Union contracts frequently get glossed over by the school board, and certainly are nearly invisible when buried amid the annual budget voted on at the annual elector's meeting. SP-EYE wonders if anyone is really looking at this information to see how our district employees are compensated.
After reviewing the current contracts for supports staff (Local 60), teachers (SPEA) and administrators, a table has been prepared which attempts to capture the nuances of each of these contracts. Presented in this format, it allows one to also compare certain contract aspects across the unions.
Salary comparison
Support staff, which are certainly mission critical to the success of teaching staff and administrators are clearly paid on a significantly lower scale. Did anyone see them picket a school board meeting crying out for a "fair contract"?
The broad salary range is somewhat deceptive; only 3 classifications (representing a handful of positions) earn an entry salary more than $15.00/hr.
Note also that while teachers' unions across the nation always present their case for poor wages in terms of average or base salaries, there are a preponderance of options available to them in terms of "supplemental" or extra/co-curricular pay. Lastly, and it is not presented here, teaching staff may also add to their salaries by serving as summer school teaching staff.
Local 60 members are eligible for longevity pay, but only initially get 3% of their 39 month salary (not their CURRENT salary) after 4.5 years. Meanwhile, teachers receive a "step" increase of 3% every year.
Health Insurance comparison
The most obvious question to ask is how fair is it to expect the lowest paid staff to pay for 9% of health insurance benefits when teachers and administrators generally will pay for 2% or less. The cost of the premium does not change between groups; it's merely the dollar share that one group pays vs. another. Similarly, Local 60 members pay just under 15% of the cost of their dental premiums, while these plans are paid 100% by taxpayers for administrators and for single SPEA members. SPEA members only pay 5% of the family dental premium.
Why do we pay for life insurance premiums at 4 times the administrators salaries, while only at 1X for SPEA and Local 60? That's 1/2 million dollars of insurance for the top administrators! How many taxpayers have life insurance policies worth $500K...and pay nothing for them????
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