From One Teacher's Perspective

While not the official Union position, I did receive a note from one district teacher outlining the individual's perspective on the contract and negotiation breakdown. Again, this is not the official position and may or may not reflect the opinions of others. Having said that here it is in its entirety:

Here are some points that I believe that you should make public. I am a teacher in the Nazareth School District.

I am proud to teach and live in a district that has such a reputation for excellence in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. The teachers in the district want this to continue. At this time, Nazareth teachers' salaries are below other comparable school districts in our area. To remain competitive and continue to attract and keep quality teachers in our district we (the taxpayers) have to be willing to pay salaries and benefits that are at least equal to our neighboring districts. There was one teacher who left this year after teaching 2 days at Nazareth to accept a position somewhere else for an $8,000.00 increase in salary. Parents who have students in the district, if you want your children to continue to have the same quality education and test scores, you need quality teachers. As teachers retire or leave for better salaries, those positions may be filled by teachers who were not able to get the jobs at the higher paying districts. The teachers who are then hired at Nazareth may use it as a stepping stone, rather than commit completely to the district, like those who have come before them, for their entire careers.

As far as the raise percentages, I have three things I'd like to clear up. The first directly relates to the first paragraph. The 4.% raise that is offered does not bring Nazareth up to competitive levels with the other districts. When administration felt they were not paid the same as those same neighbors, they received an average of 8.33% raises to make their salaries more competitive. The second problem is this not a 4% increase across the board. The school board wants to increase the salaries at certain steps more and less at other steps. Some teachers will actually receive a reduction in pay with the benefit deduction. The third issue is that the cost of benefits is a percentage of our salary. If the raise would be 4% and benefit deduction is 2%, there would only be a 2% raise. The cost of insurance does not change with salary however, the veteren teachers will be expected to pay more for the same benefits with a percentage schedule.

If you look closely at the contract and news release you will also understand some of the reasons we were unable to reach an agreement. First the contract... At the top of every page there is an addendum to the contract for certain steps (these are the levels of experience for which we get paid). This addendum reads:

Note: Steps ___ will be $1,500.00 less than the salary listed below. The $1,500 is a one time adjustment for those steps.

Unfortunately, this note is printed on every page of the salary schedule and is therefore not a one time adjustment. A contract should correctly state the salaries that will be paid. Again, if you look closely at their proposal, there are steps the salary is cut at the fourth year of the schedule. Finally, look at the news release that the district and school board released. The animosity is quite apparent and was apparent through the entire process.

The school board did not negotiate with the union using fair tactics. They refused to sit in the same room as the union negotiating team. They refused to meet more than twice a month to settle the contract and even then, board members did not show up for the meetings. They would make an offer then rescind it at the next meeting. In June, the school board decided that they no longer wanted to negotiate with the teachers and hired an attorney to do the negotiations for them. This attorney is an additional cost to the taxpayers as it is being paid out of district funds. At the last meeting on Sep. 21 that ended at 4:00 AM, the board already had their 2 offers printed out on the computer by 4:18 PM on Thursday. The union spent 11 hours negotiating in good faith with them, not knowing that they had already determined before the meeting even started what the board's final proposal would be. The board let the meeting go on for 11 hours just to say they tried for 11 hours to reach an agreement.