School Union Ends 1 Battle, Looks Ahead To Others

Another battle is over for the United School Employees of Pasco, but the war continues.

That’s how union president Lynne Webb saw it just a few days after the union’s contract impasse with the District School Board of Pasco County came to an end.

“The war is ongoing,” she said, referencing the current legislative session in Tallahassee.

While the district and union have agreed to terms of a contract for the 2010-11 school year and the Pasco County Commission nixed its plan to , the district and teachers are still facing the fallout of this legislative session. With a possibleheading Pasco’s way, Webb is calling on union members and area residents to get vocal.

“It’s not too late,” she said about. “We have about a week unless they’re going into a special session. I’ve been seeing some legislators backing off. I don’t know if it’s enough to prevail. The arrogance is amazing to me at this time.”

The union and school district had not signed contracts for the current school year because there were disputes over a number of issues, including the use of $14 million in federal Edujobs grant funds. The district used $2.1 million to avoid a furlough day in 2010-11, but had not used the rest to date.

The impasse was declared by the union in November 2010. There were a number of back-and-forth negotiations, but no agreement was reached until earlier this month when the hearing magistrate asked both sides to return to the table. The magistrate asked both sides to “reevaluate their positions  in light of the deteriorating economic and legislative circumstances,” the union’s website says.

They did.

“There were a couple of factors that really made the difference,” Webb said. “The biggest factor had to do with the drastic cuts to funding we were facing. That was just greater than anybody was truly anticipating.”

Another big issue, Webb said, was the district’s proposal to increase teacher workloads by taking away their planning periods.

“Teachers need time to plan and prepare to have quality instruction,” she said. “They would not have had the time to be sponsoring student activities, providing extra help … we felt that the quality of the instruction would really suffer.”

That idea was nixed in the negotiations.

“It’s a fairness issue,” Webb said.

District spokeswoman Summer Romagnoli said there are four key points in the tentative contract agreement with the union. She outlined them in an email:

• Salary and benefit levels will remain unchanged from last year. Employees will not get increases, but will not experience any salary decreases for the 2010/2011 school year. All employees who should have received a year of service credit at the start of this school year (for their service in the 2009/2010 school year), will be awarded the service credit, however there will be no increase in salary for any employee.
• The health insurance package will remain as it has been so far this year.
• The practice of paying secondary teachers 20 percent of their salary for teaching during their planning period (a.k.a. .2) has been suspended after this year (2010/2011). Instead, teachers will receive $5,000 on an annual basis ($2,500 per semester) starting in 2011/2012 for agreeing to teach during their planning period. Teachers who taught a .2 for this year will continue to receive the 20 percent they have been paid to date.
• The District will be offering an additional retirement incentive for employees who are age 50, have 25 years of FRS credit, and who have served 10 of the last 12 years in Pasco. Eligible employees will receive 10 percent of their salary, up to $5,000.  

While this year’s contract is close to being finalized, Webb said negotiations for next year are just around the corner. She said those talks should begin in mid-June.

On the upside, Webb thinks next year’s contract negotiations might go more smoothly.

“I think this year is not going to be standard fare,” she said. “A number of things are going to be put on the backburner. We need to at least be in a agreement in how we’re going to address the financial shortfalls.”