Van De Water Heilmann

FROM PAGE ONE 9A Sunday, November 7, 2010 LEADER-TELEGRAM

Teachers/Some work time hard to measure from Page 1A

"As teachers we do worry about what is going to be on the table for the next time because of some of the things we've given up in the past," he said. "The whole contract is back on the table every two years."

Michelle Peplinski, a sixth-grade math, reading and Eng-lish teacher at Northstar Middle School, said negotiating the con-

tract is a com-plex process. The Eau Claire Association of Educators and the school dis-trict come to the table with a

Peplinski list of goals that will benefit the

groups they represent and will positively impact students, she said.

"It seems as if each time an `easy' solution is brought to the table by one side, the other side has a valid list of concerns and reasons for why it's not a viable solution for the stability and sustainability of the district as a whole," Peplinski said. "That back-and-forth presentation and clarification of goals and reali-ties contributes to a lengthy pro-cess. It's not an open-and-shut type of deal."

Fred Weissenburger, the dis-trict's executive director of human resources, agreed with Peplinski. He said it takes time not only to agree on terms but also to continually set meeting times that work for everyone.

And, like the 2009-11 contract, issues don't always get worked out before the new contract year begins, meaning teachers start the school year without a contract.

Teachers worked through 2009-10 without a contract, which was approved in June with final state numbers added in July.

Peplinski said it's unset-tling to go through an entire year without a contract. "Unre-solved bargains result in teach-ers working without a contract, which is not a comfortable feel- ing for any profession," she said.

The stress comes from the unknowns, such as benefits packages for health care and retirement.

"But because we have a combined salary and benefits bargain protocol, that's the situ-ation we are in and one we need to accept as part of the two-year cycle we participate in as a union," Peplinski said.

Items that were bargained in the current contract include a 4 percent raise for teachers with 15 years in the district and an 8 percent raise for teachers with 20 years in the district, plus step increases for both, effective July 1 of this year. Employees receive 12 sick days at full pay per year. And no more than 2 percent of the teaching staff may be gone at any one time, excluding leaves for military service, ill-ness and child rearing.

The contract covers many issues, but some are difficult to negotiate — like the number of hours teachers spend grading papers at home, the number of workshops they attend or time spent helping a struggling stu-dent after school.

Here are some provisions in the recently approved Eau Claire teachers contract covering the years 2009-10 and 2010-11.

■ Teachers with 15 years in the district receive a 4 percent annual raise in addition to the salary schedule, effective July 1, 2010.

■ Teachers with 20 years in the district receive an 8 percent annual raise in addition to the salary schedule, effective July 1, 2010.

■ Thirty-five days of release time without loss of pay for teachers union representatives per school year to attend confer-ences or other business "perti-nent to Association affairs." Ten of the days are to attend profes-sional development conferences.

■ Mileage will be paid at the rate set by the Internal Reve-nue Service (this year that's 50 cents per mile).

■ 90 percent of hospital, sur-gical and prescription drug insur-ance will be paid by the district.

■ The district pays a $1,000 single ($2,000 family) deduct-ible via a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA).

■ The district pays 90 percent of the dental insurance premium.

■ Married employees of the district who choose the fam-ily health and dental plans pay nothing, regardless of the cost of the plan.

■ The district pays for a life insurance policy equal to the employee's career-high gross salary and offers employees the chance to buy additional cover-age.

■ The district pays the em-ployee's contribution to the Wis-consin Retirement System. For the 2010-11 fiscal year, the blended rate for the employ-ee amount paid by the board is 6.35 percent of salary.

■ Qualified teachers hired be-fore July 1, 2004, receive an early retirement stipend equal to 25 percent of the salary for a starting teacher. An additional 1 percent of a starting teacher's salary will be added for each year of service from the 16th year through the 25th year to a maxi-mum 35 percent. To qualify for

Expectations The last week in October,

Peplinski stayed at school sev-eral hours past her contracted time to grade papers and meet with parents. It's part of the job, and most teachers realize that, she said. On average, Peplinski indicated she works one to three hours a day over her contracted time, which works out to about 36 days, or seven weeks of extra work a year.

Weissenburger said those are some of the general expecta-tions of teachers, and they don't get additional pay to meet those expectations.

"Teachers are well-educated, highly trained individuals, and lots of things kind of come with that, particularly when you're talking about children," he said. "You do have a certain amount of preparation time that's built into the contract, but that's not enough.

"That's all, in some ways, an important but unspoken part of the job."

Peplinski said she's heard some people scoff about teach-

the stipend, teachers must be at least age 55 with at least 25 years of teaching experience, 15 of which were in the Eau Claire school district. The stipend is paid monthly for five years.

■ For teachers hired before July 1, 2008, the district will pro-vide all early retirees with hos-pital-surgical, prescription drug and dental insurances until the employee reaches normal Medi-care age. The district's obliga-tion will be capped at the dollar amount in effect for active em-ployees in the year after retire-ment, with the additional cost paid by the teacher.

■ Teachers hired on or after July 1, 2008, who retire at 56 or older with 15 years in the district will receive $2,500 for each year of local service into an HRA ac- count, plus interest at the "appli- cable federal rate" each June 30.

Leave benefits ■ Employees receive 12 sick

days at full pay per year. ■ A new employee must be on

the job one day to gain full ac-crual of sick leave.

■ Up to five days of sick leave per year can be used for illness in the immediate family.

■ Up to 120 days of sick leave can be accumulated.

■ Employees shall be granted one personal leave day per year, accumulative to five days.

■ Teachers who use no sick leave in a year will be allowed an additional personal leave day the following year; maximum ac-cumulation of personal days is five per year.

■ No personal leave is al-lowed the last two weeks of the school year without approval of the director of human resources.

■ Up to 40 teachers may take personal leave the day before or after a school vacation with ap-proval by the building principal or supervisor.

■ A leave of absence without pay or benefits for child rearing will be granted upon request for all teachers who have had or ad-opted a child within a year of the start of the leave period.

■ Professional development leave may be granted for a mini-

ers' pay being too high because they don't work year-round.

"We often hear that we make a ridiculous salary for nine months of eight-hours-a-day work," she said. "I'm not sure any amount of documentation of hours spent off-contract will convince the general public that we are worth the salary we earn.

"That being said, I don't think many community members actually believe that teaching is a nine-month, eight-hour-a-day profession."

For the 2010-11 school year, a first-year beginning teacher will earn $36,591. A teacher in her sixth year with the district who has earned an extra eight credits will make $43,957. And teachers in their 12th year with the dis-trict who have earned an extra 32 credits will make $55,413.

While Peplinski said she can't speak for every teacher in the district, she believes that teach-ers at all levels put in a good amount of time above what's spelled out in the contract.

In reference to the additional

mum of one semester or a max-imum of one full year at the discretion of the superintendent. No more than two teachers will be on professional leave dur- ing a given year. The teacher will be paid half of his or her sala-ry, and all fringe benefits will be provided. Teachers must have five years of experience to be el-igible, and they must sign a note to agree to repay the amount of the stipend if they don't return to the district.

■ No more than 2 percent of the teaching staff may be on leave at any one time, exclud-ing leaves for military service, ill-ness and child rearing.

Employment conditions ■ Teachers are employed 189

days, plus 12 hours of in-service. The 189 days include 180 teach-ing days, four days of workshops, three holidays and two days for professional development.

■ A standard teaching day is 7 1/4 hours, excluding lunch.

■ All full-time teachers have a daily preparation period. Teach-ers not getting a preparation pe-riod will be compensated at 9 percent of base salary.

■ Lounges must be provided for teachers in all buildings.

■ The superintendent may re-quire a number of teachers at each school to be certified in CPR.

■ Teachers on layoff will re-tain accumulated benefits, in-cluding sick leave accrued, if they are recalled to work.

■ In 2009-10, teachers with extra duties were paid a per-centage of the base pay — $36,591 — for their extra work. The 2010-11 contract states the base will be cut by 10 percent — $32,931 — and then educa-tors will be paid a percentage of that number.

■ Varsity head coaches re-ceive up to two days and $100 of expenses for attending ad-ministrator approved clinics or workshops.

Source: Contract between Eau Claire Area School District Board of Education and Eau Claire As-sociation of Educators, July 1, 2009-June 30, 2011.

time she spent on school work at the end of October, Peplinski said it's part of the job.

"The work I completed wasn't optional; it was necessary to fulfill my responsibilities for end-of-quarter and parent com-munication expectations," she said. "There's no lime-and-a-half time card to fill out in situations like this. Extra time, whether at school or at home, is part of teaching."

Wilson, the Memorial teacher, said he doesn't take work home with him. Instead he goes back to work to finish up.

"When I get home, that's my family time. I know some people take a lot home with them, but I don't do that," he said. "When I'm home, I'm Dad, and when I'm at work, I'm Dan." Referendum

At an Eau Claire school dis-trict referendum roundtable meeting in August, a referen-dum skeptic said teachers in the district should take a wage cut and pay more in benefit costs.

Superintendent Ron Heilmann

JP, To read the contract be-tween the Eau Claire school dis-trict and Eau Claire Association of Educators, go to www. leadertelegram.com/links.

heard the same at a roundtable meeting in October.

"Cut salaries," said Jim Marchese. "The teachers aren't any different than anybody else."

Marchese, 61, a retired research engineer and UW-Eau Claire physics teacher who has two children that graduated from Memorial High School, said he knows the district needs money to keep up with deferred maintenance. Marchese said he wants teachers to stop thinking about the money.

"I'm all for them getting a fair wage — their raises and stuff like that — but ... I'm saying think of the kids first."

Throughout the months Heil-mann and other district officials have heard similar comments. Their response is that pay and benefits are negotiated, and the local teachers contract was approved in midsummer.

Recently the school board approved holding a referendum April 5, but the details have yet to be determined. Although admin-istrators have advised the board only to ask for capital improve-ment money, the board also could decide to ask for money for operations. It also must decide if there will be one or multiple questions on the ballot.

Some district officials and school board members have wondered aloud if feelings about teachers pay and benefits will have a negative impact on an impending referendum.

Wilson hopes that's not the case.

"In my opinion, a referendum is separate from negotiations," he said. "I know there is a sect out there that thinks, 'If they didn't pay the teachers so much there would be more money for (capital improvements).

"If we don't keep our salaries in line with comparable districts in the area, then we're not going to keep quality teachers in the district."

Peplinski wondered if the scrutiny and judgement of teachers would be as prevalent if educators' salaries and bene-fits were not tied to the property tax base. But regardless, she said that's how schools are funded, and salary and benefit settle-ments always will be part of ref-erendum discussions.

And, she added, most people she knows are very supportive of teachers.

"In conversations shared with parents with whom I sit across the table during our parent-teacher conferences, attend church, see in the grocery store, or visit with in the general com-munity, I have never felt any-thing but support for educators," she said. "There is a lot of disap-pointment, frustration and hard feelings connected to other situ-ations within our district, but I have yet to have someone tell me to my face that our work with the kids of our Eau Claire com-munity is not worthy of compen-sation we have negotiated."

Waters can be reached at 715-833-9214, 800-236-7077 or alyssa. waters@ecpc.com.

Provisions of Eau Claire Teachers Contract

Benefits/Stipends once were a good deal for districts from Page 1A

A teacher with family coverage paid premiums totaling $1,145 in 2008-09, $2,116 in 2009-10 and $2,181 in 2010-11 ($83.88 every two weeks). Taxpay-ers pick up $19,524.

As part of that plan, the district pays a $1,000 deductible for singles and $2,000 for a family plan. That money is invested in a health reimbursement account.

Employees can leave that money in the account earning about 3 percent interest or use it to pay their yearly health insur-ance deductible. The deductibles range from $1,000 to $2,000. Early retirement stipends

Stipends — monetary incentives — originally were used as a negotiating tool to persuade teachers to retire early.

Human resources direc-tor Fred Weissenburger said that years ago dis-tricts saw a need to give a monetary incentive to retired employees because "even with an early retire-ment incentive (the dis-trict) was ahead."

"You have to look at the contracts that were bar-gained at that time," Van De Water added. "You also have to focus on what they gave up at that time to get it."

In earlier years it was a good deal for the dis- trict to offer stipends. But as health insurance costs started to rise and dis-tricts realized they would have to spend more money on health insurance for retired teachers that were not working in the district, that option was no longer a good one for districts, Van De Water said.

"I think that the rapidly escalating cost of health care coverage, which was

not fore-seen 30 years ago when this was nego-tiated, has caused both par-ties (the teachers union and the school dis-trict) to realize that the current path was unsus-tainable," Van De Water said.

Heilmann said that when he was superin-tendent in the Oshkosh school district 10 years ago he was having a retire-ment benefit discussion and it became clear the district would not be able to maintain stipends and other retirement benefits as it had in the past.

"We were shown a line where at some point in the future the cost of pro-viding the benefits would actually exceed the salary we're paying that person,"

Heil- mann said. "Those kinds of discus-sions is when it truly began creating

a chilled atmosphere in negotiations.

"The thought was, 'We can't continue down this path.' "

For example, the dis-trict would pay out more total money in the case of a teacher who retires at age 55, has family plan coverage for medical and dental, receives a $12,807 monetary stipend for five years and is replaced by a teacher who moves horizontally on the sal- ary schedule and receives family medical and dental coverage. In that scenario, the district would lose $92,665 over 10 years.

In a similar scenario,

with a teacher who retires with a limited family medical coverage for den-tal and health and who receives the same stipend replaced by a teacher who makes only the minimal amount of money each year and who receives sin-gle dental and health cov-erage, the district would save $128,444.

"That's why this is lit-erally on a case-by-case basis," Van De Water said. "Sometimes there's a posi-tive variance and some-times there's a negative variance.

"I believe it's fair to say that both parties rec-ognized the problem and obviously agreed to another approach."

Three years ago, the Eau Claire school district stopped offering stipends to teachers who were hired after July 1, 2007. Still, the district is on the hook to pay out stipends to teachers who were

hired before that date and who retire from the district.

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