One Teacher's Perspective - Michelle Stone

Michelle Stone graciously allowed me to post her perspective here. It beautifully conveys our message.

Why the District’s Proposal is Not Acceptable
 
The District Has the Money
Every year, the District receives a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) from the State of California, meaning the District receives additional funding from the State as a percentage of its total budget.  For the 2005-06 academic year, HUSD received a 5.55% COLA from the State.  This means HUSD received 5.55% of its total budget in additional funding from the State.  Since teacher salaries are only a portion of the total budget, a teacher salary increase of exactly 5.55% for the 2005-06 academic year would not have used all of the additional money the District received from the State for 2005-06.  However, last year, teachers agreed to a .83% raise (as opposed to 5.55%) to help the District become financially healthy again.  Thus, the District was able to bank a large amount of the COLA increase for 2005-06 in order to become more financially solvent. 
 
For 2006-07, the District received an 8.08% COLA from the State.  The District claims to be offering teachers a 7% increase for this year, but that 7% increase will not be attached to the salary scale until May 2007, meaning teachers would only receive the increase for May and June of this year.  Thus, the actual raise teachers would receive under the District’s offer—if the additional money is calculated as a percentage of each employee’s annual salary—is about 1.4%. 
 
The upshot:  Now that the District is financially healthy, it is unwilling to repay teachers for the sacrifice they made last year when they took a .83% increase—a raise that was, in terms of purchasing power, a pay cut.  The District was willing, however, to give a 16.84% raise to its highest paid administrators.
 
For 2007-08, the District is offering 5.6% (bringing the total raise to 7%), as well as a possible additional 1.6% contingent upon at least 60 unit members accepting an early retirement incentive.  For 2007-08, the District is expected to receive a COLA of approximately 4% from the State.
 
The District claims that it is financially unable to give teachers the raise they are asking for; however, it has received enough additional funds from the State in the form of COLA funds alone to give teachers the raise they are asking for. 
 
Teachers in many surrounding districts automatically receive a raise equivalent to COLA each year.  HUSD has received 13.63% in additional COLA funds over the last two years, and is projected to receive an additional 4% in COLA funds next year, bringing the three-year total to 17.63%.  Why doesn’t their offer to teachers reflect these additional monies?
 
Accepting the District’s Current Offer Sets a Dangerous Precedent for Future Negotiations
Traditionally, when negotiations are drawn out because an agreement cannot be reached, the final terms of the settlement are retroactive to the ending date of the last effective contract – in this case July 2006.  However, the District's offer is not retroactive to July 2006.  The 7% the District is offering will not be attached to the pay scale until May 2007, effectively giving teachers only a 1.4% increase for the 2006-2007 school year.  Accepting such an offer would set a dangerous precedent for the teachers' union because it sends the message that the District can delay contract settlement for an extended period of time without having to make the final settlement terms retroactive.  Such a message would give the District an incentive to delay negotiations for as long as possible in the future in order to decrease the total payout it owes teachers when a settlement is finally reached.
 
Hayward Teachers Are Worth It!
Teachers in the Hayward Unified School District face many challenges that teachers in more affluent districts do not face such as chronic absenteeism, chronic tardiness, widespread vulgarity and violence in the halls, chronic underpreparedness (not bringing homework or supplies to class), a large population of students whose skills are significantly below grade level, and a culture of low academic achievement.  The District has lost over 500 teachers in the past three years (394 of whom resigned), and will continue to hemorrhage teachers if the District continues to place a priority on administrative spending—in particular the salaries of the highest paid administrators at the District office—instead of putting the District's money into teachers’ salaries and the students’ classrooms, where it is so desperately needed. 
 
The Union is asking the District to bring Hayward teachers' salaries up to the median salary for similar districts in the area. For the 2006-07 year, that would mean giving Hayward teachers a raise equivalent to COLA (8.08%).  For next year, it would mean giving teachers an additional 4% + COLA (projected to be 4%) for a total of approximately 8% (~16.08% over two years).  Teachers deserve every penny of this raise, and the District, despite the incomplete and spurious financial information it provided to the fact finder, has the funds to provide this raise.
 
In closing, I will say it again:  teachers in this district deserve to be handsomely compensated for their work because it incredibly challenging and cannot be done well by many people.  HUSD needs a stable and highly-qualified faculty in order to address and begin to improve some of the very serious challenges our schools face.  Hayward Unified School District is fortunate to have many gifted teachers who tackle all those challenges with great expertise.  Stand together and demand what you are worth!
 
Sincerely,
Michelle Stone, MA Education
Teacher, Hayward High School
 
The Facts
·        The District received a 5.55% COLA increase for 2005-06 from the State.
·        The District received an 8.08% COLA increase for 2006-07 from the State.
·        The District is projected to receive a 4% COLA increase for 2007-08 from the State.
·        The teachers of Hayward accepted a .83% raise for the 2005-06 academic year in order to help the District become more financially solvent.
·        The District is offering teachers a 1.4% raise for the 2006-07 academic year.
·        The District is offering an additional 5.6% raise for the 2007-08 academic year (bringing the total raise to 7%) with the possibility of an additional 1.6% contingent upon a certain number of teachers accepting an early retirement option.
·        If teachers accept the District’s current offer, they will send the message that the District can delay reaching a settlement for an extended period of time without having to pay teachers anything during the negotiation process, thus giving the District an incentive to delay settlement in the future to decrease the payout owed to teachers once a settlement is finally reached.
·        The District gave its top administrators – employees who are already paid six figure salaries – a 16.84% raise in July 2006.
·        HUSD teachers are the lowest paid of eight surrounding Districts.
·        The Superintendent for HUSD is the highest paid Superintendent of eight surrounding Districts.  He makes $229,500 / year and received a 27.5% salary increase over the 2004-05 salary of his predecessor.
·        HUSD has increased total administrative salaries by 2 million dollars (from 3,650,716 million to 5,770,207) between the years of 2004-07, an increase of 58.06%.
·        HUSD has lost 551 unit members in the past three years.  Three hundred and ninety four of them resigned (the remaining retired).  HEA has approximately 1300 unit members in the District, so the resignations account for virtually one quarter of its unit members in just three years.
·        An increase of 8.08% for this year, and COLA + 4% for next year, would bring teachers’ salaries in HUSD up to the median for teachers in the eight surrounding districts.
·        HEA members’ salaries have been eroded by the increasing cost of health care, which each unit member pays for directly out of his or her salary.  HEA members now face out-of-pocket costs for family health benefits ranging from $8,800 to over $19,000 per year.
·        Since 2001, the District has received 22.44% (not compounded) in additional funds from the State.  Since 2001, teachers have received 7.69% (not compounded) in salary increases.  That’s an average of just 1.09% (not compounded) each year.  A raise of just slightly over 1% each year combined with an exponential rise in the cost of health care and inflation means HUSD employees have received a cumulative pay cut in terms of purchasing power over the past 7 years.
 
____________________________________
 
Michelle Stone, MA Education
English Teacher, Hayward High School
1633 East Avenue, Hayward 94541
510.293.8586