Ridgecrest School Dispute

Teachers' Association

Background Information
-Reprint of a recent, widely read article in The Ridgecrest Gazette-
The next round of negotiations between the Board of Education and the Teachers' Association is
scheduled for the evening of August 31, the evening before the opening day of the school year
(September 1) in Ridgecrest. The contract between the Ridgecrest Teachers' Association (which
represents the teachers in Ridgecrest) and Ridgecrest School District expired on June 30. Since
then, the Board of Education and representatives of the Teachers' Association have met on
several occasions in an attempt to finalize a contract, but these attempts have not been
successful.

If either party were to declare an impasse after the final round of negotiations, then the state
would provide a mediator; if the parties still could not agree, then they would enter "fact
finding" (essentially, non-binding arbitration) and a written report would be made public;
and if an agreement still could not be reached , then the state would appoint a "super
conciliator" (essentially, another mediator) . Prior to June 30 and during the summer
months, there was increasing talk among the membership of the Teachers' Association of the
desirability of calling a strike if the contract was not finalized by opening day. While it is true
that a school board can often get a court order preventing teachers from striking, it is also
true that emotions in Ridgecrest are running high, and teacher strikes have been known to
happen despite court orders. However, the leadership of the Teachers' Association has agreed,
for the benefit of the community, to maintain normal operations throughout the system (without
a contract) on a day to-day basis. This is in response to parent pressures to maintain normal
operations. Parents have been placing pressure on both teachers and the board to keep the
schools operating.

For the past two consecutive years, voters have defeated referendums for increased taxes to
cover unavoidable budgetary increases. Due to decreases in enrollments and in income from
state and federal aid, as well as increased costs, maintenance of the school budget at par
with the previous year would produce a 4.08% budgetary shortfall, which the Board feels would
begin to exhaust budgetary categories beginning in the coming April. Therefore, the Board
feels that programs and personnel must be cut while, at the same time, productivity (workload)
of teachers must be increased if the system is to function effectively within its budgetary
constraints to the end (June 30) of the current fiscal year. The district is mandated by state
law to provide 180 instructional days during the school year.

The Board of Education is caught between the Teachers' Association and community pressure
groups. Board members, who are elected but not paid, believe that they must satisfy these
pressure groups, while at the same time keeping the teachers on the job with a contract that is
acceptable to the bargaining unit's membership. The board is concerned that if it fails to respond

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appropriately to community pressures for cost reductions, it may be removed. The board's
primary objective, therefore, is to cut costs while retaining as many programs as possible. It
hopes to do so through cutbacks in teaching personnel and benefits. The board also wishes to
eliminate certain existing agreements to increase productivity. In this connection, the board
wants to negotiate a three-year contract that will "stabilize" the situation by creating orderly and
predictable budgetary needs that will be less likely to be seen as excessive by various community
groups. In contrast, the Teachers' Association wants to obtain a one-year contract to maintain
flexibility.

The Teachers' Association also feels caught between community pressure groups, who want to
avert a strike, and the board's apparent unwillingness to fight for increased budget allocations to
run the system. The teachers feel the board has not faced up to the community's unwillingness to
accept increased taxation to pay for education, and that the board is simply responding to
community unwillingness by passing the burden along to teachers.

Normally, state law leaves issues such as reductions in staff entirely at the school board's
discretion (i.e., they cannot be negotiated). The governor, however, has just signed a new
law (passed over the strong objections of the state's school boards association) that allows
the teachers' union in one school district in the state, as an experiment, to negotiate over all
four issues involved in this negotiation. Moreover, any signed agreement that results from
these negotiations will be legally enforceable. The Ridgecrest Teachers' Association applied
for and was granted permission for Ridgecrest to be that one school district. As part of
the new experimental law that now applies to Ridgecrest, the Ridgecrest Board of
Education has until the opening day of school to finalize its budget. In addition, under the
new law, any involuntary reductions in teaching staff-if agreed to by the union-must still
comply with prior state law on tenure and seniority. That is, untenured teachers must be laid
off first but can be laid off in any order. Among tenured teachers (essentially, anyone with
three years and one day of experience), however, all teachers in a lower step must be laid off
before anyone in a higher step can be laid off. Teachers automatically move up a step after
each year on the job.

Ridgecrest is an average-sized, relatively settled, and stable upper-middle-income community,

with a strong interest in quality education, but is disinclined to increase its already burdensome
tax rate. Like the state as a whole, Ridgecrest has a high cost of living. The Ridgecrest School
District consists of 8 schools: 6 elementary schools (K-8) and 2 senior high schools. The student
population is 6,200, with 4,135 elementary and 2,065 high school students. The bargaining unit
consists of 315 elementary teachers in all categories and 144 high-school teachers in all
categories.

Both sides wish to conclude an agreement to avert state involvement (or a strike). However, the
Teachers' Association bargaining team is adamantly committed to improving the lot of its
membership, and the board is just as committed to keeping its costs as low as possible.
Nevertheless, each side feels it has some room to move on certain issues.

The following three official tables accompanied the Ridgecrest Gazette article and are available
in print to all parties.

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 Table 3. Ridgecrest School District Bud get-Continued

Last Year Current

Jul 1-Jun 30 Year Jul 1-
Actual Jun 30 Notes
Audit Projected
Out-of-district tuition $3,674,983 $3,898,099 0
State and federal projects $2,157,254 $2,100,133 p
Funds for charter schools $861,133 $897,258 q
Total: Externally Designated Funds $6,693,370 $6,895,490

Total: Debt Service $2,802,943 $3,138,988

TOTAL EXPENDITURES $78,769,486 $82,255,289

Notes on Table 3:

a Local property tax rate for schools is $1.65 per $100 of assessed real property. Assessment is
at full value. Given the state of the region's economy, assessed values are expected to either
remain stable or go down in the foreseeable future.

b Twenty-three teachers from last year did not return to the system for this current year (i.e.,
they left the system nearly two months ago, on June 30) due to either retirement or other
reasons. Teachers' salaries are paid over the course of 10 months (September 1 to June 30).

c New textbooks are needed to comply with extensive state-mandated curriculum changes.

d Even after switching to a low-cost supplier, costs of materials and supplies will be up
dramatically over last year's cost based largely on the rising cost of paper. Switching to
electronic solutions would cost even more money in the short run and increase the current
year's deficit.

e Includes mainly curriculum development.

f Student support professionals include guidance counselors, psychologists, substance abuse

coordinators, social workers, and speech therapists.

g Educational media staff include a school's audiovisual technicians and educational

computing staff. These positions tend not to require state certification, whereas librarians do.

h Includes $200,000 in current year for cost of consultant to develop a procedure for assigning
extra obligations of teachers.

Includes $250,000 for overdue, deferred maintenance.

J Cost of utilities is expected to increase dramatically due to rate increases set by regulators.

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k Transportation costs are up due to increases in operating and maintenance costs.

The state-not Ridgecrest-pays the employer's contribution for Social Security (6.2% of
salary, up to the maximum dollar amount required) and Medicare (1.45%) for all teachers,
former teachers still employed by Ridgecrest, and many employees whose position requires
state certification. The state also pays the employer's retirement contributions for these
employees, as well as for custodians. Ridgecrest pays the employer contribution for Social
Security and Medicare on salaries of employees whose positions do not require state
certification, such as aides, secretaries, custodians, some administrators, etc. In addition,
Ridgecrest pays the employer's retirement contributions ("other employee benefits") for
these employees, with the exception of custodians (whose employer's retirement
contributions are paid for by the state).

m Applies to all 783 current employees, all of whom are full time (459 teachers, 88 aides, 53
student support professionals, 37 secretaries, 12 nurses, 9 librarians/media staff, 25 general
administrators, 18 principals or assistant principals, 81 custodians, and 1 pupil transportation
coordinator).

n Because of previous commitments, this amount is not negotiable for the current year.

o Tuition is for special education students whose needs cannot be addressed in-district. The
amount is set by the other districts' costs.

p State and federal projects are targeted projects paid entirely by federal grants or state aid
earmarked solely for those projects.

q The amount of funds transferred to the charter schools can only be changed by the state
legislature.

Total number of pupils: 6,200 (current year); 6,510 (last

year) Total number of teachers: 459 (current year); 482 (last

year)

Per pupil expenditure: $13,267 (current year); $12,100 (last year)

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 Confidential Information
-Teachers' Association's Position-

You and your teammates are the bargaining team for the Ridgecrest Teachers' Association.
Members of your team may function in any capacity that the team decides upon. For example,
you are free to select one or more of your members to serve as chief negotiator(s) representing
your side in contract negotiations with the Ridgecrest School District. Try to prepare for the
timing and pace of this negotiation-you will have three hours split across two sessions in total,
which you can use to caucus with your teammates, negotiate with the other side, etc. Try to use
all of that time strategically to get the best possible deal for your side. Correspondence and/or
discussions with the other team before the start of the negotiation are not permitted.

If you think of any numbers that you would like to be able to calculate for this negotiation but
cannot, first be sure that you cannot calculate the figures directly from the information you
already have. If you cannot do so directly, then do your best to come up with a reasonable,
defensible formula and make best-guess calculations for various budget issues. Try to minimize
any real-world research, however, as this tends to hinder the process. Before you integrate any
outside numbers in your negotiation, you must reach agreement with the board that the numbers
are acceptable.

As indicated in your "Background Information" sheet, the previous contract with the school
district has expired. It is now a day before the beginning of the school year. As a result of
various community pressures, the Teachers' Association has agreed to return to work on a
day-to-day basis, with the provision that it is free to declare an impasse leading to state
intervention (or, truth be told, declare an immediate strike) at any time as long as the
contract is not finalized. In this regard, the bargaining team has considered several options
ranging from calling in the state to mediate (a move that may be seen by both teachers
and the community as a failure on your part) to a system-wide strike to a variety of more
limited actions. Information available to you indicates that a majority of the membership
prefers to conclude an agreement but is willing, if necessary, to impasse, and even to engage
in an immediate strike action. The remainder of the membership is split, in that one
subgroup wants to avoid any strike, while a second group is pressing to call one
immediately. You, along with the other members of your team, prefer to conclude a
contract rather than declare an impasse or strike, but you are ready to engage in either of
these two choices if necessary-even if you personally have to spend some symbolic time
in jail. You are aware of increasing community pressure on your association and on the
school board to conclude an agreement to avert state intervention or the closing of the
schools. The Teachers' Association membership is aware of the budget cuts being imposed
on the district. However, it has certain demands that it feels are justified and reasonable in
light of the increased cost ofliving and recent gains received by Teachers' Associations in
neighboring communities.

In general, the bargaining team wants to avoid a situation where the Teachers' Association loses
benefits that have been gained over the past several years. In this connection, you feel that the
Board of Education is essentially trying to reduce staff to meet externally imposed budgetary
reductions and, at the same time, obtain a considerable increase in teachers' workload so the
board can "look good" to the community. You feel that the board is attempting to pass the
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burden of the budget cuts along to teachers rather than apportioning them in an equitable manner.
Many members of the association also want salary increases that, at the very least, are sufficient
to offset the rise in cost of living. Many teachers are willing to share some responsibility in the
cutting of the budget and are willing to make a reasonable contribution to this end. A sizeable
portion of the membership is willing to accept an increase in workload, provided that the
increases are reasonable and that they have some choice as to how this would be accomplished .
However, it is felt that the board is asking teachers to incur most of the costs, make most of the
cuts, make most of the sacrifices and seeking to retain its prerogative to make all decisions in
these matters .

To be clear: the board has discretionary power to transfer funds among budgetary categories if
the need arises. That is, the school board has ultimate decision-making responsibility for the
entire school budget, not just the teacher portion. Like any management team, however, the
board operates within legal and other constraints and must be able to support and defend its
decisions. As in any negotiation, your information may be incomplete.

Negotiation issues:
The issues that remain to be settled fall into four general categories:

1. Salary
2. Workload
3. Reduction in staff
4. Benefits

These general categories are ranked (above) in order of importance to the teachers. Following a
long and contentious meeting, the membership agreed to this ranking. After years of neglecting
the top two issues of salary and workload, the majority of teachers now apparently feel that
increasing their salaries and holding the line on workload are even more important this time than
concerns about preventing and minimizing staff reductions. The bargaining team's position on
specific issues within these categories is spelled out below. These items within each category are
not ranked by importance; i.e., they are listed in no particular order within their category. All of
the issues in dispute are negotiable in Ridgecrest.

1. Salary. The Teachers' Association wants the following:

1.1 Salary increase. The Teachers' Association wants across-the-board increases in the
salary schedule: To equalize salaries with (and remain competitive with) teachers in
surrounding, comparable school districts, the membership would prefer adding $6,000-
$7,000 to salaries at the lower levels, compared to an additional $12,000-$14,000 at the
upper levels of the salary schedule. Information available to the bargaining team suggests
that these figures are flexible as long as pronounced inequities are brought into line with
those of surrounding districts. For example, the teachers would consider having instead a
$10,000 across-the-board increase for every step in the salary schedule. Again, the exact
amounts can be flexible, but the teachers want these salary increases now, for the current
school year. Any delay in getting raises would be seen as a big loss.

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1.2 Cost-of-living increase. In addition to the increases mentioned above in point 1.1, the
membership also prefers a cost-of-living increase commensurate with the regional
increase in cost of living during the previous year. However, information available to the
bargaining team suggests that the membership might be willing to accept either a
differential formula or one providing a reasonable percentage of the full increase in cost
of living in exchange for concessions on other issues.

2. Workload. The bargaining team has information indicating that the membership wants
the following:

2.1 Workday. The present overall workday, as established in the last contract, is 7 hours and
5 minutes long. Prior to that contract, it had been 8 hours long. Currently, the 7 hours 5
min. includes 5 hours 25 min. (325 min.) for teaching and extra assignments, and 100
minutes for duty-free time (see below for details). Although there are strong feelings in
the membership against any formal overall increase, the bargaining team feels that it
might agree to certain limited increases, particularly where individual teachers
voluntarily agree to assume additional responsibilities. The bargaining team wishes to
use this option as a lever to gain concessions on other issues. You have heard that, if
the board is successful in lengthening the teachers' workday, then it is considering
also lengthening the school day for students by extending each class period. You would
have serious reservations about such a change, because it would require more work by
teachers and because it would force after-school extracurricular activities to end later in
the day for both students and teachers. In any event, you are staunchly opposed to
forcing teachers to teach and prepare for more class periods per day, a move which
would involve a lot more work for teachers than just slightly longer class periods. You
doubt that the board will ask for such a concession, though, because it could seriously
harm the quality of student education and would put Ridgecrest too far out of step
with neighboring towns.

2.2 "Duty-free" time. Teachers currently have 100 minutes of "duty-free" time. This time
includes 25 minutes for lunch. During the remaining 75 minutes, teachers prepare for
classes. Some teachers also provide individual study time for students, grade papers,
prepare lesson plans, attend meetings, or confer with other teachers. This time also
includes the accumulated break time for teachers, since they do not have breaks during
the day. Much of the membership feels rather strongly about retaining this time "as is"
but the bargaining team feels that it might be able to offer a nominal reduction on a
rotational or otherwise "shared" basis. The bargaining team feels that any concession on
this issue should yield appropriate concessions in return.

2.3 Consultant. The bargaining team has information indicating that the school board is
about to hire a consultant to develop a procedure for assigning extra obligations, such as
bus duty, disciplinary duty, cafeteria duty, playground duty, club advising, coaching
athletics, committee service, and monitoring and chaperoning after-school athletic, extra
curricular, and social activities. The membership is wary of this approach and does not
want to hire a consultant.

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3. Reduction in Staff. The Teachers' Association wants the following:
3.1 Layoffs. Minimal and selective reductions in staff. You also collected more information
and know that none of the current teachers are interested in changing jobs (e.g., switching
to administrative positions, many of which require additional certifications anyway).

3.2 Pupil/teacher ratio. The present system-wide ratio is approximately 13.5 to 1. However,
this figure is an average, encompassing some smaller and some larger classes, as well as
non-classroom teachers, such as reading specialists. All figures here and in the budget
include both regular and special education, i.e., these figures are a weighted average of
both types of instruction. The membership wants to hold the overall ratio at its present
level (or even reduce it), but might be willing to accept an increase in certain types of
classes in exchange for concessions on other priority issues.

3.3 Decision power. You think that layoffs of individual untenured teachers should be jointly
determined on a case-by-case basis by representatives of the Teachers' Association and
the Board of Education.

3.4 Severance pay. Severance pay to any laid-off teachers should last for at least half of the
school year (i.e., for five months), since it may be difficult for these teachers to find new
jobs at this late date. While instituting such a "safety net" seems to you to be a matter of
fairness and basic human decency, you are willing to be flexible, since you know that
sta ndard p ractice in corporations is often to offer only one week's pay for each year of
. service.
pnor .

In general, the teachers would love to mm1m1ze layoffs through activation of early
retirements, but financial incentives for early retirements are illegal, and the decision to
retire is a voluntary one made by each individual teacher who is eligible, not by the
union; i.e., the number of people who will retire is not negotiable-it can only be
estimated. Unfortunately, probably none of this year's returning teachers who are eligible
for retirement would be interested in retiring immediately without some sort of additional
incentive, and even if that was legal, certainly no more than 20 eligible teachers would be
willing to retire immediately anyway. In the long term (after these negotiations), the
Teachers' Association would like to work with the school board to repeal the state law
barring explicit early retirement incentives, since the bargaining team is very confident
that 10 senior teachers would be willing, even now, to retire immediately if everyone
eligible was offered a fairly modest incentive (say, $15,000 per person, for a likely total
cost of $150,000) or, alternatively, an additional 10 senior teachers-for a total of 20 in
all-would do so if everyone eligible was offered a more generous incentive (say,
$30,000 per person, for a likely total cost of $600,000). In the short term, the Teachers'
Association wants representation in layoff decisions and maximization of severance pay
to affected teachers. Within these overall membership preferences, however, the
bargaining team recognizes a need to remain flexible to make trade-offs wherever
necessary.

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4. Benefits. The Teachers' Association wants the following:
4.1 Health insurance. You have heard that the board would like to switch teachers' coverage
from traditional insurance to health maintenance organizations (HMOs). You are
opposed to such a switch, because that would mean that teachers would have less
insurance coverage, fewer choices for doctors, medical tests, etc. On the other hand,
HMOs seem to be the trend in the U.S., as is making employees pay for a higher share
of their health care coverage. Currently, the board contributes 90% (=$13,940 per
teacher) of the total annual cost for health care coverage for teachers, and the teachers
have the remaining 10% (=$1,549 per teacher) deducted from their annual salary.

4.2 Accumulated sick leave upon retirement. By statute, all teachers receive 10 days of
sick leave per year. Up until now, Ridgecrest has paid full salary for one out of every
four accumulated unused sick days upon retirement, with a maximum total of $7,500. In
light of the fact that teachers in most surrounding communities still receive
comparable payments for unused sick leave upon retirement, the Ridgecrest
membership feels it is also entitled to retain such benefits. However, the bargaining
team believes that various reductions in the formula can be devised that might be
acceptable to the membership if concessions on other priority issues were forthcoming
from the board. These might include a lower percentage of accumulated sick leave, a
lower maximum amount, payments keyed to years of service, and so on. The bargaining
team also sees possibilities of phasing in such benefits over several years.

Note that, if a teacher decides to take leave, a substitute teacher will need to be hired and
paid for the time the regular teacher is out of work. In addition, the Family Medical
Leave Act of 1993 entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job
protected leave in a 12-month period for specified family and medical reasons, such as
the birth and care of a newborn or the adoption of a child.

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