School District’s Final Contract Offer Was ‘Near-Insult’

Aug. 20–In the past few years, as static state funding resulted in schools cutting programs and laying off employees, money for raises simply wasn’t abundant.

A year ago, when the Salina School District announced raises, then-board president Mary Anne Trickle described the budget as a “dry turnip,” and many raises amounted to 10 cents an hour.

Raises for the district’s top administrators averaged 0.7 percent; technical employees averaged at 2.1 percent increase, while teachers, maintenance, food service and office workers averaged 2.3 percent.

This year, the Legislature added some $290 million to school funding statewide. The Salina School District got close to $4 million of that, and district teachers were expecting more substantial increases as they entered negotiations this year.

That expectation was advised by the Kansas National Education Association.

“There will be far more money available for salaries and benefits than at any time in recent years,” stated an article in the August edition of the KNEA’s Issues magazine. The article urged local negotiators to seek raises of several thousand dollars a teacher — and also urged restoration of programs cut during recent years.

The same article stated that lawmakers intended teachers to get raises when that new money was appropriated.

Rep. Josh Svaty, D-Ellsworth, has been a consistent supporter of increased education funding, but hesitated when asked what he thought districts should do with the new money.

“I don’t think the Legislature appropriated the money for that purpose,” he said. “But I would love to see that happen.”

Two weeks ago, the Salina School District declared negotiations with the Salina NEA at impasse.

The district’s final offer included $625 added to the base used for computing salaries, plus $20 more a month toward health insurance premiums; it totals about $700,000, or an average of 4.6 percent. The Salina NEA’s proposal adds $1,700 to the base, plus $40 more for health insurance, and a one-time $200 contribution to retirement accounts. It totals about $2 million, or a 9.7 percent increase.

Cheryl Mickey, who heads the Salina NEA’s bargaining team, calls the district’s offer “a near-insult,” especially given the small raises teachers have gotten for the past several years.

“We’ve given, and given and given,” Mickey said. She said tight budgets have cut into teachers’ pay as they’ve spent more of their own money on classroom supplies.

“Keep in mind what’s not funded by the state is often funded by teachers out of their own pockets,” she said.

A recent press release from the KNEA’s Topeka office points out that the amount for raises is less than one-fourth of the Salina district’s new money, calling that amount “inappropriate,” and saying that the amount that should be available for new salaries is “closer to $4 million.”

Mickey said that shouldn’t be taken to mean the entire $4 million should go to raises.

“We’re cognizant of the programs that have been dropped,” she said.

“At the same time, flooding the market with new employees and not paying your old employees well doesn’t feel good either.”

Information compiled by the KNEA on districts that have already inked contracts for this year shows an average pay increase of just more than 6 percent, Mickey said.

“Here we are, the district that entered the lawsuit, and we get a smaller raise than many others,” Mickey said.

But the Salina district’s role in initiating the 1999 school funding lawsuit that resulted in the new money may play the opposite role.

The lawsuit was based largely on claims that recent immigrants and other at-risk students weren’t getting an adequate education; in appropriating the new money, the Legislature required that much of it be spent on programs for those students.

Salina Superintendent Rob Winter had said early in the summer that those funds earmarked for the special programs would allow the district to take back general fund money that had been subsidizing those programs. However, his final recommendation was to leave the old money there, and use the new money to enhance those programs.

His reasoning was that keeping a program the same, and simply changing its funding source wouldn’t satisfy lawmakers — and he expects many to be watching what Salina and other districts do with the new money.

“I would submit to you that the Legislature said ‘OK, you asked for it,’ ” Winter said to a districtwide staff meeting last week, adding he thinks the district will be “under a microscope” for some time.

“I agree with what Dr. Winter’s said, that as one of the instigators of the lawsuit, we will be under the microscope — I think that’s true,” said Salina School Board member Carol Brandert. “And that scrutiny is justified.

“That means we must not only just maintain programs such as bilingual and at-risk, but expand them,” she said.

The district took into account the money being channeled into various at-risk, special education and bilingual funding. There’s also increased costs for things such as fuel, utilities and worker’s compensation insurance.

After all that, the district says it has a little more than $2 million for raises and all other discretionary expenses. Those would include textbook replacement, additional staff, increasing schools’ supply budgets, replacing marching band uniforms — and raises for all employees.

“It’s not just teachers that deserve salary increases,” Brandert said. “I think they do deserve salary increases — but others do as well.”

She said, too, that much of that money is going to hire new teachers to help reduce class sizes, and to hire aides to assist teachers in larger classes.

Mickey, however, said it appeared to her that too many of those decisions were made before teacher salaries were considered, with teachers simply getting what was left.

“We feel like they cut the pie before we had any input,” she said.

“What I want people to understand is that we’re not money-hungry; the $625 won’t even cover the increase in health insurance.”

Brandert, a retired teacher herself, empathizes with teachers, but said the board is trying to do what’s best for all concerned.

“I realize it’s disappointing,” she said. “I believe the board honestly did try to do what’s best, including a special meeting to try to stretch our ‘last, best offer.’ ” At the final negotiating session on Aug. 3, the district increased its proposed salary increase from $450 to $625.

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