Representatives of teachers and the school board and administrators came to a tentative agreement on compensation Thursday evening, with the help of Patrick L. Dunn of the Kansas City office of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
The Interest-Based Bargaining team made up of representatives from both groups had reached an impasse during the team’s last meeting on contract talks in October, and had requested mediation.
The agreement, reached about 6:45 p.m. Thursday, could eliminate the need for fact-finding sessions.
“Both side have to ratify it,” Superintendent John Heim said after the meeting. “It’s just our recommendation out of IBB.”
Heim said that the IBB agreement involves the same amount of money offered at the October meeting, though it would be distributed differently than originally proposed.
The contract will increase staff salary costs by $376,246, the same as was offered in October. However, a part of the additional funds will be divided among fewer than 97 staff members who can go no higher on the salary scale.
The board representatives had offered movement and step increases for all of the teachers, plus an additional $118.
“We took the same amount that was associated with the $118 and spread it to those (approximately) 97 people who are frozen on the schedule for one reason or another,” Heim said.
A combined statement from Assistant Superintendent for Finance Rob Scheib, representing the school board, and Robert Haselhuhn, representing Emporia-National Education Association, was released shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday.
The statement explained that the teachers who could not move on the salary schedule would receive an additional $484 each.
“The additional money for teachers frozen on the salary schedule applies to the current fiscal year only,” the joint statement said.
Teachers are expected to vote on the tentative agreement before the Dec. 9 meeting of the school board.
During the public portion of the mediation meeting, which began at 4 p.m., Scheib presented the latest figures showing how the district may be affected by the latest cut in per-pupil state aid and projected the affects of further cuts anticipated from the governor before the end of the year.
Mediation in closed session began about 5 p.m.
Scheib’s presentation showed the steady drop in state aid paid to the school district.
The number of pupils is determined by a formula called “weighting,” which ultimately adds money to districts based on the number of English language-learners, special education students, free and reduced school lunch percentages and other factors.
The 2008-09 school year budget was based on $4,433 per-pupil aid from the state. The Emporia district has 7,377.2 FTE students, according to the state’s official figures for the current school year.
In February 2009, the legislature trimmed the aid by $33, retroactively, and reduced state aid to $4,400 per-pupil.
Another $33 cut at the end of March brought the per-pupil figure down to $4,367, and additional cuts in May and July dropped the current school year’s per-pupil aid to $4,218.
The Kansas State Department of Education last week announced that revenue shortfalls would cause another loss in the current year’s state aid, taking the per-pupil figure down to $4,068.
Scheib said that the district anticipates Gov. Mark Parkinson to reduce that figure further as he seeks to trim more from the overall state budget. The next cuts could range between $60 to $180 per-pupil.
“The $180 would represent the school district’s fair share of the shortfall,” Heim said, mentioning that school finance accounts for about half of the state’s budget.
Heim estimated that last week’s $150 projected cut, combined with a $60 per-pupil cut by the governor, could place district revenue more than $1.1 million less than the district budget published in August.
Some of the loss is expected to be recouped later through an energy-savings project adopted this fall. Annual savings of approximately $300,000 are expected after repairs and replacements are completed, and the plan is put into operation.
Comments
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
reddog (anonymous) says...
google Ron Paul on education.
November 20, 2009 at 10:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
Google Ron Paul Why are people Freaked out about Ron Paul abolishing the public education system?
November 20, 2009 at 10:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
HenryVIII (anonymous) says...
Great. They'll probably ask for the entire Summer off next... What's that? Oh, they already have the whole Summer off? I see... Must be nice...
'enry
November 20, 2009 at 1:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
nks (anonymous) says...
I have a problem with this. The students are being cut by the funding and the educators are squabbling over pay raises.
I am going on year number 2 without a pay raise to help keep our company above water and dont make anything near what most of them do.
November 20, 2009 at 1:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jc1306 (anonymous) says...
Teachers don't get paid near enough to deal with what they deal with everyday.
November 20, 2009 at 1:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
nks (anonymous) says...
I would consider a $50,000 avg for Emporia teachers to be pretty decent.
November 20, 2009 at 1:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
biscuitboy (anonymous) says...
reddog
Are you on Google's payroll? Just wondering?
November 20, 2009 at 4:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
I am not on Google's payroll, but I have to least consider it. By the way Google Critics of NEA, this is the eye-opener of the month.
November 20, 2009 at 4:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
Actually the 50,000 avg is deceiving. We have an aging teaching population that as quoted in an earlier article in the gazette, has "97 staff members who can go no higher on the salary scale". So in reality in the coming years what they make will go down as more retire.
Good teachers are worth every penny they are paid, notice I said GOOD. Tenure abuse is the real problem here. Teachers are continually asked to work more days as the school year continues to grow, compensation for that is fair. People should focus less on what is going on with the teachers and more on how much wasteful spending the district is doing. Football field anyone?
November 20, 2009 at 5:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
biscuitboy (anonymous) says...
If you are interested in passing any info on to me personally you will need to give me your take. I rarely ever "Google" any thing that is offered because I know before I ever do that if it is being offered it is slanted to a specific agenda and as such little more than propaganda.......therefore not worthy of the bother. I want to know what you believe not what some internet huckster is throwing out under God knows who's payroll.
November 20, 2009 at 5:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
citizenT (anonymous) says...
I have been a teacher in the Emporia school district for 16 years, and I have yet to get paid $50,000 a year. I also had a total of 2 weeks off during the summer.
November 20, 2009 at 6:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
The best education you can get right now is to watch Glen Beck TV or wait till congress passes all these bills on Cap and Trade and Health Care, then you will really get educated. An education of the American economy is like a worn out building that needs constant upkeep with repairs and additions and not only is it a bitch, but it keeps on having puppies. If you want propaganda, put your kids into the public school system, it won't be long before they make everyone write left handed.
November 20, 2009 at 6:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
The politics of education is the craftey art of getting votes from the poor and campaign money from the elite by promising to protect one from the other.
If about half of the civil liberety lawyers would become plumbers, two of our nation's problems would be solved. If you want a real education, try to understand the income tax. Albert Einstein said,"it is the hardest thing in the world to understand."
November 20, 2009 at 7:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
Reform of collective bargaining-schools should have more authority to hire and fire teachers, remove exclusive rights to bargain clauses, and strengthen management right's-and return funds to taxpayers. Sound business ideas is a way to return a large portion of school budgets to the class room. You can fool all the people all the time when the budget is big enough and big budgets urge us to spend money to buy things we don't need and often can't afford. In educational tax savings, we the taxpayer's don't need explanations or promises-but only performance is reality.
November 21, 2009 at 2:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kseyetie (anonymous) says...
"Sound business ideas is a way to return a large portion of school budgets to the class room." ======== This one always amuses me. Which businesses? Is Wall Street a good example? How about Enron, or Blackwater? If we did use a business model, people would be shocked to see the administrator salaries and the numbers of new administrators who would have to be hired to match the business models for supervision and span of control. School leaders, by business standards, are grossly underpaid and supervise too many people.
November 23, 2009 at 1:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
There is 105 counties in the state of Kansas and many counties have only two thousand people. Some day soon, we will have to consider consolidation. Go to the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy. This is an eye opener.
November 23, 2009 at 7:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
There are 105 counties believe it or not, I remember in 8th grade, we had to know everyone one of them. In these economic times we need to economize in everyway possible. A lot of people say I give everyone Hell, all I do is tell the truth and it sounds like Hell and that is a quote from Harry Truman.
November 24, 2009 at 12:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
What I would like to see is a tentative agreement to give kids a real education by going to Reality Zone unfiltered news and may I suggest the Creature from Jeckel Island.
November 24, 2009 at 12:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
Use just our county as an example. We have three school districts with three Superintendents= well over $300,000.00 in their salaries alone. Add in the administrative costs and wages for support staff, wow! We have 7(?)grade schools out in the county with administrative staffs($50k-$100K) plus teaching staff(up to $50k) maintenance and support staff. Some of these schools have 30 or fewer students attending. I've lost track of how many grade schools there are in Emporia. Add in multiple middle schools, and four high schools with their $$$$$$ budgets, and it's not hard to see why it takes over 60% of ALL taxes collected to fund schools. Nobody wants to lose their local schools, it's usually the death of a small community, but consolidation is the only financially responsible thing to consider given the times and economy.
November 24, 2009 at 12:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
Reality Zone unfiltered news the creature from jekyll island. I hate people that can spell a word just one way. This book is a good read that should be taught in the schools. The book explains why teachers need to have pay increases because our money is being made worthless. The 1913 dollar is worth 2 cents but, the Federal Resurve was formed to stablize the currency.
November 24, 2009 at 12:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (anonymous) says...
Please go to Flint Hills Center for public policy, this is profound.
November 24, 2009 at 1:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )