A Vote of Confidence
The issues presented at the School District Deliberative are a reflection of what is happening in the District. The overcrowding of Golden Brook, Center School and the Middle School has been at the forefront of School Board and Administration discussions for several years. They are recommending Warrant Articles 2 and 3 to begin to solve Windham's capacity problems.
The Board also recommended an Operating Budget that has been available since November. During Deliberative, an amendment was proposed and approved that added over half a million dollars to the Budget. My understanding is that the intent of the amendment is to fund step pay increases that teachers hired within the last twelve years believed they would get under the former evergreen law.
The evergreen law required that employers continue to honor contracts for public employees even after those contracts expired, effectively assuring teachers and other public employees they would receive step increases based on years of experience, instead of having wages frozen until a new contract is approved.
The evergreen law went into effect in 2008 and was repealed in 2011. Only contracts that contain specific evergreen language negotiated by unions and employers are subject to evergreen provisions. For all other contracts, whether they were signed while the evergreen law was in place or after it was repealed, public employees will not see automatic salary step increases once the contracts expire.
Windham School District is entering its second year without a teacher contract. There was no evergreen clause in its expired contract. Therefore, the District is not required to honor step increases that teachers may have anticipated while the law was in place. Teachers hired within the last twelve years – including all new teachers hired at the High School – have not and will not receive anticipated step increases until a new contract is negotiated and only then if the contract contains language to reinstate these steps.
The majority of Windham residents present at the Deliberative decided to circumvent the lack of a contract and approved a budget increase of over $560,000, allowing the School District to award back step pay should an agreement be reached before 2013. Such an agreement and expenditure will need to be approved by the town through a Special Meeting.
I only recently became aware that we were entering our second year without a teacher contract. The reason I decided to support the amendment is that I believe voters have the right to approve or reject a contract. Waiting another year will increase our risk of losing good teachers in whom we have already invested District resources. The voters of Windham have sent a message to the School Board and to the teachers that we trust every effort will be made to reach an agreement. We can show ourfinal vote of confidence by voting YES on Warrant Article 6 on Tuesday, March 12, 2012.
Heather Petro
9:51 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Correction: Election Day is Tuesday, March 13, 2012 (not the 12th). Mark you calendars!
Say What?
10:59 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
"The voters of Windham have sent a message to the School Board and to the teachers that we trust every effort will be made to reach an agreement."
Are you serious? You mean the 55 union members and enablers who plotted and hung around past 11:00 pm to hijack the process and ensure a default budget? Those short-sighted, selfish individuals are not qualified to send a message to anyone, and absolutely do not represent Windham voters. That message will be heard loud and clear on Election Day.
And your tolerance and support of the union's outrageous behavior by supporting Article 6 seriously calls into question your ability to represent Windham and its TAXPAYERS and STUDENTS as a School Board member. Jim Curtin has my vote.
Jim Curtin
2:31 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Property Values is a weak selling point to promote building another new school, but we respect your opinion. Windham High School didn't increase property values. Prior to Windham High School - Property Values were UP and Taxes Down. After Windham High School - Property Values Down and Taxes are UP. Real Estate Agent at delibrative session was absolutely right in my opinion.
Windham does invest in our schools - Next time - We will do it more responsibly, by utilizing the extra capacity at WHS for 8th grade, Kindergarten Portables are available (after Kindergarten is built) and WMS Portables (if warrant passes) should be the next step.
Thanks,
Jim
David
3:13 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Just a question about our neighboring town of Derry in regards to this topic: did the building of Pinkerton Academy (one of the best campuses around btw) actually make Derry a desirable town to live in? I do not have any stats to support it but it doesn't seem like it's getting flooded - in fact, its taxes being so high is probably a very poor selling-point for any property there. Higher taxes in Windham will most likely keep people away from moving here.
Heather Petro
3:34 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
I appreciate the comments. Hope others chime in on the evergreen law.
Jay
5:47 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Heather, I actually find the title of this posting ironic. As I believe you are stating your support of the vote of approximately 1/2 of 1% of the voters in Windham to increase the budget. It is ironic in that the content of the post most likely diminishes confidence in you for the majority of the other 99.5%. I'd certainly hope that candidates understand Evergreen clauses or at least were aware of the contract situation! I disagree with the manner that Rep. DiFruscia (sponsor of the 2008 bill), et. al. made a sweeping bill for all contracts. That bill was somewhat confusing in that it read as if it continued wages but explicitly stated "COLA was not included"...it implied, that increases were not considered. As we know 'step raises' are raises where salary is increased for service years and/or education. From a teachers standpoint, what this repeal did was return the state wide edict to the status quo as in MA, where there is one of the most powerful unions in the country. I applaud the MA union for returning these for their contracts. There they are a bargaining item. An evergreen clause can be placed in the contract so like health benefits, in addition to salary, a contract for Windham can include an evergreen clause with additional wording (limit time, aspect of increase, etc). This would allow a contract to be more appealing to work in Windham than other towns. Although I support our teachers this vote was misguided and, imo, will end with a default budget.
Sue Gerstenberger
10:55 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
So be it. Anyone could have been at WHS at the deliberative session to listen for over 3 hours and try to understand what the issues are all about. As was said before, we need to show our teacher we support them.
michael h
7:40 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
What is short sighted is ignoring our schools. We are in the bottom 1% for student to teacher ratios in New Hampshire. That's right 99% of all NH school systems have less crowded classes than Windham. There is no argument that we need more classroom space and everyone who understands education knows that is true. The quality of education drops off significantly once student to teacher ratios rise above 18:1. We have an overwhelming majority of our classes that exceed 23:1.
The only thing holding our schools together now are the teachers who are doing a great job. The school board has had two years to negotiate a contract with the teachers and they have failed to do so. It is not as if the town voted down a contract we simply have not been presented with one. The claim that this vote happened after everyone left at 11:00 is either uninformed or intentionally dishonest. The vote happened during the session while everyone was still there. The teachers were in attendance but the majority of the people voting aye, myself including, were not teachers in the district. I am a parent and a homeowner. I care about my kids education and my property values. If you don't understand how those issues are tied to education I am sure there is nothing I can say to change your mind.
Windham has one of the highest educated populations in NH. We have more Masters and PHds in town than most other towns. Education opened doors for us we owe our children the same opportunities.
BobTodd
8:43 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
Michael - The debate over Article 6 and the union's tactics has nothing to do with overcrowded classrooms. That will be addressed by Articles 2 and 3. Try to keep your eye on the (soft)ball.
And I encourage you to go back and read Patch's live blog from the SB session. The vote on the amendment to Article 6 occurred at 11:05 pm, which is definitely after 11:00 pm. Many people had already left.
Jay
9:24 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
Michael,
While I'd agree there should be a capacity increase to house our kids, it seems the late night maneuvering of good intentions from residents compounded by (it looked like) the teachers negotiator moved forward a budget increase that most likely will kill the budget on the ballot. It should be noted that, per the discussion at the meeting, the step raises in the contract being negotiated were being reinstated.
As a past lawyer, SB member and now teacher can you compare Windham to more representative or "like" towns? Out of 178 reporting towns 157 have a student population less than Windham, 116 are less than 1000 students, 92 less than 500 students. The one I'm more familiar with has less than 50 students. It really is difficult to get a class population in the double digits!
Last, although I supported the original proposed budget, the details seem to NOT address the student teacher ratio in the Middle school at all, but had a hiring of 6 total teacher...3 in the HS. I know you believe we will be building an addition to WHS in 5 years but does that hiring plan address the town's lower grade class size issue?
Jim Curtin
9:24 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
The Teachers Union walked away from a "very generous" contract (the richest one in Windham history) offer that included step raises according to the School Board.
Tom case
12:41 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
The added funds will not allow for the Teachers to get Step Raises. The voters must vote to approve the contract. A Special Town Meeting would be required. The statement that the School Board didn't reach an agreement bothers me. I thought that it takes 2 parties to approve a contract. It was the Union which for whatever reason, didn't like the offer.
michael h
6:54 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
Tom, After two years of negotiating the SB presented the teachers with an unfavorable contract that did not yet have finalized language and told them if they voted no it would be too late to negotiate further. As someone who negotiated contracts for 20 years that is bad faith bargaining.
By putting that money in the budget now we save the costs of going to court for a special town meeting if a contract is negotiated during the year. You are right the money will not be spent unti a new contract is approved. It is sad that Mr. Curtin knows so little about this issue or the issues regarding over crowding.
Jay
9:12 am on Saturday, February 18, 2012
Michael,
What is coming in focus is the significance of the seating arrangements at the Deliberation and your possible involvement with this tactic. What this usually brings is public scrutiny of the details and not a rubber stamp as you've seen with the budget during your tenure on the SB. What the public knew is:
http://www.windhamsd.org/PressRelWSB1-27-12.pdf
Now they know that the increased contract that was voted down was $1.6M, restored the step raises for these teachers, and there was a clause removed that was a catch point that if a teacher worked 90 days (a little less than 1/2 a year) they were entitled to a step raise.
What is sad, and in bad faith, is that we are now resorted to public negotiation of the contract and effectively 55 people decided the fate of the entire teaching staff at 11:05. Do you realize this is less than the number of teachers at WHS or the number of teachers at a combination of any of our other 2 schools (you take your pick).
We need critical thinkers on the Board ( there are some there now! ) but those that see the long range plan that is best for the teachers, children and the taxpayer.
Jay
9:15 am on Sunday, February 19, 2012
If you mean full name I will do that when I blog about issues and put together the complete story. It has nothing to do about courage I'd say the same things to you directly. I've been in online forums for decades, I'd suggest to you if you are doing informal "chatting/commenting" to use Mike or some pseudonym.
I don't believe I've called you or anyone else names. To me, that is one of the fundamental rules which I know not everyone subscribes. If you've found some thing offensive please let me now I will remove it. If you find something inaccurate, please correct me or let me know and I will qualify/quantify/correct.
As for a correction, Article 4 was up at approx 10, no discussion. Article 5 after and approx 10:20 the budget brought up with the 'additional funds consuming the entire discussion from approx. 10:30 to the vote at 11:05 with the moderator saying this wasn't the longest meeting, but getting close.
Where I would vote for a raise in the contract, even vote in a contact with an evergreen clause and raises agreed between the 2 parties. I would not vote for an unbridled/generic increase in a budget due to the impact on the default budget calculation if the voters NEED to utilize it. We already know from the kindergarten build that there was an equivalent amount of excess already in the budget. So I will vote for the default.
As for capacity +27 classrooms (vs facilities study) and +2 teachers (vs. current) that most likely will be voted in.
Ricki Landa
4:35 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
What a disaster. The whole thing leaves a large number of voting parents torn about what to do......parents who would have voted yes on the budget are now undecided or leaning toward a no vote. I'm amazed that anyone is willing to run for school board and volunteer to put themselves through all this.
Heather Petro
8:18 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
Thank you all for weighing in on this. My blog post was meant to explain the situation to the best of my knowledge. I appreciate those that have offered further insight and expertise.
Jack
10:07 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Property values have declined nationwide over the past several years - to attach that to the current state of education in the town is short sighted, irresponsible, and misleading.
I think the biggest missing piece here is detail behind the boards offer to the teachers. Saying that the offer is the largest in town history without providing context or details is, again, irresponsible. There is a new high school with essentially 4 additional grades have been completely staffed from scratch over the course of the past contract; of course the newest contract would be the highest offer ever made: there are more teachers now than ever before in Windham with a dire need for even more teachers based on the student population. Additionally, regular cost of living and inflationary raises are a fact of life and something people in every career field receive to maintain their standard of living. The fact that the school board member spoke of the "largest offer" in town history without providing further details raises alarms in my head as to the sincerity of the offer and the details behind the offer.