<p>But the question is why no contract? If 28% over 3 years is the sticking point then there’s room for debate. </p>
<p>BCEagle: I have a serious question. Do you have a contract with your employer? If so, can you honestly say you would continue to work for two years without one? I’m not saying you wouldn’t make concessions when working out the details. What I’m asking is whatever the terms would you continue to work for two years without a mutually agreed upon contract with your employer?</p>
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<p>No.</p>
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<p>I’ve started several businesses, worked as a contractor, worked odd jobs as a teenager and I’ve never had an employment contract. I can quite anytime I want to and they can fire me anytime they want to.</p>
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<p>I have worked the types of contract where there is a certain amount of work and a certain amount of money paid for the work. I have also worked where I charged by the hour. In general, there were no negotiations. I’d state our price and if the client didn’t want to pay it, they had to find someone else.</p>
<p>In Washington teachers can retire after 20 years, Georgia its 25- looks like the states very a bit. ( It also looks like you can retire after 20 years in MA & AK)</p>
<p>I think those in the public sector would be surprised at how pay has stagnated and benefits have been cut over the past 10-20 years in the private sector. ( that is if you take out the pay/benefits of CEOs)</p>
<p>ek- you must also reach a certain age to be able to retire with a full pension. Most likely anything under 55 or 60 years of age would reduce the pension.</p>
<p>Most likely anything under 55 or 60 years of age would reduce the pension.</p>
<p>Makes sense to me.
[50-State</a> Survey of Certain Teacher Retirement Plan Provisions](<a href=“http://www.cga.ct.gov/2000/rpt/olr/htm/2000-R-1110.htm]50-State”>http://www.cga.ct.gov/2000/rpt/olr/htm/2000-R-1110.htm)</p>
<p>Teachers work out independent study arrangements, write personalized letters of recommendation, sponsor clubs, attend athletic events, plays, concerts, and PTSO meetings as a courtesy to our students and parents. Contractually we are not obligated to do so.</p>
<p>I personally do many of these things and I expect nothing more than a thank you and the respect I have earned. I enjoy them and I am happy to support our students every chance I get.</p>
<p>While I have never had an independent study arrangement with a student it has been the result of a lack of opportunity, not willingness.</p>
<p>The problem is that as teachers we do all of these to support our students, not because it’s in our contract. It seems though that what we do as a courtesy to our students has become an expectation by the public. </p>
<p>If I contract with a roofer to replace my roof for X amount of dollars, is he then a bad guy because he won’t paint my shutters free of charge on a Saturday because I ask him to?</p>
<p>There’s no need to argue over who has the most stressful job - there’s stress EVERYWHERE.</p>
<p>I saw an article recently that said despite the huge numbers of unemployed workers, companies who are beginning to hire again now say they have trouble finding skilled workers. Why? Because the work that used to be done by 5 people is now being done by 3. They used to have someone who did A, and someone else did B, but with all the cutbacks they had one person doing A&B, and now they only want to hire people with skills in both areas. Productivity of individual workers has gone way up, because everyone who is still employed is working longer hours. </p>
<p>I work in a public school, and I see how many of us have job responsibilities that keep expanding, while our paychecks do not. Even so, I see things that aren’t getting done, that are slipping thru the cracks and eroding the quality of education - because there are simply not enough personnel to get the work done. (I haven’t had a raise in 2 years either and I don’t expect one this year - or maybe a VERY modest one, like 1 - 2%. FWIW I am not in the Union or in a unionized position). </p>
<p>While I can sympathize that the teachers have gone 2 years without a contract, I don’t think they’re really any more “special” than any other group of workers. And any union crazy enough to start negotiations by requesting a 28% increase over 3 years had to KNOW it was going to be a long time before that negotiation was successful!</p>
<p>In Mass, anytime a town wants to increase its property tax income by more than 2 1/2%, it has to go to an “override” vote of the taxpayers. Those votes are successful less than half the time. In KP’s case, an increase in the regional school budget that would cost the 3 member towns more than 2 1/2% per year would probably end up in the hands of the voters in all 3 towns. Norfolk and Wrentham are moderately wealthy towns, but Plainville is more average. Norfolk and Wrentham are also somewhat rural, so there’s a real mix of incomes.</p>
<p>*The problem is that as teachers we do all of these to support our students, not because it’s in our contract. It seems though that what we do as a courtesy to our students has become an expectation by the public. </p>
<p>If I contract with a roofer to replace my roof for X amount of dollars, is he then a bad guy because he won’t paint my shutters free of charge on a Saturday because I ask him to?*</p>
<p>I would hope that teachers don’t attend school events because they are obligated to do so, but because they want to.</p>
<p>( although I assume that teachers who are in charge of those ECs are getting some sort of stipend? Our district has TRI pay, that teachers can receive for committee work etc. </p>
<p>I would like to see schools get some sort of monies that they can designate for something other than what is covered in school day. Tutoring, activity buses, artists in residence…I know some teachers & principals write grants to find this sort of funding, but that leaves it pretty much up to the building, leaving big disparities in an urban district)</p>
<p>The roofing situation doesn’t seem analogous, because roofers don’t even deal with gutters oftentimes, let alone shutters. 
I am crossing my fingers they don’t totally trash my landscaping!</p>
<p>The funding of public education has been an issue forever. It’s a bit like the fire service in TN where they let the house burn. Everyone wants good schools, but no one wants to pay what is necessary in taxes to have them. And, of course, if the economy is bad or unemployment is high, that just compounds the problem that is already there.</p>
<p>Everyone is being asked to do more with fewer resources and rarely an increase in pay, even COLA. I work at a university, and raises have been few and far between for more than 10 years now. Unions have managed to negotiate some COLA increases, but they don’t nearly keep up. Now many universities are talking about furloughs. For hourly staff, that mean unpaid time off, but the work still has to be done. For faculty, it just means a pay cut, because it won’t happen during days when there are classes.</p>
<p>I’m sure these teachers are not expecting 28% salary increases. When teachers strike, it usually means they have been pushed to it. It may be because they feel that over several years, they have been cooperative and feel taken advantage of. Of they may feel that the board is not negotiating in good faith. </p>
<p>I think it’s a shame they’re making seniors suffer when there are other options as previous posters have mentioned, not sponsoring ECs, only registering grades for seniors, etc.</p>
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sadly we can substitute almost any job/profession/employer into this statement. This isnt just true for educators.</fill></fill></p>
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No, what this means is that up to year 14, teachers get two raises - one from the ladder, and one from whatever year-to-year increases are in the contract. And possibly three raises, if you meet an education target. After year 14, you get whatever the year-to-year increase is, and education increases.</p>
<p>In my town (suburb of Boston) teachers start at $43K, can top out at over $100K, get paid extra to supervise extracurriculars such as sports and yearbook (on average $25-40/hour), get paid almost $40/hour to chaperone after-school activities, get paid for overnight trips, get paid $300+/day if they have to work during the summer, get 15 sick days/year (which can accumulate from year to year)… the list goes on.</p>
<p>In addition, they get extremely generous pensions, ridiculously good health care, and have seniority, which makes many of them unfireable no matter how bad they are. Oh, and a special pension-boosting bennie for the last three years before they retire.</p>
<p>It drives me nuts when the teachers I know complain about their compensation.</p>
<p>In our system SOME extra-curriculars are compensated, not all. Teachers are not paid to chaperone dances, nor are they paid to chaperone overnight field trips.</p>
<p>We are compensated for work in the summer. We are not compensated for tutoring, or providing additional support in an extended day format.</p>
<p>I think you are compensated-- its part of your salary and job requirement/expectations. You are just not given overtime pay. Thats a different issue perhaps. Salaried people don’t typically get overtime.</p>
<p>I believe being paid an extra stipend for advising EC groups is pretty standard around here (MA). Our school has started charging an “activity fee” to students specifically to pay those stipends. Coaches are also paid. However, teachers aren’t paid extra for writing LORs.</p>
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So true, Tango, so true.</p>
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Our town’s contract calls out over 100 separate “co-curricular” stipends for sports and other activities. I don’t know if that covers everything, but it’s a pretty long list.</p>
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Our school is charging for sports, but not any other activities (yet). We pay for buses too (and parking if the kids drive to school).</p>
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<p>For low income kids these fees make it difficult or impossible for kids to participate.</p>
<p>Oh, here we pay for busses ($200), sports ($200) and activities ($50 flat fee for all the activities/clubs you want). I’m beginning to wonder where the “public” part of public education is going…</p>
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If a family qualifies for free or reduced price lunch, the fees are waived. But you don’t have to be poor to have all these fees really add up and take a big bite out of your budget if you have 2 or 3 kids in school.</p>
<p>We don’t have Naviance - too expensive. The hs kids have gone from 7 classes per day to 6.</p>
<p>Our teachers get the same deal on health insurance as all other municipal workers - employee pays 1/3, town pays 2/3. I think that’s pretty reasonable for everyone.</p>
<p>The thing that stinks about working for the gov’t in Mass is that we don’t participate in Social Security. We pay into a different retirement plan. I’d really rather have SS plus a pension.</p>
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Are you kidding?</p>
<p>FICA tax is 15.3% of your pay (your half plus the employer’s half) for your entire working career, and for that at age 67 you can get a max of around $28,000/year. And many people will get much less than this. And we pay Federal income tax on our share.</p>
<p>And the benefit is either going to get worse or the taxes higher because the SS “surplus” is disappearing and the number of people collecting is rising rapidly.</p>
<p>For people under 50, we are unlikely to even get our money back, forget about any return on our “investment”. Although, since SS is really a welfare program, it’s not accurate to talk about it as an investment.</p>
<p>With the MA state plan your pension can be up to 80% of the average of your highest three consecutive years of pay,and although your contribution is higher than the employee part of FICA, you don’t pay Federal income tax on them.</p>
<p>Why would you want to be in the Social Security system?</p>
<p>I’m not in the Teacher’s Retirement plan. Like most non-teachers and municipal workers in our town, I’m in a county retirement plan. Defined benefit, they take 9% from my pay, no employer contribution that I am aware of, 10 year cliff-vesting. </p>
<p>If you work part-time, you aren’t even in the county plan - you are required to contribute 7% to an OBRA plan that charges significant fees. (face it, at 7% of a part-time salary, ANY fee becomes significant on a percentage basis). All of this while not accruing any quarters for SS, so no eligibility for disability, survivor benefits, etc.</p>
<p>We recently had a prospective employee withdraw her application when she found out we don’t participate in SS.</p>