Chaska teachers balk at district's pay-freeze plan

The teachers union in Chaska has thrown another wrench into the district's muddy finance situation by refusing -- at least for now -- to accept or reject a school board-mandated wage freeze in lieu of layoffs.

The board isn't budging, either. It's moving ahead with plans to spend the same amount next school year on teachers' salaries, telling the union it can accept a pay freeze or face layoffs.

District officials also are planning for their "worst-case scenario" -- cuts of slightly more than 3 percent in state funding -- which could threaten the jobs of many more teachers and increase class sizes.

Teachers say there's another option: delaying the $2.2 million redesign of the high school curriculum until the economy improves so that the district can maintain staffing levels and give teachers raises.

The Eastern Carver County School District is looking to save $1.66 million next year with a "hard freeze" on all staff pay and benefits, including teachers' annual raises and pay increases for advanced degrees or training. But some staff and parents think the district is being financially irresponsible during a time of difficult budget cuts, and that it's spending money on unnecessary moves and depriving teachers of contract raises as a result.

Parent Blake Herring supports the wage freeze if it means keeping teachers employed and class sizes small.

"The board has shown good leadership in taking action to halt any pay increases for Superintendent [David] Jennings," Herring said. "I would hope and expect that the teachers union would follow suit, so we don't have to cut as much staff. That's my biggest concern --you can't cut your way to excellence."

But Herring, like many teachers, is also worried that the district could be choosing curriculum changes over teachers and small class sizes.

Perhaps the teachers' biggest dispute is that the secondary curriculum is being redesigned at a cost of $2.2 million, to coincide with the opening of a new high school next fall. They say if the district would just delay the new curriculum, the teachers could still get their raises next year.

The difference between redesigning the curriculum now and postponing it is roughly half of the redesign's $2.2 million budget, said Jennings. Half of the budget is for one-time expenses, such as textbooks to convert to a seven-period day next year.

"The remaining money, technically, could be used for pay raises instead," Jennings said. But, he added, "For us to back away from a long-term reform over a short-term budget problem, we believe, is short-sighted. In effect, it'd be punishing kids for a problem that's not of their choosing."

Planning to redesign the secondary curriculum began in 2006 as a response to the community and board's desires for more rigor and personalized education for all students, Jennings said.

"The research on schools in Minnesota and America today indicates that secondary schools need to improve," Jennings said in an e-mail. "They need to raise the bar if kids are going to be fully ready when they graduate."

But now the district can no longer afford the redesign, high school teacher Monica Castaldi told the school board at a recent meeting.

The design team used a "pie-in-the-sky approach with no thought to cost," and if the district goes through with the new secondary curriculum now, it will be at the expense of existing programs and teachers, she said.

"I'm not suggesting we don't make any changes -- only hold off on the redesign and look at other changes we can make."

No meetings until June

The district board personnel committee and the Chaska Education Association (CEA) negotiating team met April 1 to negotiate the wage freeze, which the school board had approved on March 26. CEA President Tim Griffin said the union wasn't willing to negotiate the wage freeze outside of overall contract negotiations. Talks are to resume in June, after the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty reach an agreement on state K-12 funding.

That means that teacher layoff notices could go out before the negotiations resume.

"[The wage freeze] may still be an option at the table at that time," Griffin said. "We need to look at the whole picture."

Despite the unknowns, the district is making plans for its worst-case scenario: no agreement with the teacher's union and more than a 3 percent cut in state K-12 funding.

The district's preliminary budget set last month assumed a zero-percent increase in state funding. In that scenario, roughly 25 of the district's 650 teachers would be laid off if the teachers don't agree to a wage freeze, Jennings said. Layoffs would grow substantially under the state Senate's proposal to slash district budgets by more than 3 percent over the next two years -- a scenario that would cost the district about $3 million.

How many layoffs?

Jennings couldn't say for sure how many more teachers would be laid off, "but it's more than we'd like," he said. "Divide $3 million by what a teacher gets paid and you'll get a number." The $3 million divided by $58,196 -- the average teacher's salary this school year -- would amount to about 51 teachers.

"That's concerning," Herring said. "We've already seen an increase in class size, and I think this latest change will take us to over 30 kids in some classrooms."

Teachers with the least seniority would be laid off first, and they would be informed "as early as possible," Jennings said. The district plans to give teachers notices in early May, so they have time to find new jobs. Some of those teachers could be called back if the Legislature later provides an infusion of money.

In the meantime, the teachers union wants to see what other districts are doing to address budget shortfalls.

"Sometimes, there are creative alternatives with what they're doing," Griffin said. "That's something we look at."

Aimée Blanchette • 612-673-1715