District, teachers begin contract negotiations

The Fairfield Community School District is negotiating a contract with the Fairfield Community Education Association (teachers' union).

The teachers' association starts by making an offer, which the district can either accept or reject by proposing a counter-offer. Those two initial offers from each side are public record, but the subsequent negotiations are not. The school district's board of directors held its first closed session on the contract April 23. Last year, negotiations lasted about two months from the association's initial offer until the two sides reached agreement.

Association's offer

The association asked for a series of changes to the contract that, when taken together, would be an increase of 4.6 percent to salary and benefits combined. However, the district calculated the association's request differently, saying the changes would have meant an increase of 4.86 percent. Carol Haupert, who represents the teachers' association as Iowa State Education Assocation UniServ Director, said the two sides are trying to resolve that costing discrepancy.

The association asked for a five-year contract.

District's counter-offer

The district responded by offering the association an increase in remuneration of 0.55 percent. Its proposal calls for giving teachers at all levels of educational attainment a flat increase of $250 under a 'pool increase” and a $62 increase in Teacher Salary Supplement, funding from the state earmarked for teacher salaries.

The district's offer includes a $60 increase to 'Schedule B” wages, referring to extra-curricular salaries such as athletic coaches, club sponsors, speech and drama coaches, etc.

The board's proposed contract lasts one year, but it wrote in its offer it was open to a multiple-year agreement.

The Ledger requested comment from Superintendent Laurie Noll. Noll said, 'The school district and teachers' association have begun the process of collective bargaining. Initial offers on either side of negotiations are rarely the final offer. Both sides negotiate to an acceptable offer.”

Noll followed that comment by stating she would rather wait until negotiations are finished before commenting further.

‘Pools'

The district's initial offer proposed a different way for teachers to be remunerated. Under a traditional payment structure, a teacher's salary is determined by a combination of the number of graduate level classes taken after obtaining a degree, and years of experience.

Under the district's initial offer, teachers would be placed into 'pools” according to their educational attainment. For instance, the base wage for a teacher with a bachelor's degree is $37,707. Once that teacher obtains 15 graduate credits, their base wage would rise to $38,731, and after 30 credits, would rise to $39,755. These pools do not take into account a teacher's years of service, unlike the traditional salary schedule.

In its initial offer, the board explained why it wants to go this route:

'Based on diminishing funding from the state and continued enrollment decline, the district cannot financially support a traditional Schedule A with steps and multipliers,” the board wrote, referring to the 'multipliers” that give teachers more money based on both their credentials and experience. 'Pools are a way to receive financial increase both annually and long-term. All teachers will receive a gain in salary for the next year. Each teacher will start at their full current salary and the pool increase that is added will be equally distributed … to all teachers.”

Association response

Lisa Greenig, a math teacher at Fairfield Middle School and president of the Fairfield Community Education Association, said 'Fairfield teachers are offended and angry at the 0.55 percent total package increase that was offered.”

Haupert said the association is also against a pay regimen that only considers credentials while ignoring years served.

'Both years of experience and graduate credits are important in enriching the classroom experience for all students and both should be rewarded in the salary schedule,” Haupert said. 'Research says that the most important factor in determining a student's success is the quality of teacher in the classroom. The Fairfield School District is fortunate to have so many highly qualified educators and our aim in negotiations is to continue to attract and retain these teachers so that students are well served and teachers are treated with the respect they deserve.”

The Ledger asked Haupert if the association's request of 4.6 percent (or 4.86 percent according to the district) was based on what teachers have received in similarly sized school districts. She did not say that it was, adding that teacher associations are aware their initial proposals are rarely accepted. Nevertheless, she said it was a fair starting point.

The increase the association is requesting includes not just salaries but benefits such as the district's contribution toward health insurance and its required payments to FICA (Federal Insurance Contribution Act, which funds Social Security and Medicare) and IPERS (Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System).

Cost-of-living

Haupert said most professions see a cost-of-living adjustment in their salary to keep up with the rate of inflation.

'Educators across the board have not seen pay hikes that have met the COLA in years and so their salaries, plus the rising cost of health care, place them in a downward trend,” she said. 'A 4.6 percent increase is not out of the question.”

As a point of reference in determining cost-of-living adjustments, the Social Security Administration's website indicates that SSI benefits increased 2.8 percent in December 2018 to keep pace with inflation.

Enrollment

The Ledger asked Haupert to respond to the district's argument that its budget constraints prevent it from offering a larger increase. On the matter of enrollment, the district saw an increase of 30 students in its fall 2018 enrollment figure over the prior year, pushing it up to about 1,620 students. However, the overall trend in the last decade has been a reduction in the student body.

In the 12 years prior to this year, the district lost an average of 37 students per year. This affects the amount of money the district receives from the state, which is based on enrollment. School districts in Iowa receive about $6,700 per student.

Haupert said many districts across the state are experiencing similar or worse enrollment declines. She acknowledged that multiple years of small increases in state supplemental aid for education are causing districts to have to make tough budget decisions.

State aid

This year, the Iowa Legislature approved an increase in education spending of 2.3 percent, allocating $90 million in new dollars for K-12 schools and bringing the total to $3.3 billion for the 2019-2020 school year. In the two years before that, the Legislature approved increases of 1.1 percent and 1 percent.

Haupert said that if other districts can afford teacher pay increases while Fairfield's district cannot, Fairfield will have a difficult time recruiting and retaining quality teachers.

'Salary stagnation and poor working conditions will do nothing to help students in Fairfield,” she said. 'This issue is about priorities. We all make tough decisions in our daily lives and are faced with prioritization in our own household budgets. But helping our kids grow and thrive is where we should put our money. The ISEA and all of the research points to placing quality teachers in the classroom. Any business understands in order to keep good employees you must be fair. That's all we are asking.”