Terry Cowgill

Another FV Agenda Item

January 19, 2007 on 5:37 pm | In Education, Local, Main |

Thanks for the suggestion, Marshall (and a good one at that).

Onward we move to the other topic on the agenda for Tuesday’s town meeting in Falls Village — whether to approve or reject a proposed agreement between the board of education and the union representing the faculty at Lee H. Kellogg School.

As you can see from the article I wrote and researched for this week’s LJ, I went to great lengths to let people know the proposed salary increases in the four-year agreement (3.8 percent in the first year and 3.9 percent in each of the next three years) do not tell the whole story.

In a typical public school system, teachers also get so-called “step increases” based on years served and on academic credentials. As I calculated and confirmed through Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick, the actual increase for a teacher with a master’s degree in the middle of the salary scale after the first year of the proposed agreement would be 8.4%.

Now I don’t question that teachers should make a good living. As a former high school teacher and as someone who is married to a public elementary school library media specialist, I know how tough a job teaching is and how much training it requires.

And I wouldn’t mind giving a raise of 8.4% or even 15 or 20% to a teacher who has had a really good year. I wouldn’t even object to paying a brilliant teacher $200,000 a year or more.

But the problem is that most unions refuse to allow any factors other than years served and degrees earned to be considered in compensation formulas. So high-achieving teachers who work miracles are paid the same as the guy who sleepwalks through his job.

And worse yet, because of tenure laws, the slacker can continue for decades, inflicting untold damage on his students and harming his school’s reputation. Someone tell me why this makes sense.

I’ve heard the argument that it’s impossible to quantify the quality of instruction (”teaching isn’t like making widgets”) and that merit pay would subject teachers to political pressures.

I served as a department head and regularly evaluated my teachers. It doesn’t take a clairvoyant to determine who is getting the job done and who isn’t, especially when the evaluation is based on multiple factors, including not only test scores but several classroom observations, student evaluations and in-depth interviews with the teacher and his/her colleagues.

As for subjecting teachers to politics … well, welcome to the real world. For better or worse (mostly worse), office politics is a part of life in almost any employment situation. I myself have been burned by it earlier in my career. You just have to try to keep your nose clean and get along.

Notwithstanding my partiality to merit pay, if we must live under the existing system, the agreement with the Kellogg teachers seems fair to me, mostly because only a handful of the faculty are below step 13 (the last one on the scale) and so the vast majority at the school will only see the more modest cost-of-living increases, not the step increases. And the proposal includes a steady rise in the faculty’s share of health care premiums.

A more compelling question for Kellogg is what becomes of the school if enrollment projections are to be believed. The New England School Development Council projects the school will be down to 80 students by 2010. State Department of Education predictions aren’t much rosier (87). Word on the street is they are only expecting five kindergartners next year, while 11 8th-graders will graduate this June.

And Keep An Eye On This

The more interesting story brewing is the Region One budget process. A few more special education students who are expected to need an unusual level of service next year will require out-of-district placements to the tune of $400,000 or more, putting a heavy strain on the budget.

Great, just when the Region One BOE has managed to get health care and energy costs under control, special education throws a monkey wrench into the works.

Even if there is only a 3% increase in the high school and central office budgets, the staggering rise in the special ed budget will put the total Region One spending package well up over 7%, which the board is concerned might be rejected by taxpayers in May.

I missed a recent board budget workshop but I understand there were some testy exchanges between the board and high school administrators who felt they were being harried into making unfair cuts.

The next board meeting (preceded by a budget workshop) is set for Feb. 5. Stay tuned — yet again.

[Photo of student totem pole at Lee Kellogg School courtesy of moi]