Schools
West Bloomfield School Board Ratifies New Teacher Contract
The two-year contract, which was approved by 6-1 vote, includes a 5% pay cut, increased health care contributions and a step freeze in the second year.
The media center in was uncharacteristically quiet Monday night, given the circumstances.
Picket lines comprised of parents and teachers carrying signs and wearing red shirts with the West Bloomfield Education Association (WBEA) logo were a familiar sight before most every school board meeting since . However, no red shirts or union representatives were to be seen as school board trustees ratified a tentative between the district and the West Bloomfield Education Association (WBEA).
The new agreement, which includes a 5 percent pay cut, increased contributions for health insurance, and a step freeze during the second year, will be effective Sept. 1, 2010 through Aug. 31, '12. The teachers have been working without a contract since the prior contract expired on Aug. 31, '10.
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The tentative contract was ratified 6-1. Trustee Melanie Torbert, who cast the dissenting vote, said that approving the agreement was doing a “disservice” to the district and the teachers.
“I believe there was a better deal to be made, and tonight that’s not what we’re approving,” Torbert said.
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School Board Trustee Matt Chase compared West Bloomfield with other neighboring districts such as Birmingham, Troy, and Bloomfield Hills, whose teacher contracts did not include pay cuts. Chase said that 5 percent off-schedule wage reduction in the first year of the West Bloomfield agreement, coupled one furlough day, resulted in a total salary reduction of 5.5 percent.
Chase added that the decrease was likely to be as high as 9 percent next year due to health care contributions, including $60 per month for a single subscriber, $80 per month for two subscribers, or $100 per month for the whole family and a $200 per person/$400 per family deductible.
“This contract contains some unprecedented concessions from the teachers,” said Chase, who along with Torbert cast dissenting votes against contract imposition . “While I believe this is the best we can offer at this time, I’m very disappointed in the methods used to reach this contract.”
The last year-and-a-half has been fraught with tension as the teachers’ union and the school district attempted to reach a settlement through a lengthy collective bargaining process that included numerous meetings as well as mediation and fact finding. Chase said that the current administration was not to blame, adding that the previous contracts dealt primarily with short term solutions.
“It’s very sad to see our teachers pay for the bad decisions of past boards,” he said.
Judy Herman, a parent who attended the board meeting, offered that the contract being ratified could have easily been ratified last year, and that teachers were hurt in the process.
"It’s a shame they couldn’t have done this more efficiently so that these teachers could have been treated with respect and dignity,” she said. “It doesn’t go nearly far enough in terms of health care benefits, and it’s unfair to teachers in the middle steps who are going to be broke this summer."
Bus service changes also discussed at meeting
At the same meeting, assistant superintendent Rick Arnett discussed issuing layoff notifications to employees in the transportation department in preparation for a new plan to change bus service in the district.
The new schedule would change the start and dismissal times in all of the buildings. West Bloomfield High School would start at 7:10, thirteen minutes earlier than the current start time.
Superintendent JoAnn Andrees said that this plan will help the district retain more teachers by saving close to half a million dollars over the current system.
Torbert expressed concern about requiring high school students to wake up earlier, when studies have shown that later start times are more beneficial for teenagers.
The transportation proposal was recommended by the group, which held a study session after Monday night’s meeting regarding ideas for districtwide cost reduction measures.
Other cost-cutting recommendations included charging non-residents for bus service, selling unused property and equipment belonging to the district, soliciting sponsorships of buildings and auditorium seats, switching to a different athletic association to decrease transportation costs, increasing athletic pay-to-play contributions, and reducing pool hours at the high school.
The district has until June 30 to finalize a budget for the 2011-12 school year.
