Explaining Teacher Salaries

Considering the contentious political speech that has become the norm in the US today, the term "baloney" doesn't rate that high on the complaint scale.

The quaint archaism was uttered by a Belmont resident identified as Tony Oberdorfer, as he refused to acknowledge statements made by School Board Chairwoman Anne Rittenburg at the first of two budget forums sponsored by the Board of Selectmen on May 13 at the Beech Street Center.

Oberdorfer's complaint focused on teacher salaries, specifically increases that would be made to staff for the coming 2011 school year. As the school department is facing a $2.1 million gap between what the town will collect for fiscal 2011 and what the schools said they need to keep the quality of Belmont schools at expected levels, Oberdorfer bemoaned why the committee approved increases in teacher salaries earlier this year?

The answer to Oberdorfer's quip wasn't as important as the target of his scorn.

Teacher salaries are appearing to be a leading candidate as potential whipping boy for opponents in the upcoming debates over the $2 million Proposition 2 1/2 override vote taking place on June 14 in which the schools will receive $1 million.

"They're over paid," "They make too much," and "why were they given raises?" have been some of the public and private comments circulated among Belmont residents since the 2011 fiscal budgets have been presented to the public.

Separating emotion and opinion from facts on the ground has been one of the most frustrating aspects of the budget process, said Rittenburg.

"When I hear that we should emulate what has occurred in the private sector and make 10 percent cuts to teachers salaries, I think 'Hey, that's pretty myopic'," said Rittenburg.

Teaching and schools are not like the private market, said Rittenburg at an recent interview at the School Department, because we are required by the state to meet standards and educate all residents under their care.

"The private market is based on risk so you have the rewards of good times but also the downturns when the economy falls. We simply don't have those options," said Rittenburg.

And under this system, it is best for the town to have a contract with their employees in which it can predict costs over multiple years.

Belmont has contracts with five different bargaining units with the teachers being the biggest with 293 members. The town has entered into collective bargaining with each of the units in which a three-year contract was negotiated.

In terms of the school contracts, the town and the teachers have agreed to a so-called step and lane pay scale that can be found on the Belmont Public Schools website: http://www.belmont.k12.ma.us/uploads/docs/hr/UnitAContract.pdf

In this grid system – used in many industries including nursing – the approximate salary for each of the three years of the contract is spelled out in terms of years served (the step) and academic degree achieved (the lane).

For example, a new teacher in the first year with a bachelor's degree makes just under $45,000. A teacher with eight years of service with a master's degree and 15 additional hours of academic course work comes in at $66,172, while a teacher with a doctorate and more than 15 years serving the district makes the maximum $93,288. With 15 years, a teacher "maxed out" of the normal increases.

Under the step and lane system, the town can predict and control the salaries to teachers, which do not have cost-of-living adjustments.

As with all town unions, the teacher's contract is all spelled out and agreed to between the union and town, said Rittenburg. Under this process, said Rittenburg, the town or the school committee "can not unilaterally make changes to the contracts."

"This already exists. It can't be changed without both sides agreeing to altering the contract," said Rittenburg.

While changes to the contract are possible, the town has been told that in the current economic environment, the state and local union represents would "advise" the Belmont Teachers' union not to agree to a salary decrease as those concessions "could be seen as bell weather changes that would set precedence for the region," said Rittenburg.

While the original contract extended through 2010, the school committees agreed to a one-year extension for the 2010-2011 school year so Entwistle can have more than a year under his belt before negotiate a new three-year agreement.

Rittenburg said the extension is being thrown around in some circles as "raises" when it is simply normal increases for each teacher under the existing contract.

The 2011 extension will result in expected salary increases of $589,000 for 79 percent of teachers who have less than 14 years of service.

And for the 21 percent, or 62 teachers, who have maxed out of the system and would not receive an increase with the one-year extension, were a concern for the school committed and department, said Rittenburg.

"We negotiated with the teachers and we agreed to a one-time $900 increase for those teachers who had more than 15 years," said Rittenburg.

While opponents to an override have pointed to the $647,000 in salary increases for the 2010-2011 year as "raises that could close the budget gap by itself" Rittenburg said it was the smart and necessary approach to undertake.

"We didn't cave in for the $58,000," she noted. "We could have gone through a year of questions about staff moral and acrimonious labor talks, where we were fighting with the teacher's focus not in the classroom," said Rittenburg.

"We took those problems off the table and we'll have a year where teachers are doing what they do best," said Rittenburg.