Albany Threat: $3,000 Paybacks

By Terry Lawler

Albany teacher Rochelle VanDusen’s world was rocked this spring when the school board told her it was going to impose a Qualified Economic Offer contract and she must pay back $2,908.95 in past salary.

“We have one of the lowest pay scales in the state,” VanDusen said, “and now the teachers will have to make huge paybacks to the district.”

VanDusen didn’t know how she would do it. Since her divorce last year, she has struggled to make ends meet, and she doesn’t have that kind of money at her disposal.

Rochelle VanDusen

Even before the payback, she said, “I have had to readjust my budget, how often I drive, going for groceries every two weeks instead of weekly. Tyler (her son) and I have never been able to take a vacation together like most families.” And now this.

The threatened payback was the result of the school board’s refusal to bargain in good faith, and its stated decision to take advantage of the QEO law, which strips teachers of their collective bargaining rights and the option of seeking arbitration. The board has calculated that rising insurance costs will eat up all of the 3.8% total package increase provided under the QEO, and then some, requiring teachers to take a pay cut retroactive to July 1, 2001.

For some teachers, that would have meant paying back more than $3,000. After the payback threat received considerable publicity, the board came back with another offer that led to a tentative agreement in late March. However, the settlement was far less than what members feel they deserve.

“The contract was a little bit better than getting QEO’d, but not much,” VanDusen said. “Basically, all the teachers feel like we were blackmailed. We were bullied into an agreement. We only voted to accept the contract because we could not afford to pay back $3,000 each.”

The offer maintains the previous salary scale – no paybacks, but no raises. However it significantly increases teachers’ insurance contributions from 1.9% to 7%, effective August 2003.

For many, like VanDusen, the treatment they received in the bargaining process – and the resulting lack of fair pay – is enough to drive them out of the profession.

VanDusen, a native of Albany, has given serious thought to leaving the district, and that would be heartbreaking.

“I attended school here through my high school graduation in 1984. I was a babysitter for local families.” She remains active in her community, having served as president of the Albany Friends of the Library, on the Altar Society of St Patrick’s Church, and on the town’s pre-school board.

“I want to stay here. I want to retire in Albany. But that might not come to be,” she said.

Sue Tinker

VanDusen’s friend and colleague, Sue Tinker, is experiencing all the same emotions. “This used to be a fun place to work, but members of my family are trying to convince me to leave teaching,” she said.

The battle with the school board has been an ordeal. The board declared an impasse in January but put forward a new offer on March 14, the same day that more than 50 of Albany’s students staged a walkout in support of the teachers and a fair contract. Students marched from the school to the center of town carrying signs that read, “United we stand for our teachers,” “Our teachers are there for us,” and “No QEO.”

According to Greg Spring, negotiations specialist for WEAC, if the board had imposed the QEO, Albany teachers’ starting salary would have dropped in rank from 396th in the state to 412th. Their top salary would have gone from 401st to 412th.

Spring said none of this turmoil would have happened if it weren’t for the 1993 QEO law, which replaced a successful and fair system of mediation and arbitration. Of more than 1,500 interest arbitration awards issued in the state prior to the QEO, not one – “0, nil, none” – ever reduced wages, Spring said. And awards were fairly evenly split between unions and school boards during that period.

The notification to Albany teachers that they would face huge paybacks under the QEO came as a complete surprise to most teachers. And when they expressed their shock, Albany Superintendent Dennis Healy increased their anger with this glib response: “If they (the teachers) say they didn’t know about giving money back, they’re liars.”

Meanwhile, Albany’s teachers have begun preparing for even harder times.

“Many teachers cancelled plans to take courses this summer. They can’t afford them. One teacher I know has taken a second job at Shopko,” Tinker said.

To help her make ends meet, VanDusen works at the public library, cleaning, on Sundays and runs an after-school day care service at her home for two families.

“Without the extra income, my son, Tyler, and I could not afford to stay in our home,” she said.

As she spoke with this reporter at her home, the father of one of the day care students – a teacher in nearby Brodhead – arrived. As he left with his child, he mentioned that he was going shopping on the way home.

“I don’t teach in Albany,” he said good-naturedly, “so I can afford to buy new shoes.”

Posted April 4, 2003