Teachers’ union, school district to meet Monday night
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
With two different sides using two different formulas – coming up with different proposals with differing sets of rules – it’s no surprise that the Burlington Area School District might need a little time to figure out a decent mix of apples and oranges.
Whether it will take more than Monday’s scheduled meeting between the Burlington Education Association and BASD to iron out the pay raises for the 2011-12 school year remains to be seen.
BEA president Bill Berkholtz expressed optimism Tuesday.
“I hope not,” said Berkholtz of the prospects of drawn out negotiations. “I think when it comes down to it, I hope that within the law, we can get a fair settlement.”
Berkholtz said the difference really lies in how each side approached the numbers.
“I think part of the problem there was some disagreement,” Berkholtz said. “Both sides talked about steps and providing money for each person and in each cell.
“I think there was some disagreement about the mathematics,” he added.
BASD Superintendent Peter Smet said Tuesday that the two sides simply used different formulas for approaching the one item left for public unions to bargain for after Act 10 – salary.
“Prior to Act 10, when there was a QEO (Qualified Economic Offer) law, there was a specified formula,” Smet said. “Now there is no specified formula.
“It is a complex thing,” he added. “There’s multiple ways of looking at it.”
Or, as he asked rhetorically, “How do you predict the future?”
Berkholtz agreed on the complexity.
“I think it can be a very complex thing to examine where people are in the old schedule,” said Berkholtz, referring to the steps and lanes salary schedule used through 2011-12. That system will eventually be phased out.
Berkholtz said the goal of the union is to provide money to the younger people making steps and then distribute the rest to the other staff members.
The School Board and the BEA are set to meet Monday at 6:30 p.m. in closed session. Smet was optimistic the process would be expedient, but whether it would be finished before the Aug. 27 annual meeting, he wasn’t sure.
He felt that the two issues – the 2011-12 salary and the 2012-13 operating budget that is subject of the annual meeting – should be considered as separate entities.
“They’re unrelated,” Smet said. “We’re dealing with two separate issues.”
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