Board proposes no teacher salary increase

The Sisters School Board has proposed no increase in the base salary schedule for teachers in the 1997-98 school year. Teachers have requested an increase of 4.8 percent.

The school district and teachers are negotiating terms for the last year of a four-year contract that spans 1994-1998.

The proposal offered by the school board to teachers on April 21 would also allow the board to determine who is rehired after layoffs based on "competence or merit," without regard to seniority.

In the teacher's proposal, presented on April 2, seniority is the primary criteria in deciding between teachers who are certificated to teach in the same subject area.

According to Kirk Albertson, chairperson of the teachers' bargaining group, a primary concern of teachers about the board proposal is that "competence" and "merit" are not adequately defined. They worry that without seniority a school board could use layoffs to terminate good teachers without due process for political reasons.

There is also concern that more experienced, more highly educated instructors might be laid off in favor of less experienced instructors with less education simply to reduce costs, said Albertson.

Without an ongoing review of a teacher's classroom work and without the protection of seniority, a teacher's career could also be jeopardized by "coffee shop talk" from disgruntled parents, Albertson said.

This fight over seniority is also taking place in the Oregon Legislature, where a rewrite of the law is underway. Those who oppose seniority say that seniority or simply being certificated in a subject is not an adequate standard and that school boards need flexibility in hiring to provide the best teachers for students.

In local contract talks, the Sisters school board has also proposed continuing the $415 cap on the district's contribution to the insurance package, and that selection of an insurance carrier and benefits "will be by mutual agreement."

Last year insurance cost the district a little less than $415 per employee. In their contract proposal, teachers asked th

at the district continue to provide the current benefits package of medical, dental and life insurance at no cost to employees.

As to salaries, while there would be no increase to the base salary under the school board's proposal, "the district will provide increased funding for salaries sufficient to pay for the costs of horizontal and vertical movement by teachers within the current salary schedule."

Horizontal and vertical movement on the salary schedule increases a teacher's salary to compensate for additional education (horizontal) and length of service (vertical).

The schedule recognizes eight grades of education, from a simple bachelor's degree to a masters degree plus 45 educational units, and up to 15 years of step increases for length of service.

In Sisters, a first-year teacher at the bottom of the salary schedule with a bachelor's degree is paid $23,126. A teacher with 15 or more years of experience and a masters degree and 45 additional educational units receives $45,488.

The district's proposal would keep that schedule, resulting in no pay increase for 14 teachers in Sisters who have "topped out" at the highest salary paid. The teachers' proposal would increase the base to $24,236 at the low end, and t

o $47,671 at the high end.

In other changes to the contract, the school board has also proposed that paid personal leave be reduced from three to two days a year.

The next negotiating session between school board and teachers representatives is scheduled for May 28