Clintonville Teachers Demonstrate Frustration with Symbolic Check
The Clintonville Education Association Monday night (February 10, 2003)
presented the school board with a symbolic check of $19,855.77, representing
money Clintonville teachers have returned to the district in salary paybacks
as a result of a Qualified Economic Offer contract imposed on them by
the board in December.
And that represents just a portion of the teachers' lost salaries, they
told the board. In addition to the money actually paid back to the district,
the annual salary of each teacher in Clintonville has been reduced by
an average of $957 as a result of the board's decision to impose the QEO
and freeze all wage increases for years of experience. The total cost
of the QEO to the teachers in 2001-03 is about $70,000.
"This check is the actual amount of money which teachers are paying
back to the district as a result of the failed negotiations over the last
two years…it is money which was already paying for teachers' mortgages
and putting food on their tables," Clintonville Education Association
President Bob Arkens told the board in presenting the check.
"You have a staff that is trying to get your attention without reducing
services to students. We are trying to deliver an excellent product –
education – while highlighting our salary deterioration," he
said.
In response, School Board President Pat McCarthy expressed her hope that
the upcoming round of negotiations for the 2003-05 contract would be much
more productive than that of the previous two years. She also pointed
out that the board was going to make an effort to improve relations with
the staff, and would begin to do so immediately by meeting informally
with teachers.
Clintonville's teachers voted in December to reject a two-year contract
offered by the board. That offer consisted of the 3.8% increase in wages
and benefits, as specified under Wisconsin's QEO law, for the 2001-02
school year and a 4.08% increase in wages and benefits for the 2002-03
school year.
The 0.28% difference between the 4.08% increase offered by the board
and the 3.8% increase imposed under the QEO was intended to prevent teachers
from having to return wages that had already been paid to them. As a result
of the CEA vote to reject the contract offer, the board imposed the QEO,
resulting in the salary paybacks.
The teachers said they voted against the board's offer because they refused
on principle to agree to an unfair contract, even though they knew an
imposed QEO contract would be even worse.
Posted February 12, 2003
Photo
gallery