Sean C. Morgan
District 55 School Board and classified association representatives Friday finalized a tentative agreement freezing compensation levels for the 2011-12 school year.
The classified employees agreed verbally to a compensation freeze during bargaining on April 28 and began negotiating specific language proposals for review by each side’s attorneys.
The classified association represents the district’s support personnel. Its current contract expires on June 30.
Next, the association’s bargaining team will return to union members for ratification, and the district’s bargaining team will return to the School Board for approval on June 13.
“I’m very pleased with the response,” said Supt. Larry Horton. “We don’t have the money, and it’s encouraging they’re trying to work with the district.”
During the April 28 meeting, the district’s bargaining team responded to several claims made by the association team during the previous bargaining session.
The classified association claims to be falling behind, and the district needs to increase salaries and insurance benefits, said Chanz Keeney, board member. “We understand how difficult it is. We value our staff members and made tough decisions, such as closing Crawfordsville. We are not going to make further cuts to the educational program to pay for employee raises.”
Public Employees Retirement System rates will increase 4.25 percent next year, said Business Manager Kevin Strong. That will cost the district approximately $425,000 more next year as it pays both the employer’s and employee’s portions of the payment.
The board considered asking the classified to help share the cost of the PERS increase but decided not to because of the coming increases in insurance rates, Strong said.
“That does clarify things somewhat,” said Susan Kinney, a member of the classified association. “I don’t know that we’ve ever heard it in those terms before.”
The classified team said that districts were settling contracts with raises in the 1.5- to 2-percent ranges, Keeney said. His team looked into the claim and learned that districts around the state are actually settling with pay reductions.
Beaverton is reducing instructional assistants’ hours, he said. Custodians are being laid off and returning at 25 to 50 percent less pay. Salem-Keizer is proposing 4.5-percent pay cuts. The union there is looking for a 2.6-percent reduction, with six furlough days. Eugene is looking at -2.6 percent, with five holidays becoming unpaid. McMinnville is looking at a reduction of .5 percent with steps frozen.
“We know those are large districts, and they haven’t been as prudent as Sweet Home,” Kinney said.
“The classified makes Sweet Home School District what it is,” strong said. “It’s an exceptional staff that goes above and beyond. We do value the classified. From our perspective, we’ve really taken the effort to show our that our classified staff is important.”
For example, he said, the district hasn’t contracted services that many other districts have. Sweet Home’s ratio for classified staff to licensed is 1.25 to one, where Forest Grove has .67 classified employees per licensed employee.
The district has tried hard to keep its services, such as transportation, food services and custodial services, in house, Strong said.
The district has looked at contracting in the past, said Sharon Conner, member of the classified team. The idea has been dropped because it wasn’t the best choice.
Strong provided new wage comparisons, including entry level custodians, who make $12.93 per hour in Sweet Home. In Salem-Keizer, they make $11.63, and in McMinnville, $11.97.
Entry level bus drivers in Sweet Home earn $13.55 per hour, while they earn $12.80 in Salem-Keizer and are contracted in McMinnville.
Conner said the rest of the wage range needs to be considered in comparing the numbers.
After five years, employees in those other districts may make more than Sweet Home’s, she said.
“With classified, we do tend to be more competitive,” Strong said. Licensed staff and administrators are lower compared to most other districts.
He hesitated to bring it out, Strong said, but the association also made a claim that take-home pay for some has decreased over the past three years.
“We looked back and took a sample,” Strong said. “Actually, net compensation, take-home pay, is higher than three years ago.”
That’s even with furlough days and increases in insurance rates, he said. In one example of it, take-home pay was reduced, but the employee had switched to a higher tier of insurance coverage.
“We’re talking $3,600 in my take-home pay,” said Lisa Gourley, member of the classified team. “It’s substantial. Our members are all putting out more money.”
And their coverage is shrinking, she said. The cost of a doctor’s visit is higher.
Still, in most cases, take-home pay is higher because of step increases, Strong said, but even those at the top step still have more take-home pay.
The elephant in the room is the total cost of the classified compensation package, Strong said, and he has felt like the groups have been negotiating in 2007 instead of 2011 where economic hardships are driving budget cuts.
The members are concerned about their future, Kinney said. “We’re all aware of the situation. We’re not trying to be unreasonable.”
That’s why they asked the lawyers representing the teams to leave, she said. “Those discussions were not reasonable.”
Four years ago, the state budgeted $6.2 billion for education, Strong said. Now it’s at $5.7 billion. In addition, Sweet Home has faced enrollment declines and pays more to the Charter School than four years ago.
“Trying to come up with a balanced budget is difficult at the district level, at the family level,” Strong said. “In this district we’re trying to do it so kids continue to receive a quality education.”
The biggest concern is insurance, Kinney said, and the classified employees’ anger is mostly directed at the statewide insurance pool the district is required to use.
“Our employees really want the help,” she said. “We understand PERS rates are going up. We understand that. Our members are still asking for some compensation.”
“There isn’t a good answer,” Keeney said.
“We hope you realize we don’t have any money to give you,” Horton said. “I don’t see that changing. The money isn’t there. If we had more money, we would give it to you.”
“We’ve talked, discussed this pretty often the last few weeks,” Kinney said. “We understand. We’re willing to agree to a 0-percent increase.”
That included no increase in the district’s contribution to insurance premiums or step increases, but the classified employees want to do it on a two-year contract, with negotiations reopened next year for salary and insurance benefits.