Brownsville teachers refute figures released by solicitor
The Brownsville Education Association spoke out Tuesday against facts and figures released by the Brownsville Area School District’s solicitor related to ongoing contract negotiations. The BEA has been reluctant to discuss in detail issues on the bargaining table, but after solicitor Matt Hoffman addressed the negotiation issues with comments that were met with rebuttal from teachers at a Monday planning meeting, John Ball, BEA’s chief negotiator, spoke against Hoffman’s presented figures.
Hoffman said the district has made the teachers a competitive offer and outlined the proposed salary increases and compared average salaries for teachers in Fayette County, which listed Brownsville, with an average salary of $45,889, as fourth on a list of six districts.
While Hoffman spoke about the issue of salaries, many of the teachers in the audience moaned and groaned. At the end of Hoffman’s presentation, Ball said the district is playing with numbers in discussing the district’s offer.
“Math can be made to do anything you want it to do,” Ball said in response to Hoffman’s comments.
Teachers in the audience, who have been on strike since Monday, clapped in support of Ball’s response.
Very few community members, outside of the few who regularly attend board meetings, attended the planning session.
Hoffman said that, in the proposed agreement, the average annual salary increase is $2,048, or a five-year average total increase of $10,238. He also said that, according to data published by the state Department of Education, in comparing average salaries within districts in Fayette County, Brownsville teachers are not the lowest paid, as teachers have claimed.
According to Hoffman, the average teacher’s salary during the 2001-2002 school year in Laurel Highlands is $53,576; in Connellsville Area, $47,073; Frazier, $46,507; Brownsville Area, $45,889; Uniontown Area, $45,569; and Albert Gallatin Area, $45,448.
Hoffman also compared the offered salary schedules at the last year of the proposed agreement to those negotiated at Albert Gallatin. According to Hoffman, in 2005-2006, at Step 1, Brownsville teachers would make $29,032, while Albert Gallatin teachers would earn $27,000. At the master’s maximum step, Brownsville teachers would earn $62,203, while their Albert Gallatin counterparts would make $62,470.
Ball said those average salary quotes presented by Hoffman are misleading.
“If you want to talk average, on average today, the average teacher (within Fayette County) at (maximum level) makes $5,062.80 more than we do today,” Ball said.
In reference to Hoffman’s comparison of average teachers’ salaries from districts within Fayette County, he said Brownsville will have a higher average salary because they have a higher number of teachers being paid at the maximum salary scale than any other district in the county. He said that in comparing individual salaries on the same pay step, Brownsville teachers are, in fact, the lowest paid in the county.
Ball said the Brownsville Area faculty has the highest percentage of advanced degrees than any faculty in Fayette County.
Ball also said that, on average, it takes teachers in Fayette County 16.6 years to reach maximum pay, while it takes Brownsville teachers 20 years.
“So, on average, teachers (within the county) make $48,000 more than we do in those years,” Ball said.
He also asked Hoffman why he compared future salaries with Albert Gallatin, where teachers are among the lowest paid in the county, instead of Laurel Highlands, which has the highest paid teachers in Fayette.
Ball then asked Hoffman how much he is being paid to handle negotiations for the district.
“You have no interest here. You come and go. What does it cost the district for negotiations? I want an answer by next meeting,” he said.
When asked why the school board has the solicitor handling negotiations, Hoffman said the negotiations include talks of contracts with salaries as high as $55,00 to $60,000.
Teachers in the audience complained when they heard that comment, saying they are not paid that much. BEA officials said that, at maximum salary, a teacher with a master’s degree under the current contract makes $55,033 and under the proposed contract would make $53,420.
Hoffman also said that teachers are assisted in their negotiations by professionals provided by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
Hoffman said negotiations between the district and teachers have been ongoing since January 2001, and the lack of an agreement is not “for lack of effort to compromise on the part of this board.”
Hoffman said the fact that two tentative agreements were made and then voted down in November 2001 and September 2002 is “demonstrative” of the board’s “good faith” effort to reach an agreement.
The teachers have been on strike since Monday and without a contract since last year.
Hoffman said that although a strike obviously is not good for anyone involved, the district cannot rush to an agreement that is not financially responsible, “due to (the district’s) limited resources.”
Hoffman said he is working with BEA officials to set up a date for negotiations.