Persistence Pays Off In Berlin
By Terry Lawler
When Berlin Education Association President Tim Cox
stood before the school board in October and asked it to pass a resolution
supporting repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer law and school district
revenue caps, the response was anything but enthusiastic.
As soon as he finished, board members moved right
to the next item of business without even commenting on his request.
“I said to them, ‘Is that it?’
“And then I vowed to return to the November
meeting and make the request again, and I will continue to do so until
they acknowledge the issue,” Cox said.
Berlin teachers are committed to Level II participation
in the Great Schools Statewide Action Plan, and one of the coordinated
activities of the plan is to ask the school board to pass such a resolution.
The overall goals of the Great Schools Statewide Action
Plan are to achieve a revised system of school funding that ensures
that every child has access to an adequately funded public education,
and a fair collective bargaining law for teachers and education support
professionals.
Berlin teachers have been disturbed by budget cuts
over the past two years that are making it increasingly difficult to
maintain great schools for everyone:
- The district’s attendance secretary left and was not replaced;
an assistant principal and already-overworked secretaries now handle
those duties.
- All library aides but one were cut.
- An elementary adaptive physical education position was cut, and
aides were assigned those duties.
- “Our curriculum supervisor does adaptive phy ed at the high
school because after the teacher died the position was never posted,”
Cox said. “My comment to the board was, ‘What a highly
paid adaptive PE teacher we have.’”
Berlin teachers are using their participation in the Great Schools
Statewide Action Plan not only to draw attention to these and other
problems, but to demonstrate solidarity with teachers throughout the
state.
Berlin teachers held their I See Red Day October 20 because parent
conferences were October 15. Activities included a visit to the school
board meeting that night.
“We wore our shirts again on October 27,” Cox said, adding
that about 70% of the teachers wore red that day and participation would
have been higher except that some of the elementary teachers were in
Halloween costumes. In addition, the BEA and Three Rivers United Educators
purchased shirts for the education support professionals, who have been
negotiating their initial contract since 2001.
BEA members know from past experience that unity and persistence pay
off. In 2000, they succeeded in convincing the school board that they
deserved good pay raises.
Cox and Don Demick, BEA’s chief negotiator, said that four years
ago the Berlin pay scale was abysmally low.
“The board’s source of information kept telling them that
Berlin’s pay scale compared favorably with those of other districts
in their conference,” Demick said. That perception changed at
an October 2000 meeting when board members were “overwhelmed to
find so many unhappy teachers,” said Demick.
“We were at the low end for salaries in our conference, and our
conference average was well below the state average,” Demick said.
Over the past four years, wages and benefits crept up, although they
are still well behind state averages.
“Our meeting of four years ago changed the dynamics of the district,”
Demick said. “That watershed meeting of 2000 destroyed the old
way of thinking in this district.”
Now, both men hope the BEA’s continued participation in the Action
Plan will build off that success by helping teachers progress further,
improving overall school funding and ultimately maintaining great schools
for every child in the community.
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Schools Statewide Action Plan Resource page
Posted November 19, 2004