Concessionary contract with Saline teachers union saves district $2M in cuts
The Saline Board of Education approved a two-year contract with the Saline Education Association Wednesday at a special meeting.
Superintendent Scot Graden said with the new contract in place, nearly $2 million in cuts will be avoided for 2012-13.
Juan Lauchu
Negotiations with the district’s two remaining collective bargaining units, the Saline Area Schools Administrators Association and the Saline Education Support Personnel, are ongoing. Their contracts will expire on Saturday.
Board President Lisa Slawson said she is incredibly grateful to the teachers union for “stepping up big time.”
“Times are tough, but what they did was ensure the stability and the future of Saline schools — and we don’t take that lightly,” Slawson told AnnArbor.com in a phone interview following Wednesday’s meeting.
The Saline Education Association agreed to reset compensation levels to account for $7.5 million in concessions over the course of the new two-year contract. Graden said in a statement, this was an important step in returning Saline to a financially stable school district — “which is critical for our students, staff and community.”
“This agreement keeps us as a desirable employer, while significantly reducing our costs moving forward,” Graden said.
The agreement was reached between himself and SEA President Juan Lauchu. The two met Tuesday night after the regular Board of Education meeting, at which trustees passed a $48.6 million budget that called for about $3 million in cuts. It targeted $2.6 million in staff reductions, including 16 to 17 SEA member layoffs, two administrator layoffs and possibly privatizing as many as 100 support personnel.
"Juan came to the table with a sincere interest in helping Saline Area Schools," Graden said in a statement. “He is passionate about the community, and his willingness to work out a concessionary agreement reflects his commitment to the students and community.
"I look forward to working with Juan as we continue to keep Saline Area Schools as a world-class district."
Graden added with cooperation from the remaining bargaining units and the Michigan Senate, the district may be able to avoid staff cuts completely for 2012-13. For that to happen the Senate would need to take action on July 18 when it returns from break and approve the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) reform bill, which passed in the House of Representatives and would freeze districts’ employee pension contribution rates at about 24.5 percent of their total payroll.
Slawson said she cannot comment on whether the administration will continue to look at privatizing support staff, but she did say she believes the concessions Wednesday from the teachers union at least warrant “getting out the pencils again and redoing the math.”
Rita Engle, a Saline bus driver and member of the SESP negotiations team, told AnnArbor.com it is her understanding the district has solicited bids for outsourcing bus drivers, custodial staff, office secretaries and the buildings, grounds and maintenance department. She said paraprofessionals were not included because they are considered instructional staff.
“(District leaders) want $830,000 in concessions from us, but we’ve already given that twice in the last two contracts,” Engle said. “This is my third contract and every time the district approaches (the negotiations) with their hands out, wanting something from us given … but after this contract there would be nothing left, no extra perks we could give up.”
She said the negotiations team is meeting with Graden, the attorneys and school administrators at 10 a.m. today. The negotiations have been pleasant, up until the last meeting when the administration was adamant about “threatening concessions or privatization,” Engle said.
Slawson said she does not anticipate there will be any additional special meetings this week pertaining to collective bargaining agreements.
“Although I suppose if something were to come up (Thursday) … that we would not discourage them from bringing back a tentative agreement.”
Staff reporter Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.
Comments
ekimecir
Tue, Jul 3, 2012 : 3:04 p.m.
I hope that I am around long enough to see how the debate on public education plays out. I certainly hope that at the very least that we succeed in teaching kids how to do well on standardized tests
Tom Todd
Thu, Jun 28, 2012 : 11:38 p.m.
Wow big savings now the Administration can get Huge raises.
Poorman
Tue, Jul 3, 2012 : 2:33 a.m.
Why did people vote down the fact stating the administrators cut their pay back to 08 levels last fall? This is a huge sacrifice on the administrators part as well. They took the pay hit last year when others wouldn't and they have to take cheep shots like Tom's. Reference articles to facts get voted down for their defense. This looks kind of biased SpamBot..
SpamBot1
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 3:27 a.m.
@Tom Todd Saline is not Ann Arbor. There is not much administration to give a raise to. Saline is very lean at the top.
Poorman
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 1:45 a.m.
Among many concessions, teachers agreed to roll back salaries to 2008-09 levels. Last fall, school district administrators agreed to roll back salaries to 2008-09 levels. http://saline.patch.com/articles/board-teachers-agree-on-two-year-deal?logout=true
Poorman
Thu, Jun 28, 2012 : 7:48 p.m.
Sellers, the Saline teachers are among the highest paid teachers in the country. Not really needing a non-profit fund to survive. Let's not go too far, see the attached link for 2010 Saline wages. This should have been done last year instead of the $1,000,000 increase in teacher's pay given while the district was running a deficit. http://jaymcnally.com/saline-area-schools-employee-wages-for-2010/ That said, I am extremely impressed by the sacrifice Saline teachers have made for the school district and it's students.
Poorman
Tue, Jul 3, 2012 : 2:16 a.m.
Thank you. I keep coming back hoping to find that someone has posted the average Saline teacher wage, average Michigan teacher wage, and what the state budget gave to education over the past decade or two. This not a challenge, but only a request that we may find the truth if the sources I reference are incorrect. These teachers care for the kids and they deserve to be paid above average. I would support a tax increase if justified. I am strongly against an unbalanced budget, especially when the Saline teachers were taking raises while the school was running a deficit, when the teachers were supposedly being paid significantly above other districts in Michigan. This comment string is likely closing soon. Please help if you can...
Chris Hall
Tue, Jul 3, 2012 : 12:42 a.m.
@SpamBot1 You repeatedly say that Poorman's data is biased, and he repeatedly asks you to prove that it is, but you aren't providing any contrasting data. From reading these comments I'm left with the idea that Poorman's data might be wrong but at least I can look at it. It seems incontestable to me that Saline teachers are paid well - and that seems to be the point he's making - that we should not paint this situation as something that it clearly isn't. I have several good friends that teach in Saline, and while they have told me about the sacrifices, they haven't told me they're planning to look for jobs anywhere else.
Poorman
Sat, Jun 30, 2012 : 1:07 a.m.
Spam bot, please provide unbiased data then. I am only after truth and a balanced budget for the school. I am not tring to justify any agenda. I checked some of the numbers regarding the budget and they appear correct. I did not have time to check 20 years of state budgets but a spot check was accurate. I let the data make my opinion. It looks like teacher salaries and benefits have grown while the State's tax revenue has shrunk.
SpamBot1
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 3:21 a.m.
@Poorman A better discussion would happen if we all started with unbiased information. Your link from JayMcNally includes wages earned from teaching, coaching, drivers education, marching band, and everything else that a teacher might do. The Mackinaw Center is a CLEARLY biased think tank and their work is completely tainted by their far-right ideology. Like much of the misleading statistics out there, the Mackinaw study creates their own metric for comparison. The use of "Relative state wealth" is not a widely accepted methodology because I think Mr. Van Beek made it up to support his ideas. I am sure you know that Michigan Capitol Confidential is just the press wing of the Mackinaw Center.
Poorman
Thu, Jun 28, 2012 : 9:53 p.m.
I thought it was obvious. Michigan had the highest teacher salaries in the nation when salaries were adjusted to state income. This is the income funding the teacher's wages. http://www.mackinac.org/12781 The average Michigan teacher salary was $57,958 for 2010. http://www.teacher-world.com/teacher-salary/michigan.html Saline teachers are paid more than $10,000 / year above the average Michigan teacher's wage. At $68,615 in 2008. It is actually worse, the numbers would have gone up for saline if we adjusted for 2010 per the prior contract. Note in my link above, there are 165 SEA teachers making over $80,000 per school year. That is about half of the teachers in the district. http://www.mackinac.org/12613 http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/archives/epi/contracts/81120_2012-06-30_SEA_WCEA_MEA_E.PDF Good teachers, I agree. Underpaid, worthy of a charity fund may be a bit of drama. I have provided data for you, now maybe you can help me. Can you show me where kids learn more or perform better on tests if teachers are higher paid? All of my searching shows very little correlation. Why don't we pay based on performance?
The Wind Cries
Thu, Jun 28, 2012 : 8:39 p.m.
You state "Saline teachers are among the highest paid teachers in the country", yet your link does not contain any data that supports this statement. A list of wages doesn't even demonstrate a comparison of wages in that many of the top paid teachers are also coaches, club sponsors, class advisors, etc. All of these additional activities take teachers away from their families so they can do for our children. Again these are things that provide the families of Saline excellent opportunities that in many cases are not offered in other districts. Consistently Saline is among the highest performing schools in the state, I am sure that this level of performance can be attributed to parents, students, staff, and facilities. I believe this might be a case of you get what you pay for, yes they are compensated well, but they also provide results. I for one am happy with the level of comment that Saline staff provides and appreciate the sacrifice the teachers have just made to their households so that our children can continue to receive the same level of service, education, and opportunities that our state legislature and governor expect, but are not willing to pay for. Thank you Saline teachers, administrators, and support staff for all that you do for my child.
sellers
Thu, Jun 28, 2012 : 3:35 p.m.
This is a sad state of affairs and can not continue. Our funding model, or spending model, or the whole model is need of review from top to bottom. This is not unique to Saline, Michigan, but rather something going on around the country. Funding of schools has been an issue before any economic issues, and is just aggravated by such. Families move to areas for a few reasons, and education systems is often listed in the top of those reasons. I'm tempted to start a non-profit fund for the sustainment of teaching and academics - I wonder if folks would donate like they do to the wildlife fund, or UNICEF or United Way??
Poorman
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 : 9:29 p.m.
Billy bob, To select an auto company that is supporting your state or country, select the ones that employee the most Americans. "Ford, GM and Chrysler are just three of 16 major global automakers competing in the U.S., but they employ two-thirds of America's autoworkers: This is because four out of 10 Chrysler, Ford and GM employees are based in the U.S. At Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai/Kia, BMW, Daimler and VW (the seven largest foreign automakers), only five in 100 employees are based here". More American employees = more tax revenue for the schools. http://www.americanautocouncil.org/industry-facts These numbers are even stronger for the big three regarding Michigan state taxes, as the foreign transplants are in southern states. Only aprox 25% of the cost of your vehicle goes to assemby labor. Much more goes to the technical development and other technical positions. We are uneducated labor for foreign companies. Realize, it is almost impossible to accurately classify the percent of parts American made in a vehicle. Development in Japan, raw material from South America, sub-assembled in Texas, ... These calculations are difficult and manipulated. Just lookup American or Michigan employees and support the company with the most. This is far and away led by GM and Ford. The sale for any vehicle from these companies goes to feed that payroll. Foreign companies would like you to use the percentage calculations and they don't bring up the relative low number of Americans they employ. Not much tax base for Michigan Education comming from foriegn autos...
Billy Bob Schwartz
Sun, Jul 1, 2012 : 7:30 p.m.
Excuse me, Poorman...would you please name a "Michigan made car" for me? I mean one that is manufactured in this state. I keep reading up on it and finding that most "Michigan made cars" contain huge percentages of parts manufactured in other countries, or certainly in other states, and there are Toyotas (for example) that contain more North American made parts in them than some Chevrolets, some of which use a very high percent of Chinese made parts. Or do you mean we should buy American (or Michigan) NAMED cars, which is s different thing altogether?
Poorman
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 10:56 p.m.
I think adequate funding is very subjective. We may never agree on what is adequate. I would just like to stay with unbiased data. The budget shows a very consistent percentage of funding for education and even an increase in the last two years of concern. My only bias is for not running a deficit.
SpamBot1
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 4:36 p.m.
@Poorman My point is that the way you are measuring things is biased. The measuring stick you are using was selected to advance your particular view. If you are going to try to make the argument that schools are adequately funded, you should provide the quality, unbiased research to support it.
Poorman
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 11:05 a.m.
Spambot, Please provide you unbiased source for the percentage of the mich budget that went to education over the past few decades. This data I referenced is directly from the state budget, but I would gladly use a better source. I am not for or against Snyder, I only found it interesting that he actually increased spending on education, given the funds that he had. He is always shown as against education.
SpamBot1
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 3:26 a.m.
@POORMAN A better discussion begins when we used unbiased research. The "US Government Spending" is the statistical analysis of a proudly conservative blogger. I do not think we should consider his work authoritative. It is math, with percents and everything. Most would question whether his political leanings allow him to produce quality analysis.
Poorman
Fri, Jun 29, 2012 : 2:39 a.m.
Michigan budget has had the following percentage for education.. 2012. 35% going to education 2011. 35% 2010 34% 2009. 33% 2008. 34% 2007 35% 2006 35% 2005 36% Max since 1992 was 38% in 1999 only happened once Min since 1992 was 33 % in 2009 under Jenny http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/statelocal_spending_2009MImn There is no plot against education. It has been a steady percentage in the budget for the last 20 years, actually increasing under Snyder. It is increased costs in payroll and pensions that are the issue along with Michigan's tax base going down. The best advice would be to by a Michigan made car and get your costs in line with the tax revenue.