October 20, 2005

EDITORIAL

Teachers deserve healthy raise

Yellow Springs teachers and the Board of Education don’t appear to be that far apart in their negotiations for a new contract. To settle the discussions, the board should improve upon its last offer, which the teachers union rejected, and give the teachers a larger increase in salaries, while the teachers should agree to change their health care plan.

Striking such a deal would give the teachers a much-needed raise, and allow them to stop worrying about contract negotiations and focus on teaching, and would let the school board and top administrators focus on the other business involved in running the school district. Quite simply, the teachers deserve more money than what the board offered earlier this month. And right now, the district can afford it. The board’s latest proposal included pay increases of 3.5 percent this school year, 2.5 percent in 2006-07 and 2.25 percent the following year. The offer would have increased the teachers’ insurance copays for office visits and prescriptions.

Given the ever-increasing costs of insurance in this country, raising teachers’ health insurance fees makes sense, and is likely unavoidable. Everyone seems to be paying more for health care. Of course, most workers expect to receive an annual cost-of-living raise. Yellow Springs teachers deserve just that. The school board has approached the negotiations with the teachers union with an eye to the future, attempting to make a large surplus, $3.8 million, last over the next five years. The board is concerned about rising costs of health care and fuel and the likely decline of state funding for public education.

The teachers union contends that the district is as healthy financially as ever, and with its significant surplus, can afford raises that, Shawn Jackson, the president of the teachers union, has described as keeping pace with inflation while keeping their current health care plan in place. In fact, the raises offered by the board are modest. Last year, when the board and the teachers union negotiated a one-year deal, teachers received a 3.5 percent raise, which was less than their previous contract in which they received raises of 4.5 percent in 2002-03 and 4 percent the follow year.

The negotiations between the Board of Education and the teachers union are not going well. The union has rejected at least two contract offers from the board. Last week, a group of teachers walked out of the school board’s meeting when the board rearranged the agenda so that a presentation on the school district’s financial plan, the five-year forecast, came before the teachers could offer comments to the board (and public).

Though nobody is saying this publicly, one thing that is likely complicating the negotiations is a school board proposal from last spring to give Superintendent Tony Armocida a 4 percent annual raise over the next two years to mentor Yellow Springs High School Principal John Gudgel as his successor.

All this is happening as the union that represents the district’s support staff, the local chapter of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, and the school board approved a new two-year contract in which the staff employees received 1.5 percent annual salary increases and an additional 1.5 percent annual cash payments. Considering the important role they play, good teachers will always be undervalued and underpaid in this country. Their responsibility is great and they deserve to be compensated for the valuable work they do. If the Yellow Springs school district wants its teachers to go the extra mile by helping students become exceptional men and women, then the district should show that teachers are valued by giving them a reasonable compensation package.

Teachers are a school district’s most valuable asset. They are the ones who work most closely with students and can have a lasting impact on a student’s life. The Yellow Springs school district has many excellent teachers and they deserve a healthy raise, especially when the district has the funds available.

— Robert Mihalek