GUEST COLUMN
Andrew Zangara
The Manville Board of Education is concerned that some public statements by the Manville Education Association are giving a distorted picture of the working conditions of the teaching staff.
The association was recently quoted in the press as stating that Manville teachers are paid $10,000 below the average in the county.
The association has never given the board any data showing that Manville salaries are substantially below the average in the county. It is unfortunate the association is attempting to negotiate in the press with alleged data that it never produced at the bargaining table.
We know for a fact that almost 20 percent of the Manville teaching staff are paid at the maximum salaries for their educational level, and these teachers average over $60,000 per year, which equals over $300 per day and over $50 per hour.
A comparison between average salaries is meaningless in any case, since the average salary in a school district depends on the years of experience of the teaching staff.
In Manville, over one-third of the teaching staff have less than four years’ experience, so of course the average salary in Manville is lower than if the staff were predominately teachers with 20 years’ experience.
The board also is concerned that an inaccurate picture of the current positions of the parties is being presented in the press. The students in Manville currently receive 90 fewer hours of instruction per year than the state average.
During the nine-year period prior to entering high school, a Manville student has lost over 700 hundred hours of instruction compared to the State average. During their high school years, a Manville student loses another 500 hours of instruction.
The board is only seeking to bring the instructional day up to the average. It is not seeking to bring it up to the many progressive school districts who are far above the average.
The association claims in the newspapers that it is willing to work a longer day for a "fair and average pay raise." But its last proposal to the board called for no increase in the work day this school year, and an unspecified amount of time in the last two years of the contract, for a salary increase significantly higher than the board’s current offer of over $5,000 per teacher over three years.
This would mean a raise far above a "fair and average raise," in exchange for an unknown quantity of time.
The state-appointed mediator has concluded that the parties should go to the next step in the negotiations process, called fact-finding.
Jeffery Tener, former chairman of the Public Employment Relations Commission, has been appointed as fact-finder, and has scheduled two meetings, on Nov. 29 and Dec. 7, to conduct his fact-finding hearings.
The board is confident that fact-finding will result in a settlement that provides the Manville student body with the instructional day they deserve at a cost that the public can afford.
In the meantime, Manville teachers and support staff continue to receive their full benefit package at no cost to them, and all other working conditions continue in effect under the terms of the expired contract until a new settlement is reached.
The board and the public deserve to continue to receive a 100 percent effort from district employees since these employees are receiving 100 percent of their entitlements under the expired contract.
Andy Zangara is the negotiations chairman for the Board of Education.