoes of the average teacher before you go slamming them. There is not enough room on this post or time in a day to address your ignorance about the status of education.
Support staff got a percentage raise higher then what teachers were offered, administrators got an even higher raise. The district offered teachers a zero percent raise over three years, and didn't budge on that till arbitration was the next step. Yes teachers are one of the largest portions of the districts budget... but shouldn't that be?
I think all parents would be very unhappy if they were paying $600-800 per month for their kids to be in daycare, I wonder what kind of education they'd have at the end of 18 years in day care? If teachers were paid by the student, lets say $800 a month month for their kids to be in daycare, I wonder what kind of education they'd have at the end of 18 years in day care? If teachers were paid by the student, lets say $600 a month per student, multiply that times 25 students you have $15000.00 a month salary. In 9 months a teachers salary wold be 135,000.00. Hmmm very interesting. What if we take a teachers salary of 50,000. a year and go in reverse? 50,000/9= $5555.55 a month, divide by 25 students= 222.22. I don't think teachers pay any taxes or health care or anything else!! they get all this money!! Sound like a tall tale? It is. Parents is that a good deal for day care for your children? I know I'd be happy to pay that instead of the 1500.00 a month I pay during the summer for my 2 kids. Teachers are highly educated and need to be paid accordingly. To bad teachers can't change their pay like doctors, who are also highly educated, both have to constantly take classes and pay to keep their licenses. JEEZ
James, you obviously don't have a clue what you are talking about. Grossly UNDERpaid is more like it!
frozen:
"I don't think teachers pay any taxes or health care or anything else!!"
You are completely right that his is a tall tale. Why in the world would teachers not pay taxes? They are not exempt from ANY taxes. And teachers do pay for health care. My spouse is a teacher and last I looked several hundred dollars per month were being taken out of his checks for health care. There at least two health care options, so different teachers pay different amounts. Teachers also pay to be represented by the union and that's a couple hundred dollars per month (I believe -- I haven't examined a pay stub in a while).
You can find more info at a couple of sites, which may be slightly biased but do give some standard information:
http://www.aft.org/salary/index.htm
"The AFT teacher salary survey for the 2004-05 school year found that the average teacher salary was $47,602, a 2.2 percent increase from the previous year. The report asserts that, to make teacher pay competitive with pay in other professions by the end of the decade, teachers need a 30 percent raise—an additional investment in our children’s future of almost $15 billion per year."
http://www.nea.org/student-program/about...
List of beginning and average teacher salaries. Alaska's average is higher than the median, but not the highest.
I think it is time that the school district take a good look at the education system it has developed. Vacation from mid May to almost the end of August, plus how many vacation days during the actual school year. It is time to reduce vacation days and increase the number of days students are in school. It seems teachers who are there for the betterment of student education would have no trouble with expansion of the school year and limiting the actual time students get off to say six weeks a year.
It is comments like James's that infuriates me. Spend a little time in the classroom, particularly at the middle and high school level. There are so many factors involved that make this one of the most difficult jobs out there. Just because I love the job and the kids damn sure doesn't mean I'm here to be walked on. I'm ok with what I make, and I have a job to do. But to say I'm 'overpaid' is not just untrue, its ignorant. Whatever. I'll be there on the 13th, all the armchair 'teachers' can scrutinize my job from afar. Won't change the way I teach writing.
Teachers have 2 summer months off. Teachers are paid their salary on 192 teacher workday year. Increase the workdays; you're taxes will go off the charts.
Anch had a 4% increase and they still can't fill the slots; I think most contract increases are around 2%/year with bonuses added in.
Palin wanted to use some of the oil windfall profits to stabilize state employees retirement fund which is headed towards default. Many years back our legislators cut state's agreed contribution to fund; teachers, school districts, members continued to make their contributions to the fund. Now the fund is broke, wonder why? School districts are being rocked by increasing retirement fund costs, to keep fund solvent. Our legislators are responsible for this mismanagement. At least Palin sees the writing on the wall when the truth is told and realizes members of her own party are responsible. We are lucky to have a Gov who continues to do what's right. The districts are being forced to cover retirement fund shortfalls, taking money away from education.
We have seen many changes in our schools over the last 25 years. Teaching isn't the easiest job out there. Until you have spend some time in the classroom; you can't begin to understand. All our problems concerning education go directly back to the family, upbringing of children, and when they took discipline and teachers authority out of our schools. Look in the mirror Alaska.
I don't think teachers are overpaid or underpaid; just know that it's a tough job most people couldn't handle.
Some teachers I personally know (my spouse and some close friends) actually are passionate about their profession and strive to give their students a top-notch education (i.e., actual learning and interesting content besides the same meaningless worksheets that have been regurgitated for 20+ years). However, this often means the teacher ends up working hours beyond the normal classroom hours (late nights prepping, weekends spent working and grading, etc.). It is not a 35-hour a week job when you factor these things in. Now, if teachers like this were paid for all that time, then I would actually argue they are paid fairly for their hard work! Until then, I will continue to argue they are overworked and underpaid, and especially under-appreciated! I agree with fstmm - armchair "teachers" are just that - they are not teachers, and they are just raising unfounded issues about things they have very little clue about!
Not to mention "no child left behind" and all that goes along with that as the govt requires more but continues to take away money to do it with. A child with an IQ of 70 is held to the same standard on state proficiency testing as a child with an IQ of 170...content standards, proficiency testing, no child left behind, children who come to school hungry and tired, parents who dont return phone calls, increasing student/teacher ratios, discipline issues, documentation, continuing education, absences...they must love it but it is a tough job.
How many other people out there work many extra hours for a set salary. Welcome to the real world. there is nothing special about working extra hours in a profession.
I thought education was suppose to be about the needs of the students, not the teachers. The numbers in this school district regarding graduation and drop out are way below the norm. By the way, the State of Alaska pays the majority of the bill for education, not property taxes. Also the argument that teachers will leave is getting old. We already know it is the students who are leaving every year.
Under no child left behind, a school district that has failed to meet standards for the past five years (this borough) can have the State take over it's education system. It is time to demand that this school district stops making excuses and starts showing acceptable results.
FreeDarfur, aside from the summer break, which is similar to most summer breaks taken by other school districts, I have found that Alaskan schools do far better on taking vacation days than others. I have an aunt who teaches in California. her district takes a whole week at Thanksgiving compared to our two days, they're off for a week in February and a week in April as opposed to our one week in March, they seem to take every holiday that comes along as a day off (Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, etc).
Alaska's more compact school schedule tends to reflect the fact that many families have summer commitments such as fishing, and that many families find that summer is the only time they can get away to visit family in the Lower 48 for any meaningful amount of time.
Not to mention that increasing the overall number of school days would increase the cost of education.
Grrr....here we go again. All of the naysayers just climb right out of the woodwork as soon as there is an article about police, fire, or teachers. I swear that some of you would not be happy until those workers are on welfare or, better yet, become all volunteer. Of course, they will be the first people screaming when their house gets burglarized or burns down.
And please, everyone, stop responding to James and his insipid comments. All he does is demean and degrade others. I have yet to see him post a positive comment about anything.
I will say it again...if these jobs are soooo easy and the benefits are sooooo great, then why is it so hard to recruit and retain people in those positions??? And if your pay and benefits are soooo bad, why not become a firefighter, trooper, or teacher???
Fairbanks has some of the best teachers in the country. They need to be paid accordingly. Volunteer in a classroom for a day. You will agree.
Freedarfur...I am sure you have no idea what it means to "meet standards" which is probably contributes to why you are so negative about teachers. As someone asked James above, "What do you do for a living and how much do you make so the public can scrutinize your profession/performance?" Like James, I am sure there will be no response.
BigMike
I was not in favor to approve the firefighters contract. I think they are way overpaid as well
akmom3 I'm retired and have in my life achieve a PhD. I can ensure you I never said I was negative about teachers , as a matter of fact I have taught at a college level. I said the manner in which education is delivered needs to be looked at. As far as my salary, it's called a pension and having had the ability to invest wisely I am well off.
I would advise you to look at issues rather than people.
As a mother of 3 if this is what your name is implying, one would think you would want to ensure that your children have the finest education necessary to compete in not only the US, but the world. The numbers in this borough do not reflect that they are receiving what they deserve. It is necesary to question in order to make sure that improvement is made. The constant battle over wages, deflects from the education system itself.
They deserve a contract. The School District has paid professional staff to handle this. They need to get it taken care of. If our pay and benefits are to low to attract good candidates then we need to improve them.
However, I do get a little tired of hearing how hard teachers work. Nearly everyone I know works hard at their job, but teachers have a very short work year. Someone posted here 192 days...that is 68 fewer days than a full time job. Teachers also have the considerable luxury of working largely without oversight, you could be a very bad teacher in this district and finish a full career and retire with the same pension as the best teacher in the district. Try that at most any other job.
Get them a contract so we can get on with business.
Look on line and check the numbers and check out Teacher's benefits in Alaska. Fairbanks has 917 teachers and experiences a 10% turn over yearly. Fairbanks has one of the lowest turn over rates in the State. Under the State retirement system, teachers can retire after 20 years of service for all Tiers. Pensions for Tier 1 start at age 55, Tier II 60. Teachers can receive pensions and work another job under certain circumstances. Some can even teach again.
Do you think maybe the years of service for pension benefits may have something to do with turn overs. If one starts at 24 by the time they are 44, they have met the 20 year requirement for a future pension. They can then go on into another career and work towards another pension.
The only reason that fire fighters and teachers get lumped together is because there are those out there that dispise unions. The unions job is to fight for what they think is fair for their members, as well as protect their members. That is all!
The majority of teachers work hard and do a great job in the classroom. They deserve a new contract with raises to keep up with the cost of everything!
woodman, I know of very few teachers that start teaching here at 24 and retire after exactly 20 years. Many teachers work well beyond their 20 years. Many don't start teaching till later in life. Many come to Fairbanks (or Alaska) after several years in another state and start their 20 years mid-career.
Fairbanks is a transient town. With the military, the university, and the surrounding villages, there's lots of movement in and out. This not only affects that teacher turn over rate, but also those graduation rates we keep hearing about as well. It's a challenge in many facets of community life here in the Fairbanks area.
Give the teachers the pay raise they deserve - at least 4%! 1.5% is a joke and an insult. I bet the superintendent and assistant superintendents don't have any financial worries with the increased fuel costs, etc. They get paid way off the scale and yet they aren't the ones we entrust the education of our children to.
The teachers who have been in the system for a long time (>15 years) are the teachers that are expensive. And, most of them are worth it. Alaska attracted some awesome teachers many years ago because Alaska paid so well and had such an excellent benefit package. That isn't so anymore. Now, I doubt that we are attracting as high quality of teacher(s). My kids are going through this school system and I want them to be competitive worldwide.
No Child Left Behind is one of the biggest obstacles to good education because, as one commenter pointed out, they use the same ruler to measure all kids. I'm sorry but a kid with an IQ of 70 will never achieve the same education as a kid with an IQ of 170. If they do, then we are doing a huge disservice to the kids with IQs of 170 and to society as a whole. We must accept both children and help them to have good lives in jobs that they are capable of excelling in. Not all kids are the same and shouldn't be educated as if they are. I'm not saying that we shouldn't give them all opportunities but that we realize they won't all excel in every case. What the Alaska dept. of ed is doing about it is to lower the standards on the state test. That makes the kids with the IQ of 70 look proficient and the kids with the IQ of 170 look like geniuses. Unfortunately, it isn't doing a damn thing for the kids or this country except ruining it.
I taught high school for 2 years before I left to pursue a graduate degree. I loved it! It was the best job ever - but I despised the administration which was trying to get me to dumb down everything so that every kid could succeed in AP Biology. I'm sorry but not every kid can succeed easily in AP Biology. I worked upwards of 70 to 80 hours each and every week during the school year. I deserved the summer off and our teachers do too. You people who bring up, "Teachers have 2 months off" are simply ignorant about the reality of teaching and jealous as well.
Give the teachers the raise they deserve or I promise I and many other parents will picket side by side with the teachers against this school district.
I hope the teachers get the 5, 5, and 6% raise they are asking for.
I never get sick of hearing the public praise our teachers.
I wish I could become a teacher, but I lack the talent to facilitate learning. In the western world we dump our children off to one adult for the majority of the day and this person is given the task of educating 20-30 students at a time. This is an amazing feat considering in other cultures the ratio of educators to students is more like 1: 5 rather than 1:30.
I believe the strongest factor affecting the shape of our society is the way our children are educated. If we want a strong society we must attract talented individuals to educate our children. Furthermore, our community should recognize that teachers’ salaries must reflect the dramatic cost of living increases.
I have kids in the system here and I feel the need to volunteer at the school 3 or 4 times a week.
The teachers are very much over worked. It is because of the "No Child Left Behind" fiasco!!
A friend of mine calls it the "NO CHILD GETS AHEAD"
Anyone in a position with my kids future in their hands should be paid a whole lot more.
We need to do more for our kids.
I agree the teachers need a contract. They need a fair wage. To answer an earlier question, the schools have only 10 full 5 day weeks in each semester and 8 weeks of four or less days. I recall attending school 5 days a week except for Federal Holidays, Mid term and spring break. The number of teacher work days is ridiculous by comparison. Teachers have a thankless job. But the job isn't to prepare for teaching, it is to teach day in and day out. Why can't they use the time after school, recess, or music to prepare for when they have students the way our teachers did? These are professional teachers and I have considered it as a second career. More than one of my kid's teachers have taken sick days because they don't want to lose the paid sick leave time. Such common government practices are why I prefer self employment.
12 months of pay for 12 months of work. Fully fund the FEA contract, only teachers will no longer get the summer off but instead be required to teach summer school as part of their normal job description.
Or......
Make the raises performance based. Fully fund the contract, but instead of blanket raises the good teachers will get bigger raises and the crappy ones can go get new jobs.
I think Pavel has hit a point. I have no problem paying a teacher a good salary, but it should be based on performance as with any other job. My only beef is that once a teacher becomes "tenured" it is almost impossible to get rid of them if they are not good, based on what I have seen. Teachers should be paid according to how well they perform. The people on this post who complain that they have summers off, hey, you picked your profession and they picked theirs, so I'm not sure why you would complain about it.
Teachers do have a thankless job, as well as many other professions. I know I cannot teach because I do not have the patience for it. For all the good teachers that taught my kid, and I will say that we have been blessed so far with excellent teachers, thank you. I know it was not easy.
A couple of points pavel. 12 months pay for 12 months work would be fine with most teachers I know. Currently, teachers get paid 9 months pay for 9 months work. Teachers would have no problem working a year round schedule if they were getting compensated for those extra days.
Secondly, merit pay sounds great on the surface. But how do you determine who is good and who is not??? Test scores? Parent input? How do you define success in a classroom? There are just too many variables that affect a child's education, most of which have nothing to do with the classroom teacher.
I know people think it is impossible to fire/discipline teachers after they are tenured, but I assure you, that is a myth. Plenty of teachers are disciplined and fired. You just don't hear about it because of privacy issues. Be aware that just because you, as a parent, have a complaint, doesn't mean a teacher is going to get disciplined. Again, many things happen behind the scenes that most parents will never find out about because of contractual privacy issues.
Teachers get paid a full year salary for 9 months work, scroll up to the post about the 47k a year average. That is more then most make for an entire year of work.
Everyone wants pay raises and I certainly don't begrudge the teachers for wanting one. They have a thankless job, a very important but thankless job.
But doesn' obviate the fact they get paid more in 9 months then most get in 12. Which doesn't bother me, it is a perk of the job and my suggestion was more tongue in cheek on that matter.
I'd love to see them be highly paid, it would attract more and better teachers and allow the schools to get rid of the bad teachers and improve the overall education of our nations youth.
Performance based raises and they should be fully funded. Across the board raises and according to the test scores (yeah, I know) they really deserve a pay cut.
http://www.anxietycenter.com/subversion....
Guppie9,
So, based on your logic, we should not come up with a system to reward good teachers and weed out the bad ones? Most jobs are going to a "pay for performance" raise system, why shouldn't this be any different? If I was a teacher that was doing a great job, I know I would be upset if another teacher who was not up to par was making the same amount as me. There are so many ways to do an assessment, taking many factors into account to determine pay raises, that there really is no excuse for this group not to be going to this system.
I know alot of great teachers in the borough who should make more than they do. I also know a couple of them who really have no business teaching. An assessment would weed these people out and reward those who deserve it.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.