It is two pages of small print comparing districts by Step and Scale.
Nazareth is highlighted throughout and of the 25 comparisons, Nazareth has the highest pay in 6 of them and is 2nd highest 9 times. Parkland, which is often noted as the district teachers leave Nazareth to go to was in the first or second highest paid position 7 times total compared to Nazareth's 15. The IU and Saucon Valley were the only one's seemingly higher than Nazareth, and twice I've heard that Nazareth is most like Saucon during these discussions.
What strikes me as important is the starting step - attracting teachers and ending step - keeping teachers (this is also what the pension is based on). So here they are:
Step 1, Bachelors
- Parkland: $43,300
- Northampton: $40,900
- Intermediate Unit $40,821
- East Penn: $40,100
- Nazareth: $ 39,656
- Saucon: $39,092
- Easton: $38,920
- Bethlehem: $37,818
- Whitehall: $37,721
- All Others: Between $ 37,050 and $34,000
Max. Step Max. Salary - (District, number of steps, top salary.)
- Intermediate Unit #20: 22, $80,799
- Saucon Valley: 14, $78,545
- Nazareth: 16, $78,083
- E Penn ( Doct.): 16, $77,500
- Pen Argyl ( Doct.): 21(16), $75,340
- Bethlehem: 16, $74,624
- Parkland: 15, $74,200
- Northampton: 15, $72,900
- Wilson: 16, $72,560
- East Stroudsburg: 16, $71,490
- Pleasant Valley: 17, $70,800
- Stroudsburg: 12, $70,000
- Easton: 15, $68,875
- Pocono Mountain: 15, $68,762
- Bangor: 13, $68,625
- Whitehall: NA/ NA
11 comments:
Wow. Holy smoke. The District is going all out to make their case, aren't they?
I went to the site and looked at these numbers. The two biggies are the bachelor's and masters base pay grades. At step 5 and above for both of these Naz is either 1st or 2nd in terms of $$$.
Who/what exactly is the NAEA comparing themselves to? I am very dissapointed that I haven't heard more from the NAEA describing EXACTLY what they want.
I'll state this again (ad naseum it seems), but we've only heard from the District. But from everything we've heard, it doesn't look good for the NAEA. From what I have seen, they don't really have any argument or a leg to stand on.
Maybe it's time for the NAEA to extend some type of consession (an olive branch if it were) to try and save some face. Or they can continue to rally the troops (the people who blindly support them even though they haven't heard any details as to what exactly they want) at rallys and board meetings...
Yes, we need to hear the teachers side of the story. However, I have heard from the teachers that the board is not comparing apples to apples. The steps in our district are not the same as the steps in other districts, so the salary analysis is not an accurate comparison.
Come to the meeting on 10/10 and hopefully several teachers will speak out.
The steps are not detailed enough and the comparsions are not a true reflection of the districts' salaries for comparsion. I know teachers at Easton and steps and salary are different.
I am happy that the district is being completely open with what is currently there and what is being offered.
All I keep hearing from the teachers side is that the district is wrong and that their comparisons are not valid, but have yet to see one single supporting fact or request offered up from them other than they are paid less than other surrounding districts and their benefits are bad. Both which seem to have been disproved based on information available to the public and presented within this forum.
I will give you that the steps may indeed be different, but has anyone performed an analysis that also compares the school day length? Nazareth appears to me from my basic research to have a shorter school day than any of those to which the teachers have been comparing their situation.
So, if we break it down to an hourly rate, I am not sure our teachers are making less.
With the shorter school day, looking at the total number of hours of instruction, on a weekly basis, our students are receiving approximately half a day of instruction per week less than surrounding districts.
and Nazareth.
Comparing elementary schools between Nazareth and Parkland, there is a 30 minute difference in the day. So, that equates to roughly 90 hours less instruction per year.
On an hourly basis, here are my calculation based on comparing Nazareth to Parkland elementary schools (which is what the teachers seem to be using as their benchmark), using 1080 hours for Nazareth (6 hours per day for 180 days) and 1170 hour for Parkland (6.5 hours per day for 180 days).
At the starting level hourly rate:
Nazareth: $36.72 per hour
Parkland: $37.01 per hour
For a difference of 29 cents less than Parkland teachers.
At the highest end:
Nazareth: $72.30 per hour
Parkland: $63.42 Per hour
For a diffence of $8.88 MORE than Parkland teachers.
So, for an apples to apples comparison, I think this breaks it down to the lowest common denominator, which is the hourly rate for the same job at both levels.
So again I have to ask, what do the teachers really want?
It is time for the teachers to put in writting why they are so upset with the current offer. until the public sees it in writing the public will side with the school board.
I do not support the way the bard has acted on several issues, and I think it is time for several of them to be voted out. However, the teachers need to make known what they want....stopping hiding behind general statements and put your requests in writing so the public can see both sides.
The district comparative analysis is not what it seems. A teacher who is currently on step 12 of the salary schedule (the person I know has 13 years experience at MA+30), will be moved back to step 8. If that teacher compared his/herself to others on step 12, the difference is round abouts $10,000- money isn't really the issue- it's the fact that with "compacting" the district is taking away their 4 years experience. It won't effect new people coming in, but is sure isn't a great way for admin to say- hey, we respect what you are doing! Teachers don't appear to be a valuable commodity. Medical co pay raises also aren't the issue- it is the fact that everyone has to pay on a percentage of their salary. And because the money isn't equally distributed through the scale, that means some people end up with a 1% increase after the deduction.... and in some cases a loss. Is it fair that the longer I work in the district, the more I have to pay toward insurance, even though my family grows smaller? There are many things that the district present that look good on the outside, but aren't so good on the inside. Take a closer look before you make judgement, and I think the boards response to teachers at the board meeting will give you a big clue as to why the issues are ongoing.
Pay cuts and increased insurance costs? Sounds like what the rest of us have had in the corporate world for years now. Plus, we can be let go on a moments notice, no questions asked.
If that is the main argument, then I am sorry, that is just life and I cannot get behind it.
The "compaction" issue won't fly with me either because it was brought up at the last board meeting (when a teacher was talking about going from a 12 to an 8) that the compaction was presented by and agreed by the NAEA. So you can't say it's the board that is shoving a pay cut at the teachers.
Until I hear exactly what the teachers want (specifics people, not just generalizations and unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo) I am behind the board...
I get the basic ideas that some steps were reduced, but I think this issue will need to be simplified for everyone outside the negotiating teams to better understand.
If the comparisons are not fair or accurate, it has to be clearly explained in plain terms, otherwise people will look at these charts as I did and think there isn't much for the Nazareth teachers pay to be compared to.
Again, I didn't look that closely, but is it a safe assumption this is self-reported data? Did the school collect this or is it available by some third party?
Finally, is anyone else surprised that IU 20 is as highly paid as it is?
I'm not really surprised about IU20. The Colonial IU covers a huge area. Most of the people there travel from school to school. I would think you'd need to pay a little more if you expected someone to travel that much.
Someone above brought up that the medical insurance premiums didn't make sense in that they had to pay more as their family got smaller.
Well, as your family gets smaller, you are undoubtedly getting older. It's a fact of life/business that older people cost insurance companies more money. This is how it works at most businesses.
A company negotiates with a provider based on the overall size of the employee pool and the AVERAGE AGE. The rates are the same for everbody, even though the older people are costing more. On the flipside, does it make sense that my premium is the same as the older people in my company? The average age at my company is somewhere around 50. I don't use my medical insurance as much as them but I pay as much....
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