The Most Expensive Teacher Contracts

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Editor

Generous sick-day payouts, hidden salary increases, and other additional benefits boost the cost of teacher contracts across Rhode Island well above the simple cost of salaries and regular benefits, a GoLocalProv review of contracts shows.

In an effort to uncover which contracts have provisions that bump up the cost of a contract, GoLocalProv examined four key factors—factors that have been in the news in recent months. Those are—the annual number of sick days, how many unused sick days can be accumulated, step increases in salaries, and co-pays for health insurance. (See below charts.)

‘Unsustainable costs’

Taxpayer advocates tell GoLocalProv that those costs have spiraled out of control. Anthony Carcieri, a former member of the East Providence School Committee, said that, for years, unions managed to get the most that they could out of contract negotiations while those at the other end of the table—namely, school committees—failed to look out for the best interests of taxpayers.

Bottom line? “It got to an unsustainable level,” Carcieri told GoLocalProv.

“The key cost is salary and benefits,” Carcieri added. “That’s why the schools are falling down … there’s no money. All the money is salary and benefits.”

Lisa Blais, an education consultant, said the rising costs of teacher contracts stems from step increases in salaries, hidden benefits like longevity pay, and health insurance for current employees and retirees, often with co-pays below market rates.

“Teacher contracts have been an adult entitlement system and we have long needed to strike a balance that serves the classrooms needs of students,” Blais said. “The contracts have taken up anywhere from 70 percent to 85 percent of an entire operating budget leaving little … to provide in the way of teaching tools, classroom tools, textbooks, technology.”

A spending or a revenue problem?

However, not everyone sees the costs as a problem. Marc Gursky, a prominent labor attorney, said so-called taxpayer advocates incorrectly frame the issue as a problem for middle-class taxpayers.

“The important question isn’t how much money middle class taxpayers are going to contribute to the cost of education,” Gursky said. “The question is how much is society going to contribute to the cost of education … too many rich people aren’t paying their fair share.”

In other words: “It’s a revenue problem, not a spending problem,” Gursky said.

East Providence showdown

Tensions over the cost of teacher contracts reached a boiling point several years ago in East Providence when the school committee implemented unilateral cuts to pay and benefits for teachers when their contract expired on October 31, 2008.

“We were the first to do something about it in East Providence,” said Carcieri.

The changes included: a 5 percent pay cut, a 20 percent co-pay on health insurance—where there had been none previously, and the elimination of cash bonuses for teachers who opted out of the health plan offered by the school district. Carcieri says all told the changes saved the district roughly $9 million—and he said they were critical to keeping the district financially solvent.

Gursky, who was not directly involved the long court battle that ensued, questions just how effective the school committee was in saving money since it racked up approximately $1.3 million in legal fees defending its actions. Plus, in focusing on the costs, he says the school committee lost sight of its core areas of responsibility—school policies and curriculum.

“The people who ran East Providence—they almost destroyed that district,” Gursky said. “They developed a lot of antagonism between the school committee [and] teachers. … It became impossible for the school committee to do its job.”

Carcieri ended up losing his re-election bid in 2010, along with the other committee members who backed the unilateral cuts. “People want to know why Rhode Island is in the tank?” Carcieri said. “Voters don’t know what’s going on.”

Some of the biggest cost drivers

■ Sick Days: The number of sick days has been under scrutiny after GoLocalProv reported on unusually high rates of teacher absences in Central Falls and Providence. In of itself, a sick day does not necessarily add to the cost of payroll. The cost comes in what the district has to pay substitute teachers, says Sam Zurier, a city councilman in Providence who recently spearheaded a study of teacher contracts for the city. Districts with a higher number of sick days will incur higher substitute teacher costs.

■ Accumulated Sick Days: Separate from the issue of annual sick days is whether teachers can accumulate sick days from year to year. Most, if not all districts, allow teachers to cash out their accumulated unused sick days when they retire, in severance payments that can reach nearly $10,000 per teacher in some districts.

■ Step Increases: Besides normal raises, teacher salaries increase according to a step system. A step is essentially an automatic pay raise that a teacher receives. Typically, a teacher advances from one step to another each year of work, until the teacher reaches the top step. GoLocalProv examined what the salaries are at the top steps across Rhode Island school districts.

■ Health Insurance Co-Pays: Health insurance remains one of the biggest personnel costs in local budgets, but historically teachers have borne a small share of that cost. Only in recent years have school districts begun increasing the premium co-pays for teachers. While most school committees are now pushing for 20 percent co-pays, a number of them still have co-pays at far lesser rates. Also, some districts set co-pays not at a percentage but a fixed dollar amount, which is usually significantly less than the market rate, according to Blais.

About the chart

The below data is presented as a snapshot of which contracts have the greatest additional costs. The four factors—sick days, accumulated sick days, health insurance co-pays, and the top salaries—are meant to be representative, not exhaustive. Data is taken from a database of teacher contracts maintained by the Rhode Island Association of School Committees.

■ For sick days, the maximum number that a teacher can get each year and the maximum number a teacher can accumulate are shown. But it should be noted that in some districts, not all teachers are eligible for the maximum. Also, regular sick days were examined, not extended sick leave, which is usually treated separately in contracts.

■ For health insurance co-pays, a few districts have different rates for different groups of teachers, depending on date of hire or how many years the teachers have been in the district. In those cases, the percentage shown is the most generous rate possible under the existing contract.

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Comments:

Lis Velva

6:47am on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Can someone explain that # 90 in Warwick ???? That does not seem to fit in that catagory.

Brent Luchmann

7:36am on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

I believe Warwick will provide long-term illness pay to teachers for up to a full semester or 90 days.

Lis Velva

7:45am on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

@ Brent that does make you sick :}

Bruce Gempp

8:02am on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

To Warwick Taxpayers ~
During these tough financial times tough times where everyone is cutting their budget but the school committee decided to give the teachers just over 10% step increase plus a raise of 2.75%.
That puts the teacher's total step increase for the year at about 12.75% raise.
How many people are getting such a raise?
In my opinion, the school board has done nothing for the taxpayers of Warwick or the school children.
There are other things in the contract which shows that the School Committee did nothing to lower their request for more money.

Read the contract: http://www.warwickschools.org/PDF_Files/WTUContract2008-2011.pdf

Nationally according to data from the American Federal of Teachers the average step increase nationally is 3.16%. Also there are various % for different levels of step increases. But not in Warwick where it is the same % no matter what. Also in RI the teacher's average wage in 2005 were ranked at 9 but now the ranking is 5. But no Warwick School Committee just gives a 10% step increase.
Can the School Committee ever act in a responsible manner and have a contract that benefits the taxpayers and the school children of Warwick instead of the union?

Underfunding in 'whose opinion'? If the school committee hadn't given away the store, they could have lived on what was allocated! School spending needs to be more than just a submittal to the City Council of "Here's what we want and you figure out how to get it (aka raise taxes!!!)" School spending must be considered in light of what the taxpayers can afford, not what the school committee decides to give away!
And now the schools are suing the city for more money!
Well, this taxpayer says Things cannot stay the same! And no more taxes! The taxpayers are not the school committee's ATM!

David Bibeault

8:30am on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Compare a Rhode Island teacher’s salary and benefits to what you have at work:
With 15 sick days, you can call out sick almost 1 day every 2 weeks.
Do you get 3 “Professional Development” days to learn how to do your job?
Do you make $72,000+ for working 7am-2pm with lunch, breaks and free time?
Do you get 16 weeks paid vacation every year?
Do you get a lucrative, defined retirement plan regardless of your contribution?
Can you retire with full benefits at 52 years old?
Do you get a week off for Christmas, a week off for “winter break” and a week off for “spring break”?
Do you get every weekend, nights and holidays off?
Do you get home by 3pm every day?
Do you pay as little as 0% of the cost of a “Cadillac” Blue Cross Plan with low deductibles?
Do you have such job security that you’d have to rape your boss’s daughter before you get fired?
Do you have meaningful performance reviews that affect your pay? - teachers don’t (yet).
Do you get numerous “step” raises on top of other raises just for staying employed for a few years?
Do you work at a place where your boss has very little power and the “inmates run the asylum”?
Are you an excellent employee and make significantly less than other employees hired before you?
Do all the employees at your job make the same amount no matter how important your job (Why does a gym teacher or art teacher in elementary school make the same or more as a High School AP Chemistry of AP Math teacher?)
Does your organization continually fail at meeting goals & objectives compared to other organizations but it doesn’t matter because you get raises regardless?
Is there any wonder why public education in the U.S. doesn’t compete with other countries? Maybe it’s time to ban public employee unions or just privatize education since government has again proved they are incompetent.

Anne Ejnes

8:50am on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Teachers in Glocester pay 20% of their health insurance premium.

stephanie zhou

9:21am on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

My work day ends at 5:30 and we contribute up to 50% towards our health care coast. I do recieve compensation for overtime or trave.
I do not begrude the teachers their compensation, what rankles me and I am sure many peopleis this sense of 'entitlement'. I view it as a cycle of abuse that must be reined in. Is their a reason that we can't have fair and transparent compensation for the teachers.
What angers me is that the city governments have caved to every financial demand that the teachers have put forward. We need to be grownups and compromise, the revenue stream have dried up.

guy smily

3:37pm on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

____________________________________
North Providence is going down the tubes and their teachers only pay 55 towards their health care? The corruption continues....

guy smily

3:38pm on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

North Providence is going down the tubes and their teachers only pay 5% towards their health care? The corruption continues…. (5%)

Lance Chappell

4:09pm on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

I read the articles on Municipalities that are facing financial difficulities and I keep getting the same picture - public unions are breaking them. Police, Fire, Teachers, whatever......all grabbing what they can before the end comes. They are bleeding the taxpayers dry.

WAKE UP RI.

Vivian Julier

6:19pm on Tuesday, August 09, 2011

My concern here is the WAY in which reporting is done about education.
SURE, there are issues and inequities and difficulties and politics that all need improving. ONE PERSON HERE -> TELL ME IF THE COMPANY YOU WORK FOR COULD NOT USE A LITTLE SCRUTINY!!!

Children are exposed to media.
Children listen to what is reported and they understand language.
The language here suggests that educators are a bunch of self-serving slobs. How does this encourage children in the US to value their education? And if there ARE low-performing schools, how is an article like this helping children OR teachers to make positive changes?

Lastly, to Bruce Gemmp: First, let me say that it’s really too bad that you do not value the work of artists or good health. It’s too bad that you seem to be stuck in another era. At best, many of your “comments” are inaccurate. At worst, you clearly are frustrated or unhappy in your own work situation, or, perhaps you had a negative personal past experience in school. Regardless, it’s too bad that people like you feel compelled to attack educators, and get some kind of satisfaction from profiling and maligning the entire profession of teaching.

Bruce, come do my job for a day – for a week. Please.

Kara Scott

11:45am on Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I don't begrudge teachers from earning money. I wouldn't want that job! However, the entitlement needs to be reigned in. My children have attended a charter school for the past 2 years - I believe they are receiving a better education from the non-union teachers there. The current problems are not caused by the individual teachers, but the unions.

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The Most Expensive Teacher Contracts

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Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

Comments:

Lis Velva

Brent Luchmann

Lis Velva

Bruce Gempp

David Bibeault

Anne Ejnes

stephanie zhou

guy smily

guy smily

Lance Chappell

Vivian Julier

Kara Scott