School salary talks stall

A technical disagreement about where employees fall on the salary schedule has stalled negotiations between Sisters teachers and the school board.

According to board chair Bill Reed, the parties need to resolve this matter before proceeding with the next negotiating session, scheduled for Friday, August 22.

"Before we go any further, we need to come to an agreement as to where each and every employee in the district is on the salary schedule so we know exactly how much money it (the teachers' proposal) will cost the District," said Reed.

If the parties agree on the details by Friday, "The District would at that time make an offer to the union for a salary schedule for the 1997-'98 fiscal year," Reed said.

The Sisters Education Association (SEA) represents the teachers. SEA representative Kirk Albertson said that at an association meeting was to to be held on Monday, August 18, the SEA would create a chart on which each teacher's position on the salary schedule is laid out.

Albertson does not anticipate a discrepancy between the district's records and the SEA's.

The SEA entered negotiations seeking a 4.8 percent increase in teachers' base salaries. Albertson said the teachers and the administration "are still in a bit of a stalemate." But he emphasized that the SEA bargaining group viewed the revised budget with optimism, and said, "It looks like if the board decides to do it, the money may be there."

The SEA maintains that the 4.8 percent increase translates to about $144,000, or $30,000 a percentage point.

School Board Chairman Reed believes $144,000 "is not a true reflection of the overall cost to the district. That only represents hard money for one section of the employees in the district. If we did the same for other employees and calculated the load, the true cost would be about $168,000."

The "load" represents all costs, including social security and worker's compensation.

Reed said that, although present talks are between the administration and certified employees (teachers), any salary increase the teachers were to receive would also be granted to non-teaching employees. These additional costs must also be included in the calculations, according to Reed.

Reed's estimate of $168,000 includes a 4.8 percent salary increase for teachers, staff and administration, as well as the costs that accompanies each.

Albertson points out that Sisters is the lowest-paid school district in the Bend-Redmond-Madras area, and that Redmond's school district just presented a package that includes a 2.5 percent cost of living increase.

"At one time we had parity, but now we continue to fall behind. We want to be able to attract quality teachers and pay them well," Albertson said.

Albertson believes there is enough money in the budget to fund a salary increase, and "it depends on how you cut up the pie. The school board says it values its teaching staff, but when it comes right down to it, they haven't even set 1 percent aside. The bone in the throat with us is that the board doesn't seem to want to play."

But school superintendent Steve Swisher said that the board just needs to examine the data before continuing negotiations.

"The board just wants to make sure we are making decisions based on the actual facts and that we are comparing apples to apples so we are not making decisions based on faulty assumptions," Swisher said.