My follow up comment:
My thanks to everyone who follows this blog and desires to be more informed. The people who have taken the time to post their opinion, made a suggestion, or felt compelled to attend their first school board meeting because of an article they read on my blog, makes me feel like I am accomplishing what I so strongly feel committed to - helping to communicate the issues our school faces and encouraging people to be part of the solution in making our school district the best it possibly can be for our children.
My blog isn’t a “typical” blog where I am posting my thoughts and opinions on a daily basis, but is basically a re-posting of articles that I have come across in my daily reading regarding education and schools. I subscribe to a variety of educational newsletters, magazines and local newspapers and post the articles that I have time to read – whether I agree with the content or not. I am not a journalist. I am not a teacher or administrator and I do not have an education degree. I do not receive compensation for posting these articles, nor do I have any political agenda – God forbid! - for posting these articles. They are simply a result of what I have access to and what I am reading in an effort to try to continually educate myself about what is going on with education today and how the decisions made will affect my children, your children, and the educational future of generations to come. I am not the author of these articles, but have read them and posted them here to share with people who have not had time to search for the information themselves. Some of the articles I agree with; some of the articles I do not agree with; and many of the articles leave me seeing both sides of the story and I am sometimes more conflicted than I was BEFORE I read the article! There is so much information out there today and so many perspectives. I try to read about varying opinions and educate myself on both sides of all of these very complicated issues so I can attempt to be better informed and can, hopefully, contribute solutions that will – bottom line – make our school district better and stronger and successful.
I care deeply about the education that our children are receiving and I truly believe it takes the ENTIRE COMMUNITY AND FULL SUPPORT to truly have the stellar school district that I envision for Daniel Boone. I feel like the potential is unlimited IF EVERYONE COULD COMMUNICATE AND MOVE IN THE DIRECTION OF A COMMON GOAL.
If you think I dislike teachers, the school board or the administration, or that you can assume my personal stance on a particular issue because I read and posted an article about it on my blog, you are probably mistaken. I find great value in reading and being aware of both sides of any issue. Whatever topic is “hot” with journalists today, is what usually shows up on my posting since I read the mainstream publications that many people read and many journalists are writing about.
What I would like you to know about me is that I am passionate about encouraging everyone in our community to support our children in their educational endeavors, support the district and quality of education by being correctly informed and staying informed regarding what is happening in our our district, and attending, or at least being aware of, what is being discussed in the various school board meetings. I take no offense if you do not share my views or opinions. I admire people who are passionate in their views and take the time to educate themselves on the “whole” issue. I am always happy to share any info I might have and exchange ideas and perspectives on any educational issues you might like to discuss. If I could attend a school board meeting amongst a ROOMFUL of residents who held completely opposite views from mine, I would be beyond thrilled – because people cared enough to take the time out of their very busy lives to come out and educate themselves on what is happening in our school district and I think that is a significant step in the right direction in making Daniel Boone School District all that our children deserve, and more. Feel free to email me on my blog, or privately at steph0117@hotmail.com.
There is a School Board Budget meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, April 20th at 7:00 p.m. at the Matthew Brooks Building in Birdsboro. Hope to see you there! If not, I will try to post a recap of how I understand the discussions on my blog. The Daniel Boone School District website also provides agendas and minutes of the meetings as well, so be sure to check out their website. I would love to see people continue to stay involved and attend meetings even once these “hot button” issues are resolved. Good knowledge is power and will help our children receive the education they deserve.
My Comment: Many thanks to Andrew Basile, who took the time to answer the questions of a Douglassville resident! Good knowledge is power!
Members of the Board are very concerned that information being disseminated amongst the public may be incorrect and or incomplete- further confusing rather than clarifying the serious issues facing the District. I am in 100% agreement with that sentiment, and have worked hard both at public meetings as well as in constituent correspondence to make sure that everyone in the District understands the complete picture concerning District issues. And I have spent considerable time going over the numbers, running regression analyses, and fleshing out 4 and 10 year pro-formas under various assumptions to consider the economic challenges the District faces over the next 10 years.
To date, I believe I am the only one to have done so. Until such time that others on the Board and in the District have an opportunity to do the same, I ask that everyone understands this is my personal take on the questions posed below, and does not represent the views or opinions of all board members or the district. I am happy to clarify my positions further and provide my analysis to those who request to see it. More discussion on district issues is better than less.
QUESTION: 1. if the board raises the mileage the maximum they are allowed without a vote, how much does that generate?
ANSWER: The current Mills are 27.65
Under Act 1, DB is allowed to increase taxes 3.8% up to the index (or an additional 1.0507 Mills) without voter approval
It also applied, and was granted, special exceptions in the amount of around 0.7708 mills
So, in total, the District can raise taxes about 1.8215 mills.
What this equates to in terms of $$$ depends on the assessed values of Real Estate within the District. The number (assessed value) currently being used is $1,056,151,800. This decreased $1,591,100 from $1,057,742,900 last year. And as the economy and RE market continue to decline, and property owners continue to challenge their assessments, I would imagine that number to decrease again for next year as well.
If you use the number above- the tax increase is about $1.1M for the index and another $0.8M for the special exceptions; or about $1.9M total in additional revenues for the School District.
QUESTION 2. when did the schools sign their contract with the unions? (I heard they did it a year early.)
ANSWER: The old agreement ran from September 2005 – August 2010
The Teacher’s contract was approved in August 2008-signed in September 2008 (Approximately 2 years before the old agreement expired). The Coaching portion of the Agreement was approved in January 2009.
The new agreement runs from September 2010- August 2014
The contracts with the administrators and secretaries (two separate contracts unrelated to each other) run from July 2006 – June 2011
The contracts with the Support Staff run from July 2008 – June 2012
All of these contracts are a matter of public record and available from the district upon request.
QUESTION: 3. how long is their contract for? 4 years?
ANSWER: See above- yes 4 years.
QUESTION: 4. what is the raise %? (I have heard it’s a 4% raise every year for 4 years.)
ANSWER: People need to be careful when they quote contracts because there multiple parts and formulas used to determine OVERALL compensation. What is being stated in public is just one small part of the overall compensation package. Based on the budgets I have been presented with, and my personal analysis thereof, the district anticipates increases in salaries and benefits in excess of 13% per year on an annualized basis over the term of this contract. Here is a basic summary of the contract – please contact the administration to request a copy of the agreement for your own analysis:
1) Each teacher receives increase in the base salary for yr 1: 4%, yr 2: 4%, yr 3: 4.5%, and yr 4: 4% over the term of the contract. This equates to a 17.54% increase over the 4 year period or approximately 4.39% annualized – again- just on the BASE SALARY.
2) Tuition reimbursement was increased from $2500 annually to $3500 annually. Teachers are allowed to take graduate level or in-service classes and get reimbursed by the District for those classes. The only requirement for reimbursement is that the teacher receive a “B” or better, and stay in the District for at least 2 semesters after taking the course (otherwise they must reimburse the District for the course).
3) Personal Days: Each Teacher has 3 personal days they may take per year. If unused, 1 day may be rolled over into the following year and/or added to Accumulated Sick Leave (for a maximum of 4 personal days per year; unlimited sick leave).
4) Professional Leave: 2 days per year for conferences, conventions, workshops, seminars- District must pay for substitute teacher.
5) Sick Time: Accumulated at 10 days per year. There is NO LIMIT to the number of sick days that can be accumulated while an employee of the district. In the event an employee has an extended illness or extended recovery from injury and uses all available sick leave, AN ADDITIONAL 10 DAYS for each 30 days of sick leave which the employee originally had accumulated shall be ADDED to the employee’s sick leave.
6) Severance/death benefit for unused sick time was increased to $50/day up to a maximum to 200 days. If a teacher retires with 200 days of unused sick time, they get an additional $10,000 IN ADDITION to their pension.
7) Each teacher shall work 7.5 hours per day for 187 days per year, total 1402.5 hours per year
8) Volunteer Extra Duty- Teachers are to be paid at $13/hour for extra duties on a voluntary basis.
9) Intramural Sponsorship- rates are set at $25/hour
10) Summer school- rates are set at $37/hour (yr1) and increase $1/hour each year of contract
11) Mentors are paid $1060/year increasing at $30/yr over contract term
12) Chair persons are paid an additional $1526-1771/yr increasing to $1668-1935/yr over contract term
13) Core Team Coordinators are paid an additional $1600-1700 during contract/Team Leaders $710-800 during contract
14) Medical Insurance: Each employee will pay 9% (2010-11)of premium costs based on the level of benefits- increasing 1% per year during contract
One must understand that there is a Salary Step Matrix (in the appendix to the agreement) used to determine BASE compensation. One moves up the Step Ladder with each year of tenure as well as with the number of credit hours earned. So every year you are employed by the District, your salary increases based on the step (the number of years employed) as well as by the number of credit hours under your belt as well as by the base % increases in the contract. So one must think of salaries in the context of all of these compensation points not only compounding annually, but compounding in aggregate as well.
For Example, a teacher with Bachelor’s degree at step 1 year 1 makes $42,785. In year 2 step 2 makes $45,422. In year 3 step 3 makes $48,434, and in year 4 step 4 makes $51,379- or a 20% increase in 4 years (or 5% per year- not the 4%,4%,4.5% & 4% discussed in public). If they take classes- they could be reimbursed another $14,000 in tuition over the same time period. If they earn a Master Degree, or Master’s Equivalency, with the FREE tuition money provided by the District during that time, they move to an even larger base salary. So that same teacher could instead be earning $55,985 with a Masters or MEQ come year 4 (a 30% increase from yr 1).
If they are a mentor ($1060/yr), AND/OR a team leader ($710/yr), AND/OR a coordinator ($1600/yr), AND/OR a club advisor, coach, or any other position besides just a teacher working 187 days of the year, they are awarded additional compensation. They can be anyone of the above or any COMBINATION of the above. Add to that health and pension benefits whose costs are increasing at double digits and the compensation package is considerable. Teachers in the district (base salaries only) earn anywhere from mid $40s to upper $80s (with an average of $77k). Under this contract, those numbers rise to as high as $98k/year (BASE salary). If also a department head, coach, advisor of one or more clubs, etc – there will be a good number of teachers making well in excess of $100k per year in 2013.
QUESTION: Any idea if there’s any other long term contracts with increases included out there? Food service? transportation? etc?
ANSWER: Transportation contract provided for 4% annual increases over 3 year period. That contract has one more year to go. We have approached the Transportation companies and asked them for assistance with the terms of their contract.
QUESTION: I know it’s been thrown out there (kinda vaguely) that even if the millage was increased every year to it’s max allowable- it would NOT cover the guaranteed increases (just for teachers) that were signed. And that’s not even including the increased payments to PSERS that the schools knew were going to be coming due.
ANSWER: I think I am the one who has thrown it out there because I think I am the only one who has taken a closer examination of the impact this contract will have on the district in years 2,3, and 4. Here is my basic take on taxes and contractual costs:
If we ASSUME the index is the same next year (and every year for the next 4 years) as it was this year, and that one can apply for special exceptions at the same levels next year (and every year over the next 4 years) as we did this year, and we also assume the overall tax base for the district remains at $1,056,151,800 over the next 4 years, you get the following:
29.47 mills 2010-11 or $1.9M
31.42 mills 2011-12 or $2.06M
33.50 mills 2012-13 or $2.2M
35.70 mills 2013-14 or $2.33M
Taxes are essentially raised a little more than 6.5% per year each year under this scenario.
Anticipated expense increases JUST FOR TEACHERS CONTRACT are currently at
$3.2M
$2.4M
$7.0M
$3.1M
This includes PSERS contributions as provided by the State at 8.7%, 10.7%, 29.55%, and 32.45%. Please remember that PSERS benefits District employees: a pension of 85% of the average of the highest 3 years salaries. This number is then paid out annually to a retiree.
Essentially, not only does the teacher contract ALONE wipe out any revenues gained from increased taxes AND special exceptions- the District still runs short of the contractual obligations of that contract in each year. In yr 1, taxes run $1.3M short, in yr 2 taxes run $340k short, and so on. Even taking PSRS out of the equation, tax increases can’t keep up with the teacher’s contract increases. Now also consider the District’s other operating expenses (transportation, fuel, utilities, non-instructional salaries and benefits, etc) that also increase each year- what of them?
Now reconsider the assumptions I made earlier about revenues. The assessed value of the District remained pretty much constant for the last 4 years (in a great economy where RE values were increasing at double digit clips). What happens if assessed values decrease in the district (as they already have) over the next few years? Each mill increase is worth less $. So it may not be $1.9M in yr one, but rather $1.8M in revenues. And instead of $2.06M in yr 2, a tax increase may only yield $1.9M. Also consider that the District index has been declining under Act 1. Therefore, it may not be able to raise taxes 3.8% next year- it may be less.
Again, this is my personal opinion (and not that of the Board or the District) on revenues and expenses as it relates to the teacher’s contract over the next 4 years. One can argue about details here and there (is it a $1.3M contractual deficit in yr 1 or $900k deficit), but even in broad terms and assuming things get much better faster, taxes can’t rise fast enough or high enough to cover the costs of the district’s contractual obligations.
Clearly, going forward, more analysis by the District on the impact of its contractual obligations (all of them including healthcare costs, pensions, time off, etc) to its future operating budgets (and subsequent taxes charged to residents of the District) needs to be done BEFORE contracts are signed – not after. Doing the analysis after the contract is signed is too late.
Another troubling point concerning this contract: as an “early bird” contract- signed 2 years in advance- those elected to the board last year (2009) not only have to work under the current teacher’s contract in place, but that same contract will outlast their term (which ends in 2013). So in essence, a previous board negotiated a contract the next board has no say over, no control over, and may not even be able to negotiate a new one during their term in office. They are left literally holding the bag, and the consequences, with no power to change it whatsoever. This should give taxpayers great pause when considering who they elect to a school Board seat. Owen J. Roberts is a perfect example of this. Just because a Board member’s term may be expiring, it does not prevent them from impacting a District for years well beyond their own term.
In this case, although outnumbered on the vote to approve this contract 8-1, I at least had a vote. Our two new board members had no say, and will not have a say, on this contract during their current term. There is something fundamentally wrong with that circumstance. Again, just my personal philosophy on Board contracts…
If your friend has any other questions, please let me know!
Thanks
Andrew Basile
Vice President
Daniel Boone School Board
Andrew,
What can be done to stop this? You seem to be the only one who cares to do the right thing. Having expiring members take care of their friends before getting out is just like what is going on in Washington right now. What will we do? You state even tax increases can’t keep up with contract demands, so what then? Confiscate our houses? What is the next step here? How do we beat the teacher’s union and get Harrisburg to either fund the pension defecits or, and I like this better, break the contract just like Washington did wth GM and Chrysler, and start over. If Obama can break contracts why can’t we? We are not funding education, we are funding teachers cushy retriements and by the sound of above , SIX figure salaries to go along with their cadillac health care plans!
I read we are cutting music programs at the elementary level. That is terrible!! I WANT to pay for my kids to learn music along with reading writing and arithmitic. What do we cut when their is no more to cut?
How do we change the way the teachers are compensated? Property taxes are clearly not the answer. How do we break the strangle hold the teacher’s unions have on us? If they care so much about the kids as they always like to say in their sound bites then they would never stand for cutting valuable programs. But we all know they are NOT going voluntarily give back anything.
What do we do to stop this madness!?
In response to the poster above,
Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how many hours outside of the contract the teachers in this district spend teaching your children? Do youhave any idea how much money teachers spend out of their own pockets to ensure your child gets the best learning experience possible? Do you have any idea how much teachers spend in their own healthcare? You are speaking out of context and until you have lived the life of a teacher in this district and had to deal with no money, ignorant parents, unruly children with no support from home and not to be thanked or commended for the work/money/time they spend outside of the 7.5 hour workday…you need to keep your comments to yourself. The teachers union is in effect to protect teachers from people like you that think they are not worth anything. There are several teachers that live in this district and you are asking them to take a cut in pay and raise their taxes…seriously? I do not see any other profession being asked to take a cut in pay or benefits due to homeowners being pissed about taxes going up. I do agree that cutting programs in our schools is a sad thing. The fact is there is not enough money to teach the kids much less enrich what they are learning. I just paid $95 for my 4 year old to play T-Ball…suck it up and pay for lessons. I have been paying well over $7,000 for quite some time now with no kids in school. I have lived the life of the teacher that spend over $2,000 on my kids/classroom out of my pocket. Unless you want to go without mother’s day gifts, valentine’s day gifts, projects or classroom libraries then I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.
Daniel Boone is one of the ONLY schools that do not require parents to provide school supplies. Don;t believe me? Check out Wal-mart before school starts. Nowhere will you find a list for DB students. Even Wyomissing has a list and they are the highest paid in the county. I say buy your own damn crayons, pencils, paper, markers, colored pencils, folders, erasers, scissors, construction paper, paint, water-colors. Parents in this district have it good. Try living somewhere else where you do not get the level of commitment these teachers demonstrate. Cushy retirement? Again, check your facts. Cadillac healthcare? They pay a lot for that! check your facts! Get over yourself. Break the contract? Sure then you can watch the quality teachers we have leave and find a job elsewhere and be replaced with non-qulaified staff that will accept the low pay and benefits package you want to offer.
I just stumbled on this website and feel the need to comment on the “annoyed” post. I agree with EVERYTHING you posted. I am a teacher and also the mother of two elementary children. I am pretty sure that the first post was written by someone who has never spent time in their child’s school or had a negative school experience when they were young. Most parents who are involved understand and appreciate all that we do and how little we are compensated.
Good knowledge is power! So why would you not want to pay teachers a fair salary. No one complains about how much the sports figures make, or the rock stars or actors. Yet teachers have a direct impact on every one of us, even those without children. Who will be running things when we retire? Children who are being taught NOW.
Cutting academics just doesn’t make sense in the long run. We need well rounded, educated graduates. Where are our priorities?
Daniel Boone is paying 3 million dollars for a stadium. They already have one. A new one would be nice but only if YOU CAN AFFORD IT. Don’t cut programs and then replace something you already have. I’m not going to put in silk carpets if the roof is leaking. These are the things people should be screaming about. The school board needs to get there act together and set their priorities. Are they here for education or sports? They need 2 million, the stadium is costing 3 use that money for other things and keep all programs.
Marie,
Why would I care what a sports figure makes? I’m not paying his salary. I do ,however, pay Daniel Boone teacher’s salaries.
No one is saying that teachers shouldn’t make a FAIR wage but how is it fair for them to not have to bite the bullet with the rest of us? No cost or very low cost health insurance, and a DEFINED BENEFIT RETRIEMENT. Do you even know what that is? I’m guessing you’re a teacher per your comment so you do. Why should the rest of us have to make up what we lost in the market PLUS make up the teachers PLUS fund more of it , with no chance of them losing ANYTHING in the market that they are also invested in?
Also, the stadium, for the last time, is from a differnt pot of money, it needs spent on capital expenditures or it gets lost, just like the use it or lose it sick days.
Last, the private chool system, which has posted markedly BETTER results, and has no union and is much less compensated than the public sector, should be a model from which we build.
Why no voucher system yet for those of us that pay property taxes AND then pay for private school because we know the product is better?
My problem is not with teachers, it is with the teacher’s union.
That madness MUST end and it must end NOW or we are all doomed to no one but public school teacher profiting off of our PROPERTIES.
I think there is too much emotion in this discussion and not enough communication on the facts. Everyone has a right to their opinion and thru listening to those opinions we can sort out what points of view have merit and which may not. We should NOT tell our fellow stakeholders to keep their opinions to themselves unless they’ve walked in each other’s shoes. That’s just not constructive.
The facts are that the school district cannot sustain itself with the current revenues and expenses to operate the district in the manner in which it is currently operating. Are the teachers valuable to the school district? ABSOLUTELY! Do they go unappreciated at times, PERHAPS!. Do they have to put up with the hassles and politics of working with parents, YES! But our issue here isn’t what we think of the teachers and what adequate compensation is. The issue at hand is what do we do to get thru these economic pitfalls and keep our kids educated to the highest standards we can and keep the current staff employed. There are cuts happening everywhere within the school district why wouldn’t the teachers (who represent the largest expense on the budget and who can make the biggest impact) want to voluntarily help work toward the solving the problem so that one of their own may not lose their job? Concessions should be made by EVERYONE in the best interest of the students and the professionals that make it all happen. Everyone to me means that perhaps parents contribute if they want their child to be involved in some extra-carricular programs, Everyone means the transportation company, Everyone means the administrative staff and everyone means the teachers. The taxpayers of our community has bared the burden for many years to help the district achieve many of the things that it needed. This year I think its time for the district to give back and help out the taxpayer by showing that they can control spending.
We’re not talking about next year or 5 years or 10 years from now, we are talking about this budget for this coming year. Lets pull together and work through fixing this issue. Lets all give back a little and make it happen so that we can be assured that our district will prosper for years to come. I know we can weather the storm and come out of it on the other side with minimal damage if we just started working collectively.
A concerned parent and taxpayer
As a concerned parent, tax-payer, and teacher, I simply do not understand why we are discussing the pay of a teacher. The teachers’ union has been around for years! We are protected under the union. That is a fact and good luck fighting it. Yes, we are in hard economic times. The school district came to the teachers with a fair contract, and the teachers signed it. There is money owed to the state for the retirement. Our school district, as well as many others, did not pay the money over the past couple of years. So sure they owe it now. When people talk about a cushey retirement that was part of the gig to being a teacher. Now as a 10 year veteran in teaching, I will never make $100,000. I know that and accept it. I don’t know why people feel as though the teachers owe the tax payers of this district a concession to the contract. If they do it one year, how are they are going to get paid the next year? or the next? Let’s all sit back relax, and take the tax increase we are going to get. If you haven’t reassesed your house and it is newly built look into a reassment. I believe you will make out.
The facts that have NOT been represented in this post:
Teachers contribute to their retirement, and it is taken directly out of paychecks, and they have NO choice in the retirement plan or whether or not they want to contribute, so when the state has not been contributing to their contractual end teachers are now wondering if they will have ANY retirement package when they reach retirement age.
The tuition reimbursement is because the state requires all teachers to continue taking classes to further their education.
All of the “extras” mentioned are not something every teacher can or will do. There are only a small number of clubs to advise, new teachers to mentor or teams to lead. And the time involved in working these extra duties makes it nearly impossible to do enough “extra” things to make the ridiculous salary suggested in this post.
The contract that is being complained about was pushed through by the school board and administration early. If they hadn’t pushed for the teachers to sign it in the fall, then they wouldn’t have to ask for them to break it now.
The administrators in the district START over six figures and they also get an annual raise.
Teachers DON’T teach because it is a lucrative profession, they choose to teach because they love teaching and want to prepare YOUR children to thrive once they get out of school.
Oh, and private schools generally pay teachers LESS, so they will attract LESS qualified teachers, and it is even possible teachers that have not kept their certification.
I moved to this town 3 years ago because I believed it to be on the rise. Doesn’t seem that way today. We should be more concerned with the rising cost of gas and utilities compared to teachers getting a guarantee of a 4% salary increase. We continue to cut programs and positions in this school system. Before you know it, we will be Norristown. Invest more in the schools and youth. We should build a better school system to attract new residents that will buy into all of the undeveloped land, so that the taxes can possibly go down in the future. YOU ARE BORROWING YOUR FUTURE FROM TODAY’S YOUTH. THE BEST INVESTMENT YOU CAN MAKE IS IN THEIR EDUCATION. Less cutting and more spending in our own community to make it grow.