I haven’t had the pleasure of skewering a Frank Wanner screed in a fourteen years. Until our my School Board hired Julio Almanza I used to get them slipped into my Board packet by Supt. Myles. Julio stopped slipping them to me to keep things quiet. They are still just as I remembered them when I was a young teacher in the District. Frank writes Poor us tracts designed to make teachers sing the old verse, “Nobody likes me, Everybody hates me. I’m going to go and eat worms,” along with him. Its a little like the ancient Scots painting their faces blue before battle.
Reading them back in 1986 made me want to run against Frank for the Union Presidency. Don’t get me wrong. I like Frank threats and all. When I lost my job at Morgan Park in 1987 he held my hand (metaphorically) and asked if he could do anything for me. He couldn’t. I didn’t have tenure.
One thing Frank wrote is so typical it has always stuck with me. The only job of a school superintendent is to call snow days.
Now I’ll desist for a moment and let DFT President Frank Wanner speak for himself without interruption with his most recent missive to Duluth’s teachers:
Duluth Federation of Teachers Local 692
VOLUME LV, NO. 2
NEWSLETTER September 13, 2013The new school year has started. Teachers have checked their rosters for class size, their schedules to know what their day looks like, their mailboxes for notices and junk mail, there is mail for important information such as staff meeting times, their calendars for the first vacation day and the new salary schedule to see how much they will make this year. These are common things to check at this time of the year. Thus it should not be surprising that I have received inquiries from teachers who can’t find the new salary schedule for the 2013-14. It is not puzzling that they would have difficulty finding the new schedule as there is no new salary schedule. Yes the new year has started, but the new contract has not.
What is this? How can this be? In Duluth we settle early, prior to the expiration of the old contract, sometimes over a year early. Not this time. Not only have we not settled, the school board has absolutely no desire to even schedule another meeting. We have agreed on a couple of small language items which we have implemented, but on that which really counts, namely salary and benefits, we are far apart. This should not lead one to believe that the D. F. T. began by asking for a huge increase — far from it. Our initial salary proposal asked that “teachers will receive an increase in yearly salary to reflect increases in cost of living and additional responsibilities. Talk about a modest proposal. This is it. We don’t want to go backwards relative to inflation and would like to get some additional expense to reflect the fact that class sizes are larger, secondary teachers have more preps, all have more students to teach, there is ever increasing pressure to raise test scores. Our students are needier, we are expected to communicate better and more often with parents, develop new lessons and curriculum, attend more meetings, and on and on and on. Oh, and we also asked that teachers of split classes would get a small increase and a bit more for class sizes in excess of 35, and that there would be an additional pay for teachers at priority schools due to the increase in the number of days worked and additional responsibilities. The school board proposed an increase of 0% the first year and an equally generous increase of the 0% the second year. The school board also proposed that members with single insurance coverage pay 20 percent of the yearly cost of health insurance. For the approximately 50 percent of our members with single coverage this would amount to a net decrease in salary. The teacher with the average salary ($61,000) would see a drop off about 2.6 percent in take home pay. Thus, the school board has proposed that about half of the teachers would get nothing and the other half would go backwards. Realizing the error of their ways the board increase their offer 0% year one and .5% year two. Oh, and I forgot to mention that they would limit all benefits to teachers working .75 FTE or more. You work less… no insurance for you! It is small wonder that we have not settled the contract.
Some would find it ironic that the school board would take such a stand given that the district so recently touted the fact that test scores are up. On August 27, Katie Kaufman sent out an email outlining significant improvement. ISD 709 students outperformed the national average on ACT tests (equaling the state which is at the top nationally. MCA results in reading, math and science are up pretty much across the board with focus and priority schools sharing significant gains. In light of this achievement how does one explain the school board positions in teacher negotiations?
It is “merit pay!†Quote Mark. All of us who have wondered just how such a system would work now know. If teachers work harder, have more responsibility, reach more kids, put in longer days and produce impressive results there is a reward. We get less! Never mind that the day has gotten worse at all levels. Forget the fact that 80-90% of the reduction (savings) in the district budget the fat past 5 years has come from reduction in the number of teachers or that reduction in the number of teachers is helping to pay the cost of the red plan. Ignore the significant decrease in teacher morale and the increase in stress. We should expect to celebrate the improvements in student test results while the school board acts to reduce the number of teachers and then cuts compensation for those who remain. This has to be the ISD 709 version of quote “Incentive pay.â€
What has happened here? What is different from a couple of years ago? Well, we have a new superintendent — for whom I have much respect and positive opinion but whom we must admit try as he may, Bill has nowhere near the clout and influence with the school board that Keith Dixon had. We have also had a change in the composition of the school board. I know the names have not changed and they look like the same people, but trust me when I say that some have changed significantly. Some of the school board members are no longer the same people we helped to elect and have supported. These are not the same people who asked us to work with them in destroying the middle school day because it was the lesser of horrible choices? I would not recognize these folks as the same people we have worked with in slashing the budget, reducing programs and eliminating teachers all because it was a necessity due to â€budget deficit.†We now seem to have some school board members who have turned on teachers. We have a school board with neither leadership nor direction. We have school board members who seem to be just putting in time until terms expire. These are not the people I knew.
When will there be a settlement? What will it take? I don’t have an answer for either of the questions. I don’t know. I do know this — Duluth teachers deserve a raise. You have earned it. The school board needs to negotiate in good faith and make a proposal which we can accept. Until that time, we will continue with the terms and conditions of the old contract. There is no reason to go backward.
Frank Wanner
President
