MORRISVILLE SCHOOLSMorrisville Schools still working on teachers' contract
Posted: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 3:12 pm | Updated: 6:54 pm, Tue Aug 28, 2012.
Posted on August 28, 2012
The contract for Morrisville teachers expires Friday, but negotiations with the school district will go on beyond that.
Talks are scheduled for early September, district Superintendent Bill Ferrara said Tuesday.
“We have a good working relationship,” he said, adding that he’s confident both sides will agree on a bargaining agreement that will benefit union members and the district.
The contract with the Morrisville Education Association covers 69 teachers, two guidance counselors and a school psychologist.
Neither side is discussing the main issues on the table.
Under the current six-year contract, union members' health care coverage calls for a $10 doctor visit co-pay, $15 for specialist co-pay and $35 co-pay for an emergency room visit. If admitted, members pay a $500 co-pay but the district reimburses $400 of that.
In the first year of the contract, the 2006-07 school year, union members paid 7 percent of their health care premium. By the last year, that payment increased to 10 percent.
For eye care, union members pay a $15 eye exam co-pay with a $125 lens reimbursement.
Prescription drugs have three levels of costs, ranging from $15 to $35.
As for pay, all new hires in the district will begin on step OA of the scale, unless the superintendent and the new hire agree on a different step because of the professional employee’s prior teaching experience, according to the contract. The OA means nothing specific, Ferrara said.
During the 2006-07, a newly hired employee with a bachelor’s degree earned $40,784, and an employee with a master’s degree and 30 credits was paid $51,401 a year. Teachers with 12 or more years of experience and a bachelor’s degree earned $67,871 and those with a master’s degree and 30 credits earned $86,731.
As the contract ends, a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree earns $45,896. Teachers with a master’s degree and 30 credits earn $57,843. Teachers with 12 or more years of experience with a bachelor’s degree earn $76,378, while union members with a master’s degree and 30 credits receive a salary of $97,602.
19 comments:
where is the QSRE when you need them?
Excuse me for a moment: "Teachers are overpaid and underworked. They have teachers union rules that limit what they can work. They work a six hour day and get three months off."
File that under bullshit.
I know way too many teachers who do not know the meaning of "school hours" and have summer jobs too. They go out of their way to help students who need the help and WANT (hint there!) the help. They work with parents (hint there for parents who are FULLY engaged in their children's education) to make the student's time a success.
There are always exceptions, but overall the Morrisville School District teachers are some of the most dedicated teachers I have every had the PRIVILEGE (hint there too!) to work with to make the education of my children a success.
Teachers are not employed by any district to "make money". There are very few school districts who can afford to pay non-performing teachers high salaries and Morrisville is not one of the high paying districts.
I'm confident the teachers and the union know how bad district finances are. I'm confident at least four of the school board members understand that the teachers in the MSD are dedicated individuals who often go above and beyond the call of duty.
Let's not have a Neshaminy style negotiation. This is an open plea to negotiate as fairly and as openly as possible. There has got to be a place where teachers and taxpayers can meet.
Great post. I agree. Let's be reasonable and fair and get 'er done with no drama.
Who said the first part about "Teachers are overpaid and underworked....", though? Or is that just "quoting" a common refrain?
@ Jon: That was getting the common refrain out of the way.
I wish they'd refrain from that refrain.
i agree get rid of the Refrain since nobody said that about morrisville on this post. negotiations are just that, working towards an agreement that is fair and equitable and reasonable for both sides. talks take time, meetings are difficult to arrange around peoples schedules (people do work) and then there are the times to wait for back and forth of information and responses and counters. If you have never been involved in a contract negotiation please do not comment on the process because you ahve no idea. i have done many and from what I can see and read this one is going quite well and timely considering everything involved.
Hopefully the MEA negotiations are going well, but lets not forget how long the MESPA people have gone without a contract, they are important too. Lets kill two birds with one stone, fair contracts to both.
Fair enough. It might be a standing topic for mentioning status at each board meeting.
What would they say? "We are still in talks with the other party." There isn't much you can say about negotiations with out wrecking the entire thing.
Stony contempt-ful silence did not do wonders for Hellman, Mihok, Radosti,and Ruthrauf.
"talks take time, meetings are difficult to arrange around peoples schedules (people do work) and then there are the times to wait for back and forth of information and responses and counters. If you have never been involved in a contract negotiation please do not comment on the process because you ahve no idea. i have done many and from what I can see and read this one is going quite well and timely considering everything involved."
This comment raises an eyebrow or three for me...(people do work)? yes and I would assume all the parties involved are administrators and teachers with a few board members tossed in for good measure. maybe a lawyer, whose job is to do this stuff? So wouldn't they all be working on this important matter?
And having done many and from what you've read things are going quite well and timely? What exactly have you read that we haven't in order to make such a judgement as an apparent expert on the subject?
If you've never worked on a contract please do not comment on the matter? I don't believe your expert status gives you the right to dictate anyone's opinion on this topic. Wouldn't that fly in the face of public comment and the right to disagree or agree with what's going on in my community?
I can't tell you one way or the other if things are going quite well or okay or terribly. But if you have information maybe you should share with the rest of us?
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this would be a lousy time for a lecture on how little someone knows about contract negotiations, furnaces, and solenoid valves.
A Labor Day with little for unions to celebrate
Posted: Monday, September 3, 2012 12:15 am
Some years ago, there was a popular bumper sticker that read: "The Weekend, Brought To You By The Labor Movement." And it was true.
The labor movement brought that and much else: child-labor laws, wage and hour laws (think the eight-hour day, the 40-hour week and overtime), occupational safety and health regulations, paid vacations and a decent retirement.
At one time in our history, to get those benefits a worker almost had to have a union job, but, increasingly, they became a matter of federal and state law. The labor movement, as was frequently remarked, had become a victim of its own success.
According to the Census Bureau, 85 percent of full-time workers ages 18 to 64 have jobs with health benefits, and the larger percentage of those covered are union members. But as the country inches ever closer to universal health care, under whatever name it's called, that becomes one less benefit a worker needs a union for.
As a result, union membership, which stood at 26.7 percent of the workforce in 1973, has fallen to around 13 percent. Among private employers, union membership has become increasingly rare.
The exception was public employees, where union membership remained strong and the strongest unions in the country may well be those representing police and firefighters and the largest those representing teachers.
But this Labor Day is finding that those public-worker unions are under a sustained assault by the Republican Party. Taking note of the states that have largely stripped government unions of their collective bargaining rights, the GOP platform said: "We salute the Republican governors and state legislators who have saved their states from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws governing public-employee unions." And it urged the states to further weaken the unions by refusing to collect dues by payroll deductions on their behalf.
The Census says the median income — meaning half make more, half less — for full-time workers is $47,717 for men and $36,931 for women, but the most ferocious battle in Congress is protecting tax cuts for people earning over $200,000.
For most taxpayers, the argument over income tax rates is almost academic, since more than two-thirds of them pay more in Social Security and Medicare taxes than they do in income taxes.
Income inequality is a growing problem in the United States. American workers are admirably free of envy and covetousness, but one day that gap could begin provoking outrage, maybe even enough outrage to revive the near-dormant labor movement.
we have the best teachers around and their union leadership is a fair one and fully understands what the district faces and are working to get a fair contract for both themself and the taxpayers. You can't ask to more then that!!!!!
On the whole the teachers are great. Keep up the hard work negotiating and get fair and reasonable deals with minimal drama. We truly need as much labor peace and cost stability as we can get.
Preparations A through G were complete failures, but Preparation H does feel good... on the hole.
Super Ferrara's brother is a teacher in Neshaminy. He spoke out against the union. We all saw how that worked out for him. Super can't sell out his brother. He's a micro machine manager. This doesn't get a settle agree ment unless we tell Anti Union Superintendent of the blue collar people of Morrisville to settle a fair deal. He probably thinks we like him.
I'd rather see him try to teach. it's seems like he can't even speak in front of a group.
You can't really hold B Ferrara accountable for what his brother does in Neshaminy. They're both grown men.
That having been said, B Ferrara has his own Neshaminy baggage.
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