Superintendent Sheds More Light on $4 Million Deal with Teachers

Facing a looming budget shortfall of $6.5 million without the savings contained in Gov. Scott Walker's court-stalled budget repair bill, the Wauwatosa School District had to act quickly before a June 1 deadline to inform teachers of layoffs.

After quick negotiations, the likelihood of any significant cuts in teaching ranks was averted when the district and teachers announced Friday an interim agreement to freeze salaries and make benefit concessions that will save $4 million in the coming year.

In an interview Monday, Superintendent Phil Ertl said he hoped the teachers' ready action to avoid layoffs and help bring the budget into balance would be mirrored by two other unions representing district employees.

"We're hoping," Ertl said. "The teachers' (contract) agreement ends in June. The others, one of them runs through 2013, so they're not bound to make any concessions. But things are looking good; we're hopeful."

The two unions are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), representing 1,561 custodians, and the Wauwatosa Educational Support Association (WESA).

The new interim agreement with teachers is not the end of the process, Ertl said.

"It's to get us set," he said. "Certainly by June 1 we have to have our staffing set. But it's literally a one-page agreement right now. We still have to put together the teacher handbook containing all the work rules and conditions.

"It's a pay freeze, without any increase in the schedule."

Ertl did not say that all possibility of layoffs was ended with the new agreement, but that it greatly reduced the impact.

"There would have been a significant layoff process, and then recalling those necessary," Ertl said. "We hope that any reduction can be handled through attrition, although there still might be a few.

Without the interim agreement – reached outside the existing contract – "there would have been over 100 layoffs," Ertl said. "Figuring $75,000 per teacher, we would have had to cut those positions and increased class sizes by an average of 10 students, and we still would have come up short."

Ertl had previously said that taking those harsh measures would have left a shortfall of $1.5 million and damaged the educational mission of the district. The pay freeze alone, called the teacher schedule step and lane freeze, is projected to save $1.37 million.

The balance of the $4 million comes through other concessions, including $1 million savings to the district in health care costs and about $1.75 million in continued pension contributions.

Ertl said that the agreement was crucial to meeting deadlines for staffing and presenting a budget for this year, but uncertainties still loom ahead.

"Whether or not the budget repair bill goes into effect – well, not whether, but when; we assume it will pass – we're back to negotiating," he said.

"Now, the real work begins – figuring out how we're going to pay our people in the future."