D.C. Everest Teachers Say 'No Way' to Contract Offer

D. C. Everest High School teachers Bruce Chopp and Michele Vinje hand out brochures to parents attending parent-teacher conferences at Evergreen Elementary School. The brochures emphasize the importance of retaining and attracting the best teachers and staff so the district can maintain quality education.

Teachers in the D.C. Everest School District didn’t just say no to the school board’s “final offer” this fall, they shouted it loud and clear.

With 97% of members turning out for the vote, an overwhelming 91% voted against the contract – even though the board said it would use the QEO (Qualified Economic Offer) law to impose an even worse contract on the teachers if they rejected it.

“I’ve been here 28 years, and we’ve never turned down a contract before,” said D.C. Everest Teachers’ Association President Fred Yulga. “People are just getting frustrated and aggravated.”

The all-member ratification vote was taken in October at the request of the school board, after union negotiators rejected the board’s offer. By recent standards under the QEO law, the offer wasn’t all that bad. Basically, it included a 3.24% salary increase the first year. On its surface, the second year included a 4.24% total package increase, but because of built-in insurance premium increases, it actually amounted to a 1.7% salary hike, and even less for some members.

Teachers said that after eight years of pay raises that fell below the rate of inflation, they could not agree to a contract that would cause them to fall even further behind.

“How can you expect us to keep accepting these unacceptable salaries?” asked teacher Teri Engen in an open letter to the board. “We are no longer willing to sit back and simply take sub-standard offers.”

“Since 1993, I have patiently waited for revenue controls and the QEO law to be repealed,” wrote teacher Karl Marquardt. “I understand that I have taken a risk of getting less than the board’s best offer by voting no, but to accept the offer (would be) to accept that this law is right.”

Those two letters were among many written by DCETA members after the school board wrote a letter to all members asking them to reconsider their vote of rejection. The members, in turn, asked the board to reconsider its position.

The feeling among members continues to be nearly unanimous, Yulga said, that a sub-par contract offer will not be accepted this time around.

The union has not formally adopted the WEAC Statewide Bargaining Goals, but Yulga said it is the negotiators’ intent to reach them. The goals call for per-cell salary increases of 3.4%, no take-backs, and negotiation over long-term care.

The union is organizing on several fronts to get its story out to the community. In addition to writing letters to the local newspaper, members are passing out brochures at parent-teacher conferences, and serious discussions were taking place in November regarding possible job actions such as refusing to work beyond contract requirements.

“We’ve had a lot of people talking about working to the contract,” said Past President Gerry La Barge.

The union’s brochures emphasize the need to keep great schools and quality education in D.C. Everest.

“To provide for the excellent education we have been providing in the district, D.C. Everest must be able to retain and attract the best teachers and staff to our district,” it states.

The brochure contains charts that illustrate how district teacher salary increases lag behind those of other workers in Wisconsin.
In addition, teachers are concerned that D.C. Everest salaries are behind salaries in the neighboring Wausau district, where the most experienced teachers make $6,300 more per year than the most experienced D.C. Everest teachers.

Teachers in D.C. Everest – where students get consistently high scores on standardized tests – feel they are not getting the respect they deserve.

La Barge believes that, with the support of their colleagues statewide, D.C. Everest teachers will win this battle.

“It’s been a hard decision for D.C. Everest,” she said. “But membership feels proud about what they’ve chosen to do.”

Yulga is confident that teachers eventually will prevail.

“I think time is on our side,” he said. “People are getting more frustrated, rather than cooling down, as time goes on. The more obstinate the board is, the more people are swayed toward doing something.”

Resource page on the QEO law

Posted November 30, 2001