Ghostbusters

Richland Center teachers challenge school board's figures

Ghost balloon hovers over Richland Center School Board meeting.

Ghostbusters invaded the Richland School Board meeting Monday night (November 2, 1998).

After playing Ghostbusters theme music at a rally outside, about 60 teachers carried 17 ghost balloons into the school board meeting and tied them to empty chairs.

Each balloon represented a teacher who is no longer employed by the district, although the district continues to count their salaries and benefits in projecting school district costs. These are "ghost people," teachers told school board members, and they should be "busted" from the district's budget calculations.

Every year, as experienced teachers retire or move on, they are replaced by less experienced teachers with lower salaries and benefits. The district, however, advances these more expensive "ghost" teachers on the salary schedule in projecting costs for the next two-year contract. This process is called "cast-forward costing."

By overestimating its costs, the district is underestimating the amount of money available for teacher salary and benefit increases. Under the Qualified Economic Offer law, this means the district can claim to meet the QEO standard of 2.1% salary and 1.7% benefit increases when it is actually providing much less.

This dispute over what Richland Center teachers call "ghost dollars" is at the heart of a contract battle that has now lasted nearly a year and a half. Richland is one of only 18 districts that are still without a contract for the 1997-98 and 1998-99 term (as of November 3, 1998).

"In 1997-98, the district was willing to pay teachers less than one-half of the budgeted 3.8%," RCEA secretary and negotiator Jane Kintz wrote in a recent letter to the local newspaper. "We are not asking for more money. We are only asking that the QEO amount, which the district has budgeted, be put into our salary."

Richland Center teachers are engaged in a variety of activities to win public support and pressure the board into settling the contract.

Twice this fall, they have picketed and rallied at the school board meeting, urging the district to negotiate a fair settlement. In addition to the November 2 activity, they held an October 19 rally that included speeches by Bob West, WEAC's director of collective bargaining, and John Matthews, executive director of Madison Teachers Inc.
They have formed committees on letter writing and advertising, job actions, school board meeting organization, parent/community awareness, teacher relations/morale, new teacher education, and retired teachers communication.
Members are wearing buttons that say Working Without a Contract - Again, and STOP, which stands for Standing Together for Our Profession.
They will "work to contract" on Mondays and Tuesdays beginning November 9, which means they will not perform any duties or volunteer activities that are not specifically required by the contract.
They wear black on pay day.
They are writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper.
Posters that say Working Without a Contract for __ Days have been placed in work rooms.
They have solicited support from members of the support staff union (AFSCME Local 2082), who have also been without a contract for two years, and from educators in neighboring districts and throughout the South West Education Association UniServ.
They have contacted radio, newspaper and television stations, and received extensive publicity from WISC-TV (Channel 3) in Madison as a result of the October 19 rally.
Teachers at Doudna Elementary School compiled a list of the extra hours they put in without pay the week of October 19.
They placed advertisements in the Richland Observer and the Shopping News notifying the public of the number of days they have been working without a contract.
They distributed "ghost dollars" in the community. Every time teachers buy something in the community, they pay the bill and then add a "ghost dollar" to draw attention to their plight.

Joyce Bos, executive director at SWEA, said the district's use of "cast forward costing" or "ghost people" has resulted in large cost overestimates. She said the district is saving $160,000 in 1997-98 and more than $100,000 in 1998-99 in salaries alone. In addition, she said, it is saving $80,561 over two years by overestimating its contributions to the Wisconsin Retirement System.

In an effort to end the contract stalemate, the RCEA has offered to accept the board's "cast forward costing" the first year of the contract as long as teachers get the full budgeted amount the second year. The association has filed for mediation.