School Board Unanimously Approves Teacher Contract
May 18, 2015
The Mt. Lebanon School Board unanimously approved the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Mt. Lebanon Education Association at the May 18, 2015 School Board meeting. This is a three year extension of the current contract covering July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2018. In his remarks, School Board President Lawrence Lebowitz stated, "I am very pleased that we have a new three-year extension of our Collective Bargaining Agreement with the MLEA. This new Agreement is a "win-win-win" for the District, for the teachers and, most importantly, for our children. This is truly the essence of bargaining and reflective of the excellent working relationship which the District and the School Board has had and is proud to have with our teachers."
The highlights of the Agreement are as follows:
• This is a three-year agreement.
• The is a reduction of workdays from 197.5 to 195 but student days remains the same. There is no loss of student/teacher contact time.
• The reduction of workdays represents eight flex hours, one classroom management day and a four-hour evening activity each year through the term of the contract.
• The tentative Agreement adds no new money to the salary schedule utilized under the previous Agreement other than a small increase for the top step. The only additional funds are for those people on the top step, at the top of the salary scale, amounting to $400 in the first year, $700 in the second year and $900 in the third year, respectively.
• The overall increase for the entire term of the Agreement is 3.38%.
• There is an increase in health care contributions from the teachers including an increase in "caps," i.e., the maximum amount a teacher would be required to pay on a monthly basis.
• Based on an increase in salary for those at the top of the scale and the decrease in employer health care cost, the net increase to the District for the contract term is 3.17%.
• There will also be no increase in any other economic terms including EDR (Extra Duty Remuneration) rates as well as payments to teachers for additional work, e.g., lunch duty, playground, summer workshops, etc.
• There will be no loss of professional development time for teachers.
Update May 23, 2015 1:37 PM The Collective Bargaining Agreement Between the Mt. Lebanon School District and the Mt. Lebanon Education Association effective July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2018
31 comments:
Should have froze salaries, they're free to find work elsewhere if they don't like it.
When will people in Mt Lebanon WAKE UP! It's well past time to DEMAND an outside audit. Only a moron wouldn't see that the former School Board lied about the costs of the High School re-do in order to keep it away from the voters. The number of teachers should be cut! There should be cuts each and every year. Look at the numbers!!!
Aw c'mon guys. Did you forget that they'll have to deal with all those Caribou Cofffee caffeine-wired high school students this year?
That's gotta be worth a percent or two salary increase alone.
Why should teachers be in a union, and why should the tax payers have to negotiate with them? They had the opportunity to attend college, unlike the blue collar workers, who lack the interchangeability skills of a college graduate, and are required to work under more physically demanding conditions. Cannot teachers begin to regard themselves as professionals, and not need the collective help of a union?
If teachers were not unionized, they would be making ten buck a day. Let's hear it for Unions.
Yeah right, 7:45. Like everybody that isn't in a union is making $10 a day.
Knock off the bullshit!
3:21, it looks like your teachers failed you, so I can understand your animosity. However, this is effectively a pay freeze. You've heard of inflation, right?
At least 5 states have made teacher unions illegal.
7:45, that's quite a proclamation.
Let's see if you can back it up.
Tell us, how many people living in MTL work in non-union jobs?
After coming up with that number, please tell us how many of them make $10/day.
Are you telling us that educated teachers, many of them with masters degrees are so frigging stupid that they'd stay in a job where they're only paid $10/day?
Please reply, 7:45, I can't wait to hear you tell us that our educators aren't capable of negotiating their own compensation.
8:42, please tell us what the inflation rate is currently.
Also, tell us what it was over the life of the last contract.
We'll see how good your teachers were.
When approving the comments just now, I was able to publish all of the ones except one. I was on my iPad and my finger wasn't completely on the publish button and instead it hit the delete key. If you don't see your comment, would you mind resubmitting it?
Sorry.
Elaine
Pretty snarky comment 8:42. You might want to do some research before you write stupid comments.
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
"The latest inflation rate for the United States is -0.1% through the 12 months ended March 2015 as published by the US government on April 17, 2015. The next update is scheduled for release on May 22, 2015 at 8:30 a.m. ET. It will offer the rate of inflation over the 12 months ended April 2015."
Hmm, you guys (11:30 and 11:44) are right about inflation, it is flat to negative today and has been for three months! Boy am I silly. It must stay that way forever, right? Sadly no. Only once in the past ten years has the average rate of inflation been below 1.46% for an entire year (2009, at arguably the height of the Great Recession). From 2012-2014, the average rate of inflation was 1.72%. Going back to 2009 (our only negative year, remember) only brings it down to 1.6%. And a full ten year average is 2.29%. Adding inflation at these rates to teacher salary in MTL ($60,908 per Wikipedia and a topic for another day) gets you year one cost of living adjustments of $975, $1,048, and $1,395.
As you can see, what was negotiated was far below average levels of inflation (and these averages are low to begin with). There are things to criticize in this deal - it's basically a punt and the School Board made zero hard choices - but the salary bumps aren't one of them for rational human beings.
Now please, go show this comment to a college graduate and perhaps they can explain it to you using Venn diagrams and your fingers.
You forgot to mention jump steps, the cut in the work year from 197.5 days to 195.
You also fail to mention how teachers contribution to their healthcare costs compare to the private and their pension.
Show that to a college grad and have them explain it.
I guess my comment didn't agree with the negative tone of this blog so you hit the delete button. I'll not wasting my time posting it again.
Sorry you wasted your time telling me that you didn't want to waste your time. The publish button is right next to the delete button. I explained what happened. Whatever.
Elaine
The inflation rate according to the U.S. Government or CPI has been 2.47 since 1950.
Constance Spicuous Consumption
5:40, first off regardless of what the inflation rate is, in the private sector that rate doesn't always correlate to raises.
Second, very few if any in the private sector have tenure protection. Tell us what the value of that is?
But, this is all moot. You're original comment was that without the union the teachers would be making $10/day.
I highly doubt that!
According to this information the inflation rate for 2014 was .8, 5:40 and Constance.
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
"
Table of Inflation Rates (%) by Month and Year (1999-2015)
Since figures below are 12-month periods, look to the December column to find inflation rates by calendar year. These also appear in the graph and chart above. For example, the rate of inflation in 2014 was 0.8%. The last column, “Ave,” shows the average inflation rate for each year. They are published by the BLS but are rarely discussed in news media, taking a back seat to a calendar year’s actual rate of inflation."
NOTICE - "For example, the rate of inflation in 2014 was 0.8%."
There is something missing in this discussion.
While we fight amongst ourselves over whether teachers are getting bigger raises/benefits than workers in the private sector something else is going on.
No one wants to see good teachers work for nothing, but with a stagnant economy what do you do?
Why of course, build lavish Taj Mahal Sports Facilities which must be paid for by tapping taxpayers for increasingly more money.
On the municipal side you hit 'em again by throwing $875,000 in undesignated, tax revenue not into infrastructure maintenance but rather into expensive artificial turf.
Gov. Wolf declares we must throw more and more money into education, like somehow we haven't been doing that at the local or state level all along.
So where has the money been going?
MTLSD has been raising it's budget yearly by about $2 million year after year.
If the teachers, that generally are doing a good job, aren't getting that additional money... who is?
8:44 for Gov. Wolf to throw more money into education where is he going to get it?
8:44 Pension costs.
11:05 pm, you got me, I'm taking an average of an average. But even your number doesn't support the idea that a pay freeze wouldn't hurt teachers (or alternatively, that their modest raises represent an enormous windfall). Unless you think that inflation has magically disappeared forever, in which case I would like to subscribe to your newsletter about the coming zombie apocalypse.
#1. North Allegheny gave 2.5% salary increases and raised the healthcare payment to 13.5% by 2020. How does the compare to the ML contract?
#2. The Capital Campaign Chair who's only duty is to solicit donations was hired at a salary and benefits package of over $100,000.
If you divided that $100,000 amongst the 413 full-time teachers from the 2014 CAFR, you could have given each teacher a $232/year raise and not changed the budget or raised taxes.
The Campaign Chair position didn't exist a few years ago and does teach one student.
11:56, when did I ever say a pay freeze wouldn't hurt teachers?
But why don't you ask that question in a roomful of people that lost their jobs, or took mandatory pay freezes of wage cuts through the last recession. Some why enduring those hardships still lived under the threat that they could lose what was left of their income when possibly their employer could close up shop and move their jobs overseas or to another state.
I'm still asking- with the district increasing their budget on average (you like averages) by $2 million annually, where is the money going?
8:42/11:56, looks my teachers did a better job than yours or perhaps I just paid more attention than you.
11:56...
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." -- Eric Hoffer, philosopher and writer
Correction for 11:57.
The Campaign Chair position didn't exist a few years ago and does [not] teach one student.
Has, or will, the Capital Campaign Chairperson, who is handsomely compensated, ever issue a progress report on donations to date?
Are private sector workers at the education level, college graduate, of teachers represented by unions in any significant level? Teacher unions not only control education spending in a given locality, but contribute monetarily to elective office candidates, who then seek general tax revenue for educational improvements, or not, irregardless of the tax burden on the general population. Why should the miners, farmers, and industrial workers, who labor hard, have to have their wages directed towards Taj Mahal school construction projects?
Anonymous.
https://www.aier.org/research/use-forecasts-trends-only
How will the quality of new teacher hires be impacted when/if their positions are offered at 80% instead of 100%? These teachers will not have health benefits, for example, or other perks associated with full-time employment.
Current example:
Middle School Orchestra Teacher - Anticipated 80% Contract Vacancy for the 2015-2016 School Year
But 12:08, if they're lucky their Middle School might be the one getting a shiny new vestibule!
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