Problems Leading Up to the EASD's Proposed 11.85% Tax Hike: Part IV - Teachers Union Contract

Posted by: Noel Jones


DISCLAIMER #1: I am the daughter of two teachers, so no one believes in teachers getting paid what they're worth more than I do. 


DISCLAIMER #2: I fully appreciate the fact that without unions we would not have any such thing as an 8-hour work day, a 40-hour work week, overtime pay, a lunch break, vacation pay, sick pay, or maternity leave.


That said, I have a really big problem with the idea of teachers in Easton insisting on a 5-year contract that guarantees them 5% raises each year until they are making $73,000 in a town where the average mean income is $33,000, during one of the worst economic downturns our nation has ever seen, when many residents are either unemployed, in fear of losing their jobs, health insurance and homes, or at the very least, taking pay cuts. I also have a problem with those same teachers insisting that taxpayers should pay for 12 credits of grad school for every interested teacher.


To see what any teacher or administrator in PA makes, click here. Keep in mind that school board members do not get a dime--not even a stipend. The newer members who are not responsible for this disaster and are trying to ask the right questions and suggest responsible cuts, need our support.


Now, technically, teachers are protected from layoffs by their union contract. But what can be


cut by the school district to give taxpayers relief is programs. While I am told that many classes are crowded (30 students) there are some classes at the high school that have very few students at all (I am told the Russian class only has one student), and if we cut those programs, the teachers' salaries, benefits and pensions go with them, saving taxpayers money. When board members say the hike is due to pensions increases and the teachers union's refusal to re-open negotiations, I have two questions with regard to the teachers contract:

1. Who on the board voted for this contract and why? (see the Express Times article below)
2. If the union is refusing to re-open negotiations, in flagrant disregard for the disparity between the raises and free grad school their teachers are getting and the reality taxpayers are living with in getting laid off and taking pay cuts, then why not put program cuts on the table? If the teachers are so stubborn and self-righteous that they won't give an inch on their raises, maybe they'd prefer a dose of the reality that many taxpayers--the ones they're squeezing--have had to face this year and lose their jobs altogether?

Please read the Express Times article below for more color on this issue--note the role of Board President Pat Fisher, who blames everything on the EASD administrators, and had no problem attaching the addendum for the teachers union contract to the agenda five minutes before the meeting was to start. And only two board members (new members) refused to vote--can you imagine? The majority of the school board thought it was OK to vote this contract in without even reading it? Seriously, these people have got to go. Also note the administrators who were architects of the deal--we have to ask ourselves, why were so they eager to push this through? One has to wonder what was in it for them, because there was certainly nothing in it for us.

Board: Contract vote was rushed EASTON AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT in financial trouble; new agreement with teachers blamed for mess.

By COLIN MCEVOY The Express-Times

FORKS TWP. | On Dec. 20, 2007, the Easton Area School Board was handed a copy of the newly proposed teachers contract about five minutes before the school board meeting began.

Six board members voted that night to accept the contract - the first time they saw it. Officials are now saying it could drive the district to bankruptcy within three years if action is not taken.

Although board President Patricia Fisher said the responsibility ultimately falls on the board's shoulders, she also said the administration gave the board little time to review the contract and little understanding of its future impact.

"You trust your administrators to do what's right," Fisher said. "If the school board had to scrutinize everything down to the dot that came through to us, we would never get anything done, so you trust your people that are heading it that this is the thing you have to do."

Union officials have refused to reopen renegotiations for the five-year contract, which is in its first year.

Officials said last week if teachers do not renegotiate, the district might have to cut courses and up to 60 teaching positions.

But Kevin Deely, president of the Easton Area Education Association, said not only did the school board approve the contract, but school administrators were its main architects.

Deely said the district approached the teachers union about the contract because it was concerned with the number of teachers quitting the district, and officials wanted a contract that would help keep their current teachers and attract high-quality new ones.

District officials never discussed the contract at a board meeting prior to Dec. 20, 2007. Board members Kerri Leonard-Ellison and Jodi Hess asked to table approval to more thoroughly examine the contract, but board members rejected the motion.

"To give eight board members five minutes to look at a contract for the first time is inappropriate, and I'm not signing my name to anything I haven't read," Leonard-Ellison said. It was the first board meeting for Leonard-Ellison and Hess, who were elected the previous month.

Although the contract did not need to be approved until June 2008, Fisher said the board did not table it because the administration said it should be approved by Dec. 31, 2007.

Deely said that was because teachers were waiting for the information to become finalized before determining whether they would retire.

Fisher said, in hindsight, it would have been better to table the contract and look at it more thoroughly.

"Yes, absolutely, we should have been more involved," she said.

The main negotiators for the district were Assistant to the Superintendent Joseph Kish, then the acting superintendent, and then-Business Manager Jeff Bader, who has since left the district to become business administrator for the Harrisburg School District.

Kish declined to comment, and Bader did not respond to a message left at his home.

Fisher declined to blame anyone by name, but said the administration at the time failed to explain the full impact the contract would have on the district's future.

The board was told teacher salaries would increase by an average of 4.96 percent each year of the five-year agreement. But Fisher said it was not explained that those increases could be significantly higher based on other factors, including a teacher's specific salary steps.

The starting salary for Easton Area teachers will grow from the current $41,300 to $54,063 by the end of the five-year contract. The average salary will grow from $53,644 to about $73,000, although teachers at the top of the pay scale will be making $99,000 in the contract's last year.

The contract also included 100 percent compensation for up to 12 credits of higher education courses the teachers could seek each year.

Fisher said Bader originally budgeted $200,000 for college courses. But interim Business Manager Marie Guidry said more teachers took advantage of it than expected, and it ended up costing the district more than $750,000 this year.

"Never did we plan, which is stupid of us really, that teachers would go out on a limb to get more credits and make more money like that," Fisher said. "That we didn't plan for."

Guidry said state-mandated pension contributions are projected to increase from 4.76 percent to more than 20 percent by 2012, which has also made the contracts more expensive than anticipated.

Reporter Colin McEvoy can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at cmcevoy@express-times.com.