In response to my school budget
post I received an email from a County teacher, attached was a message (s)he
had received from Superintendent Foose after the passage of the budget.
Paragraph one of the email says:
“I am pleased
to let you know that the Board of Education has approved the Operating Budget
for the 2015-2016 school year. The budget totals $776.3 million, which is $3
million above the Board’s budget proposed in March, and includes $11.5 million
for salary increases. “
Two
statements I think are important here. First and foremost the $776.3
million that she declares is $3 million above the Board’s proposed budget in
March. Now, unless I am reading this wrong (pg. 67 of the document specifically)
that number is exactly what the Board requested. To get precise the
number requested was $776,338,380. I will not speculate whether
this is a misreading of their own numbers or misleading the teachers.
However, it clearly supports, in my opinion, a false narrative set up in this
email.
The
second important statement is the $11.5 million included for salary
increases. That’s more important in the narrative with the addition
of the next paragraph.
“I am
especially pleased to announce that you will see a pay increase in your first
July paycheck. This increase will include a half step as well as a cash payment
equivalent to a half step”
Both of
these statements together appear to be at least implying, “hey we got you the
raise you were whining about.” Unfortunately that is not actually the
case. See that $11.5 million for salary increases is to pay for the
raises agreed to in the last contract. That is money (which funds the
pay increase on the first July paycheck) the Board of Ed is contractually
obligated to pay the teachers. If they did not have that money in the
budget, they would be in direct violation of their legal agreements.
There is
no money in the approved budget to offer any raises in the current contract
negotiations.[1]
Had the amendments I discussed here [2]
passed there would have been but those amendments failed with only the
cosponsors supporting.
So now
the Superintendent and the Board of Ed appear to have gotten exactly what they
were “fighting” for in the original negotiations. NO money for teacher
raises. Of course they could have developed a budget (even one of the
same size as the one approved) that offered raises but they indicated very
clearly where that fit in their overall budget priorities. It didn’t.
Of
course that is pretty crappy and truth be told I don’t understand why the
school system wouldn’t just agree to the teachers' demands contingent on
funding from the county and let the fight happen at the County level but it is
clearly possible I am missing something.
This
post isn’t really about the fight over teacher raises though. I mean it
is but it is also about the email and how disrespectful it seems to me. The Superintendent seems to hope that
teachers aren’t . . . smart enough to figure out that the facts that she lays
out while entirely accurate and true, should NOT lead them to the conclusion
she wants them to go to. Specifically, that the raise they want is
coming. If you are going to play hardball with our teachers, at least
respect them enough to play it straight.
[1]
In case you don’t remember usually these negotiations are completed before the
budget is proposed, however teachers and the Board reached an impasse and
negotiations broke down.
The Supt. and BoE are "Slick Ricks". They really know how to spin a story to make themselves look good. This is an attempt to make the teachers look greedy and ungrateful to the average taxpayer. The real story behind "where's the money", lies in the adoption of a new curriculum (GARBAGE!) aligned with the new PARCC assessment. The curriculum is costing a ton of money to develop. The PARCC that it is aligned with is an online test that is requiring the purchase of more computers and upgrades in bandwidth and the results of this test are not even used to evaluate students. Central office is top heavy in administration and likes to spend money like it grows on trees. There is so much more wrong with education in HoCo, but for now...all I have to say is that the Supt. wants everyone to think she is great and wonderful. I'm wondering when the fine folks in HoCo will get their heads out of the sand and look at what is being done to the school system, it's teachers and students.
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting the truth out there. Not only is the misinformation being sent to teachers, but it is part of a current social media push to parents and the community.
ReplyDeleteThank you! That email was very misleading and caused plenty of confusion and then, once it was understood what had happened, it caused a lot of anger. Because the educators of Howard County are not stupid. We know what this budget means, and we know where it places students and teachers: not even in the top ten of priorities.
ReplyDeleteI hope parents will remember this when it comes time to elect our school board again; I hope they will remember why their children's class sizes are larger and their teachers have less time to devote to them as individuals. It's because of five members of this Board and the Superintendent.
Thanks for your comments. I'm not sure I have much more to add except for I've received a vast amount of feedback personally from teachers expressing frustrations as seen by all three of these comments.
ReplyDelete