Apples to oranges

Teacher pay proposals take different paths

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

In order for the local School Board and teachers union to get down to serious negotiations on wages, they’ll first have to make sure they’re speaking the same language.

On Monday, the Burlington Area School District Board of Education and representatives from the Burlington Education Association – the teachers union – exchanged proposals that will retroactively set the wages for the 2011-12 school year.

The two sides met briefly in open session to exchange the documents and then convened into closed session at the request of the BEA to begin paving the way for negotiations.

The first step in that process, BASD Superintendent Peter Smet said Tuesday, is making sure the sides are comparing apples to apples.

At first glance, however, it appears the sides are facing an apples-to-oranges comparison.

The school district’s offer calls for teachers to receive a .44 percent raise in base pay at all salary levels.

The union offer calls for a total salary increase for all represented staff of $247,000 to be distributed as follows:

• To pay the increment cost on the 2010-11 salary schedule structure;

• Apply the remainder dollars as a percent to all pay steps;

• Review the need to have between-year salary placements; and

• Establish a committee to review the timing of the flexible spending plan, health insurance rate changes and employee share of those costs.

Because the respective offers are structured so differently, Smet said it will take some time for the two sides to digest the proposals and make valid comparisons before moving forward.

“We put in a percent and they put in a dollar amount,” Smet said. “Neither side is right or wrong – we just have to clarify the differences.

“We’re going to take their proposal and put it in our format and they’ll do the same.”

As is the case with most negotiations, Smet acknowledged that both sides developed their offers to give their respective camps the most advantageous position.

The sides met for a little more than an hour Monday and adjourned with making significant progress. That is not unusual, according to Smet.

Until both sides are comfortable they are speaking the same language when it comes to money, there won’t be much movement.

“(In the meantime) there’s not a lot going on,” Smet said. “It’s just a process we have to go through.”

The two sides are scheduled to meet again Aug. 20.

BEA President Bill Berkholtz told the Standard Press last week he didn’t expect the process to take long once the serious negotiations begin.

A new world

This is the first time BASD and its teachers are negotiating under the terms of the collective bargaining reforms instituted just over a year ago with the passage of Act. 10.

That law limits negotiations to wages only.

Like many school districts throughout the state, BASD held off negotiating a contract for last school year until the impact of Act 10 was realized. In April –10 months after Act 10 passed – the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission finally provided school districts for guidelines to negotiating under the new provisions.

“We’re not alone,” Smet said noting that the majority of the school districts in the state must negotiate pay for 2011-12 before moving on to the 2012-13 school year.

Under the new rules, districts can only contract one year at a time.

With the new school year just weeks away, it’s no secret that BASD has budgeted for an average pay increase of 2 percent for the 2012-13 school year.

Whether that comes to pass, however, hinges largely on the outcome of negotiations for last year and the influence of two new School Board members who have spoken against pay raises for teachers under current economic and performance conditions.

Click the following link for a pdf of the initial district and teachers union proposals:

BASD CONTRACT PROPOSALS