Area schools cutting professional time

Delaware State News

DOVER — As a result of budget cuts, teachers throughout the county will likely be taking part in fewer professional development days in the coming school year.

When legislators voted to cushion the 2.5 percent pay cut for state employees by adding a plan to give those workers the chance to take five additional days off, they left it open to each agency to devise its own system.

In regard to teachers and other public education employees, the plan has been left up to each individual school district, and most districts have targeted the teacher-training professional development days.

"Quality professional development is very meaningful," said Howard Weinberg, executive director of the Delaware State Education Association. "But the school districts, they really didn’t have any choice."

Teachers work 188 days a year — 180 of those are with students in class. The eight additional days are used for professional development and for parent-teacher conferences.

Without interfering with student days, school districts had few other options when looking at days to cut.

During professional development days, teachers learn new instructional techniques, are taught creative assessment ideas and have the ability to expand upon their own education. "It is extremely valuable," said Mr. Weinberg. "To the degree that there are circumstances in which (teachers) are being deprived of that, that’s unfortunate."

Some district officials agreed.

"There is some concern," said Dr. Michael D. Thomas, superintendent of the Capital School District, of the loss of professional development days. "We’re going to be looking at the possibility of grants and other opportunities to fund additional days."

In the future, Mr. Weinberg said he hoped the idea of professional development was re-analyzed and reworked into the current structure.

"We really need to examine how we do professional development in the long-term, so that we imbed it in the regular school day," he said.

The Caesar Rodney, Lake Forest and Smryna school districts will each be giving their employees the five days off.

While educators in the Caesar Rodney and Smyrna districts will likely only see the 2.5 percent salary reduction, those in the Lake Forest School District will be seeing an even greater cut.

The state provides 70 percent of the funding for teachers’ salaries. The rest is picked up by the local community. In the Lake Forest School District, educators will see an additional 2.5 percent cut coming from the local share of their salary.

In the Capital School District, educators "bought back" a possible cut in the local part of their salary by agreeing to take only four additional days off.

Here’s a rundown on what some Kent County school districts are doing:

Teachers and others on the 188-day contract will only have one professional development day before the start of the school year, one on Sept. 18 and one at the end of the school year. Therefore, they will be taking off Aug. 24, Nov. 2, Jan. 19, March 26 and likely June 11 (assuming the school year is not extended for inclement weather).

For food service employees, the schedule has not been determined.

Those on the 12-month schedule will take off Nov. 25 and Dec. 28-31.

Local share of employees’ pay will not be cut.

In a tentative plan, teachers and others on the 188-day contract will take off Aug. 21, Oct. 9, Nov. 10 and March 29. These educators will still have professional development on Sept. 25 (the buyback day).

Paraprofessionals will go from 185 days to 180. They will take off Aug. 21, Aug. 24, Sept. 25, Oct. 9 and Nov. 10.

Those on the 12-month schedule will have flexibility in their days off, although the days will likely need to be taken during winter or summer break.

Local share of pay will not be cut.

Teachers and others on the 188-day contract will take off full days on Aug. 21, Jan. 25 and April 1. They will take half-days on Aug. 28, Nov. 24, Jan. 26 and June 11.

Those involved with child nutrition services will take off Aug. 28, Oct. 10 and Jan. 25. They will schedule the remaining two days with a supervisor.

Paraprofessionals will take off Aug. 24, Oct. 9 and a half-day on June 11. They will schedule the additional 2.5 days with approval of a supervisor.

Those on the 12-month schedule will take off during the winter break — Dec. 24 and 28-31.

Employees in this district will see an additional 2.5 percent cut come from the local share of their pay unless an agreement is made to "buy back" some of their furlough days.

Due to construction in many of the district’s school buildings, the start of the year had been pushed back until after Labor Day and many of the professional development days had been scheduled to take place before the start of the school year.

Teachers and others on the 188-day contract will take off on four of the days preceding the start of the school year and on Oct. 9.

Those on the 12-month schedule will take four of their days around the Easter vacation and the day before Thanksgiving.

Although negotiations have not yet been finalized, district officials said they do not expect the local share of district educators’ pay to be cut.

"I suspect we will not take that route," said Deborah D. Wicks, superintendent of the Smyrna School District.

Official: JFC vote on 2.5 percent reduction has ‘devastating impacts’

Delaware State News

DOVER — It may not be 8 percent, but the 2.5-percent pay cut for state employees that was approved by the Joint Finance Committee on Friday would still be injurious, said state workers after hearing of the committee’s decision.

"This has devastating impacts," said Michael A. Begatto, executive director of the Delaware branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, after the committee voted. "It is taking $28 million out of the economy."

The 7-5 vote in favor of the measure came only minutes after the budget drafting group opened its doors to the public — a move necessitated by the passage of House Bill 1, the open government bill.

What the public was unable to witness, though, were the hours upon hours of debate on the issue that occurred before Gov. Jack A. Markell signed the bill into law.

The legislation had passed both chambers by 4:30 p.m. last Tuesday, but Gov. Markell did not make it official until 2 p.m. Friday — nearly 10 days later.

All the while, the committee had the chance to discuss, debate and argue over the governor’s proposal to cut the salary of state employees by 8 percent.

According to legislators, the 12-member committee had been split 6-6 for the past two days.

It was Sen. Bruce Ennis’s decision to switch sides that allowed the measure to pass. Sen. Ennis, D-Smyrna, said he did not want to vote for a salary cut, but realized that the time was ticking down and something needed to be done.

"It was definitely one of the harder decisions I’ve ever had to make," said Sen. Ennis. "But we have to have a balanced budget. This issue was holding the whole process up. We only have two weeks to go."

Reps. Joseph W. Booth, R-Georgetown, and Joseph E. Miro, R-Newark, and Sens. Dorinda A. Connor, R-Wilmington, Catherine L. Cloutier, R-Wilmington, and David B. McBride, D-Wilmington, voted against the motion.

The 2.5-percent pay cut would apply to all merit and merit-comparable employees. Teachers would see a 1.5-percent salary cut and the elimination of two professional development days. The end result would be a total compensation reduction of approximately 2.5 percent.

The cuts are expected to save the state $28 million.

Gov. Markell’s 8-percent pay cut would have reduced the state’s expenses by nearly $92 million, which means the state will need to find an additional $64 million to cover the difference.

"To the extent that it moves us forward, then yes, it was helpful," said state budget director, Ann S. Visalli. "But it wasn’t what we wanted."

"We have a lot of cutting left to go," she added.

Although it was less than the governor’s proposal, the leaders of the state workers’ coalition who were present during the vote said they were not happy.

"As we stated early on, we did not want to see any pay cuts," said Mr. Begatto.

"It is certainly a blow to [the coalition’s] efforts," said Dr. Samuel B. Hoff, political science professor at Delaware State University.

The consequences of the decision will be serious, he said.

"These are not just statistics — there will be real-life ramifications," said Dr. Hoff.

The budget, which now includes the salary cuts, must still be approved by both chambers of the General Assembly.

State workers said they will continue to work to ensure the pay cuts are removed, but that the committee’s decision has made their job that much harder.

"The likelihood of an amendment is not high, but stranger things have happened. They did open the doors," said Mr. Begatto.

Following the vote on the pay cuts for the salaried workers, the Joint Finance Committee continued with its deliberations, but for the first time with the doors wide open.

"We are operating under the new law and I appreciate that," said Rep. Booth.

Sen. Nancy Cook, D-Kenton, jokingly lamented that the open-door policy would force her to wear make-up at all times.

The committee then began discussions concerning the state contributions toward both public school transportation and reimbursements for families who choose to send their children to private and charter schools.

Gov. Markell had suggested cutting the funds for public school transportation by 10 percent, but many committee members worried that was going too far — they worried it would mean that school districts would hire less-reliable services and put schoolchildren at risk.

In its stead, they suggested reducing the funds by only 2.5 percent.

Some legislators argued that the cuts would force the districts to look for creative solutions and find efficiencies and that they were necessary.

"I don’t think this is going far enough. It puts us in the position to find $2 million elsewhere," said Rep. Melanie George Marshall, D-Bear.

Rep. Marshall did not garner enough support, though — the committee voted to cut the line item by only 2.5 percent.

A similar situation transpired when the committee began discussing cuts to transportation reimbursements for families who do not send their children to public school.

Former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner had recommended cutting the $2.25 million budget by 15 percent. This would mean that the rate families received per child would be reduced from $158 to $134 a year.

In Gov. Markell’s budget recommendation, he suggested cutting the fund entirely — a move that would save the state nearly $2 million.

Many committee members again worried about the cuts.

Rep. Miro and Sen. McBride brought up the fact that it costs the state more than $700 per student each year to transport children in the public education system to school. If parents could no longer afford to get their child to the private or charter school, they might consider enrolling the student in the public school, which would end up costing the state more.

Sen. Cook suggested not only forgoing Gov. Markell’s recommendation, but even adding some money back into the budget former Gov. Minner had suggest. Sen. Cook proposed adding another $80,000 to the fund, making the reimbursement rate per student $140 a year. In total, the state would be spending about $1.9 million on this program.

Again, Rep. Marshall worried how the decision would affect their job of balancing the budget.

"On our last two motions combined we added about $4 million into the budget that we need to find elsewhere," she said. "I wasn’t suggesting going to zero, but spending $1.9 million is a lot."

In the end, Rep. Marshall and Sen. Ennis were the only two committee members voting against the measure.

The committee plans to meet again on Monday to continue the process.

Dear Governor Markell,

I thought you would like to know what I saw at the last rally outside Legislative Hall since you have never ventured out. At each of the rallies I have seen many proud citizens, elected officials and entire families that all see the harm you intend to inflict on hard working, decent people that did not create this budget issue. In fact all of us are trying really hard to remember a time that you spoke out about one of those checks you signed for the past eight years when times were good. You were supposed to be the one steering us in the right direction not the one asleep at the wheel.

Those of us gathered on the Green are truly family! One thing you have succeeded in is uniting us. We are the hardworking people that clean beds in the mental hospital, guard the prison, teach tomorrow’s leaders, plow snow at 2:00am, fight crime and, in fact, protect you. We all have different jobs to do but share many things in common. We work hard, care about each other and take pride in being able to provide for our families. You see, we are the "Heartbeat of America" to borrow a phrase. But, it’s bigger than that. Our family of workers is what has made America and Delaware everything they are. We are starting to have family arrive from all over this nation representing our unions in other states. The word is out across the country that our governor is against workers.

Governor Markell, show us that you understand that. Give us a seat at the table like you did for the casinos. Have the courage to look us in the eyes and say you made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes but the measure of any man or woman is being able to admit it. The Legislature is full of our extended family, many of whom once worked the same jobs we have. Many thanks to all of the legislators that came across the street to publicly sign a petition supporting us, some of whom have been to all three rallies. Thanks for speaking with us, valuing us and being able to relate to us. We will fight with you and for you when the time comes that you need us!

As for my family on the Green, keep up the fight! We can win, we will win. Thanks for bringing your young children. They need to learn what is great about being an American. Hold your elected officials responsible, fight for what you believe in, fight against unfair government actions, assemble for a purpose and speak freely. Let our elected officials continue to hear from us. Thank those who support us. Ask those who have not yet chosen to support us, why they don’t value us? For those that have taken the lead in this fight, I am forever grateful.

Barry Fillman

Twenty lawmakers say they oppose reducing state employees’ salaries