Published: October 14, 2008 05:25 pm            

NA-FC teachers’ contract approved

New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. teachers will see a 2.5 percent retroactive raise for last year as well as this year and next after a 6-1 school board vote Monday night.

However, to fund that, as well as other expenses, Superintendent Dennis Brooks proposed $1.3 million to $1.7 million in cuts.

Those include changing the block scheduling at all the middle schools and New Albany High School to seven period school days. Floyd Central High School already has that schedule. Brooks also talked about eliminating two elementary teachers and one counselor through attrition and other ideas.

He said these actions may be necessary due to a deficit in the general fund, which he says is now around $1,700,000.

Brooks said over the past six years, cuts have been made to help. However, some of those were restored, such as some teaching positions due to enrollment.

Now, with a collective bargaining deal reached, lower enrollment numbers, higher health insurance costs and the county not collecting all the property taxes, Brooks said cutting back may be necessary.

Other cuts may include the capital project’s fund discretion list, which is a wish list of improvements to school buildings. The 2009 list includes more student computers corporation-wide, kitchen remodels at Galena and Slate Run elementaries, a baseball field for NAHS, sidewalk and drainage improvements for Pine View Elementary and more. Also on that list is the renovation project for FCHS, which is already under way.

“There’s a very good possibility that nothing on the discretion list will be funded,” said Brad Snyder, deputy superintendent. “It’s a possibility.”

Differences with how property tax is calculated in the near future, which will give property owners tax breaks, will hurt the budget, Snyder added. He said for the 2008 taxes, homeowners will get an increase of $10,000 on their standard homestead deduction, bringing the total to $45,000. In 2009, he said homeowners will see an additional 35 percent deduction in addition to the previous reduction.

In 2007, the accessed values for the area was nearly $3.48 trillion. Take that times the maximum taxing rate of $0.30, the total levy is $10,430,467. However, the changes bring the AV down to about $2.89 trillion, leaving the levy total at a little less than $8.66 million.

Fred McWhorter, director of business for the corporation, said the settlement alone will take the corporation’s cash balance from around 7.5 percent to around 5 percent for this year. He said the state recommends that school corporations have three months worth saved, or around 8 to 10 percent. He said if no changes are made for next year, the percentage will continue to drop.

“It’s a fair deal,” he said of the contact. “It’s a workable solution as long as we don’t have any surprises, which we seem to be getting.”

More details on possible reductions will be discussed at the budget hearing on Oct. 27.

TEACHERS ACCUSED OF USING KIDS TO HELP PASS RAISE

Each school board member took time to speak about the collective bargaining process before voting whether to give the final go-ahead for the three-year contract with the teachers’ association.

Two, vice-president Rebecca Gardenour and board member Lee Ann Wiseheart, said they were disappointed that teachers used kids to help push their agenda.

“I still have deep concerns regarding some teachers’ behavior since the start of the year,” Gardenour said, prefacing with saying she was going to vote in favor of the contract. “Children were used for adult issues. Children were used in an inappropriate manner by some teachers as a means to sell this contract, in that teachers did not attend open houses or trips.”

She said she also had parents complain that the contract was being discussed with fifth-graders.

“It hurt no one except our children,” she said. “I hope that in the future our children are not used for adult issues.”

“The most trouble situations that I have witnessed throughout these past months of contract talks is the abuse that has and is taking place by a few, a few teachers in our classrooms,” Wiseheart said, reiterating the word “few.” “Children should not have been unfairly brought into these discussions. I believe there is age appropriateness if a teacher chooses to incorporate the process into their curriculum, but when it is presented in a non-complete truthfulness manner, it is not good curriculum.”

She added that she had heard from some teachers that they were bullied by the association by being shunned and treated disrespectfully if they did not behave as told, such as by stopping voluntary duties.

“Our teachers are professionals and should not have been subjected to bullying,” Wiseheart said. “Our children and parents have seen this behavior as well.”

Jim Zoeller said he agreed with the other board members and suggested that the sides start earlier to reach an agreement next time.

Don Sakel said he agonized a lot over the contract due to the state of the economy.

“The ones [teachers] that are good, they deserve this raise,” he said. “It’s been a tough call for me, because of the economy.”

Roger Whaley, board member, said he is a former chief negotiator for NA-FC schools and was president of the teachers’ association.

“I do applaud Mrs. Gardenour and Mrs. Wiseheart for the stand they take,” Whaley said. “I think it is very brave and very truthful.”

“We’re going to have to stand shoulder to shoulder to make this financially feasible,” Neal Smith, board president, said. “I think we’ve got a rough road ahead, but the good thing is that we’ve got great teachers, great administrators, hopefully we’ll have a settlement shortly and we can move forward and do what all we’re supposed to be doing.”

The board then passed the settlement, 6-1, with Wiseheart voting against.

Mark Kessans, president of the teachers’ association, said after the meeting he was disappointed with the comments made by Gardenour and Wiseheart.

“I think the comments were most inappropriate. They are totally unfounded,” Kessans said. “We did not and do not ask teachers to use children to go home and tell your parents this, tell your parents that or have students get involved at all. We empathetically denied that that occurred.”

Kessans said he asked Brooks two weeks ago along with this past Friday for names of those who were supposedly bringing children into the bargaining process. He said he has not been given any names so far.

“I think there is a communication issue,” Kessans said. “I think the board is making comments based on what they heard from the superintendent and the superintendent nor the board can substantiate the comments that were made.”

He said the board making comments like that in public is not helping the board’s goal of improving relations with the association.

“If we would find out that happened, we would not support that occurring,” Kessans said of involving children in the bargaining. “If we had names, which we have repeatedly asked for, we would have gone to those teachers and asked those teachers to not do that, that that is inappropriate.”

Kessans said he is also disappointed that it took so long and so many measures to reach a “fair” contract.

“When the board says no, no, no, zero, zero, zero, for five months, the teachers had no choice but to do something because zero was not an option for teachers. With no strike allowed in Indiana, we had no choice but to cease voluntary duties,” Kessans said. “What is sad is that we would have accepted that contract two days into our bargaining retreat that we had over a year ago.”

• Also at the meeting, Larry Landberg was presented with the Nobody Does it Better Award, presented by the corporation. Landberg works to ensure school busses are safe and functional.

        

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