By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Watch the full meeting here.
After nearly a year in negotiations with Hays USD 489 teachers, the Board of Education voted Monday to file impasse papers after teachers again voted against the contract negotiated by the HNEA bargaining committee. Contract negotiations will now go to mediation.
“We put the proposal before the teachers, and they voted it down,” said Kim Schneweis, HNEA bargaining committee co-chairwoman.
While fewer teachers voted in the second vote, the majority still voted against accepting the contract, but a higher percent voted yes than last time, something Schneweis called “encouraging.”
Similar to the previous vote, vertical pay movement was a primary factor in the outcome.
“The biggest concern seemed to be vertical movement on the pay scale,” Schneweis said.
This is the eighth year no vertical movement has been offered.
“That just acknowledges with increased education and increased experience the teachers have increased value,” Schneweis said.
Board members said the desire is there — but the money is not.
A step in the vertical scale would cost the district $115,764.
Teacher salaries are determined by two scales: vertical, which corresponds with years with the district, and horizontal, which correlates with training.
The HNEA argues attrition savings should cover at least one vertical step this year, even while school funding is being cut across Kansas.
“By nature, teachers are college-educated people, and they are very tuned into what is going on in Topeka. … However, they also understand attrition and understand as our people retire that those younger people should be moving up those steps,” Schneweis said. “The money it would take to move a step of vertical movement is far less money than the attrition money created by the retirements.”
The district disagrees.
“We heard about the attrition savings from the teachers who’ve retired and hired newer teachers that are lower on the salary schedule,” said Tracy Kaiser, executive director of finance and support services.
“The money just isn’t there,” said Lance Bickle, board president.
“All of our new teachers that are coming on, a lot of them are younger, they have families, so we’re paying for family health insurance versus our older workforce, who usually pays just for themselves or their spouse,” Kaiser said in an earlier interview. “That’s a significant cost.”
Out of the $374,745 general fund savings created by attrition, $78,801 funds an increase in sick leave payout, $78,081 funds an increase in retiree health insurance, $119,563 funds an increase in health insurance for new staff, $7,200 funds an increase in 403(b), $20,000 funds professional development, and $15,000 funds mentoring costs.
Added together, Kaiser said the district only saves $56,100 in attrition, far short of the $115,764 needed to fund the vertical movement. The district also faces an additional increase of $85,152 in health insurance costs next year.
For the teachers, that is a hard pill to swallow.
“The input we’re getting from the ballot and just from conversations is vertical movement is an issue for two reasons. First of all, we have teachers that have been here over 10 years and they are still getting paid way down at the bottom of the pay scale. Secondly, when we recruit new teachers from out of town that have the equal experience as our existing teachers, they’re being hired and given credit for their years of experience and placed higher on the salary schedule higher than the people that have been here. Those two things together are something we hear about frequently,” Schneweis said.
And the board and administration agree, but without changes, money to give raises is not available, something cuts to benefits – especially for retirees – would help free up, but that money would not be even to cover the movement this year.
“The vertical move would cost $115,000, so we need to come up with $115,000 savings now, to be able to make that,” Kaiser said. “Most of the changes that we would be making would still be a couple years down the road. … I think that was the board’s goal was to try to get some immediate savings as soon as possible, so that they would be able to give those raises.”
But the cut to retiree benefits has not gone over well with teachers, and now the are asking for a slower phase-out of benefits and the vertical movement increase.
“We acknowledge that had ballooned and became very expensive,” Schneweis said. “Four years ago, we agreed to phase it out. A lot of teachers have told us they just want them to honor our agreement.”
Despite efforts to fund raises by balancing salary and benefits, the financial reality makes that impossible, at least this year, according to board members.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the math,” Bickle said.
“We have to balance it,” said Josh Waddell, board member, noting his belief that benefits have ballooned to the point salary raises are impossible. “If something does not change, this is where we will be for a very, very long time.”
Board members also voiced frustration after a tentative contract was voted down twice, saying HNEA negotiators chose not to fully investigate the district’s financial situation.
Bickle said they had the opportunity and had been invited several times to go through the financials with administration.
“Unfortunately, they did not find it important enough,” he said.
The fiscal story
According to the administration, there are no current options to offer the vertical movement at this time.
That is partly because Kansas sets the state aid per pupil — set by a block grant this year – and funding cuts are feared to occur at a similar rate to last year.
“A general fund is established through that formula and now the block grant. That is all the spending authority we have in general fund,” Kaiser said. “So we can’t take any money and put it in general fund. That is our maximum that we can spend.”
The district reserve, which was cut in the past, is also not fully funded.
“We do have $300,000 in contingency reserve, but that’s only like 7 percent, and our auditors always recommend we have 10 to 15 percent in reserve in case we would get cut by the state,” Kiser said. “Once that money is depleted, we don’t have anything extra, that’s the only extra we have. When it’s gone, it’s gone, and then we’re in the situation that we have to lay off teachers again.”
Now that impasse papers have been signed, the matter will before a mediator chosen by state officials.
