Teachers balk at district offer

The offer keeps getting a tad better, but for the Eugene Education Association it’s still not good enough.

Not even close.

“Talk about kicking the can down the road. That can is filled with something,” EEA bargaining chairman Tom Di Liberto said Thursday night during the third bargaining session between the Eugene School District and its teachers’ union on salary and benefit concessions for the 2011-12 school year.

Di Liberto was referring to one of the particulars of the district’s latest offer, the creation of a new entry level step in the teachers’ salary schedule for 2011-12, which would be funded at a full step less — 3.7 percent — than the schedule’s current Step 1.

The current three-year EEA contract with the district calls for annual salary step advancement of 3.7 percent. But last year, teachers agreed not only to take seven unpaid furlough days for the second consecutive year to help the district balance its 2010-11 budget, but also agreed to 50 percent step funding for 2010-11. The district again wants to freeze step funding at that 50 percent mark for 2011-12, while the EEA wants a return to full step funding on Feb. 1, 2012.

The union has had concerns about freezing step advancement at 50 percent, because it keeps teachers from advancing along the salary schedule. The result would be unfair, the union said, because a first-year teacher frozen at Step 1 would be at the same step level as a newly hired teacher without any experience.

Creating a new entry level step takes care of that inequity problem, said Christine Nesbit, the district’s associate human resources director and lead negotiator.

The district also lowered its teacher salary cut proposal from its offer two weeks ago, from 1.9 percent to 1.75 percent. But in addition to the half-step freezes, it wants to keep monthly health insurance contributions at $1,100 and eliminate district contributions to employee tax-sheltered annuities.

The union wants health insurance increased to $1,150 and to retain the annuities.

The union countered Thursday by not budging much on its previous offer. It still wants raises of 0.6 percent for teachers as of July 1; still wants steps fully funded again as of Feb. 1, 2012; and has no interest in a new entry level step being created by the district.

“At some point, we’re going to wake up and say, ‘Why am I doing this?’ ” said Tad Shannon, a Churchill High School teacher and EEA bargaining team member. “We are not going to continue to be kicked down the road. At some point, teachers are going to say, ‘Enough is enough.’”

The new early step offer and 1.75 percent salary cuts were one option the district gave EEA Thursday. The district also threw out a second option that would return teachers to full step funding on Feb. 1, 2012, but would cut salaries by a whopping 4.75 percent.

A new wrinkle in the talks was the number of work days proposed for 2011-12.

Last bargaining session, the teachers and district both had proposals of 186-day work years, one more than this school year. But as part of its counterproposal Thursday, teachers offered to have a 182-day work year just for 2011-12 as a way to save the district money. But that would mean possibly the shortest school year ever for Eugene School District students.

The district is still advocating a 186-day work year for 2011-12. A big sticking point for the teachers, though, is that the proposal includes changing two paid holidays into unpaid furlough days.

Nesbit reminded the union that without $4.6 million in concessions from teachers for 2011-12, the district is looking at laying off the equivalent of 130 full-time teachers and other licensed staff members. Tentative layoff notices have been sent out to 109 teachers (84 full-time equivalent).