School board orders cut in teachers’ pay
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E.P. Teachers Pay Cut
The game of hardball continues between the East Providence school committee and the teachers union.EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.—An across-the-board pay cut for East Providence teachers went into effect Monday.
The school committee went forward with an aggressive plan to balance the budget by slashing salaries and forcing teachers to pay more for benefits.
The move came after months of contract negotiations went nowhere.
“We don’t have any money,“ said school committee chairman Anthony Carcieri. “There is no money. How are we going to pay a bloated contract?“
The committee went ahead with plans to slash teacher salaries by 5 percent and collect 20 percent of the cost of health care premiums.
The union immediately hit back, filing a complaint with the state labor board.
“They’re asking teachers to fund East Providence. They’re asking them to take a lot less and pay a lot more in health care than they’ve asked other municipal employees,“ said Larry Purtill, president of the National Education Association Rhode Island. “We’re just asking to be treated the same.”
According to City Manager Richard Brown, the school department is solely responsible for the deficit, but he said teachers aren’t the only ones taking a hit.
“We’re looking at making major alterations in the way we staff our fire department,“ Brown said. “We have reduced the number of take-home vehicles. We’ve stopped spending on additional vehicles. Every single item is being scrutinized.“
Brown said he’s only concerned with the bottom line, which is $4.5 million in the hole.
“We are in danger of not being able to continue to pay our bills,“ Brown said.
The matter will most likely be decided by the courts. The decision will be closely watched by cash-strapped municipalities and unions fearful of losing ground.
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PS. And the teachers in Rhode Island say that if they are paid better they can teach better. Is that why RI teachers are one of the highest paid teachers in the USA and RI has the worst educated students??? HHmmmm!
Maybe my wife and I should have gotten a better education? Thanks for the tip. When my wife and I graduated from high school we didn’t need a college degree to get a good paying job. Now that the unions have made sure that only “special people” with “special degrees” can have jobs such as teacher assistants that didn’t need degrees years ago when my wife got her teaching assistant certificate, but do now, making her certificate useless,, and jobs as a “lead teacher” in a daycare center - please, a degree to be a TEACHER in a daycare center - it is only glorified babysitting and my wife has been doing it for over 25 years but that doesn’t count. As for me, I lost my first job as a locksmith because I hurt my back and can’t do heavy lifting. After 25 years, I became “over qualified” for any job I wanted, which was a legal way of saying I am TOO OLD which if they say that , it IS ILLEGAL. Get your facts straight before you open your mouth and insert your foot in it. Let’s call a spade a spade. I know teachers also and they are very good but some of them wish that some of their co-workers would work as hard as they do for the same pay but don’t and their school departments can’t do anything about them due to that tenure thing. Should have gotten a better education, huh?
every city&town;in this state should
follow east providence,these teachers
are grossly overpaid for a part time job,throw out all the teachers unions,
then start with the police & firemens
unions,no wonder everyone is leaving this state,will the last person out
please shut the lights off
From the City’s WEB Site
http://www.eastprovidenceri.net/Budget Information.php
This is one of the reasons my Property Taxed have doubled in the last 3 years
Partial Teachers compensation Pay per day
$ 567.05
Proposed School Budget 2009
Salaries $42,466,106.00
Health $10,742,569.00
Dental $786,214.00
Number of Teachers: 529
Each $102,069.73
School Days 180
Teacher Pay Per day $567.05
every city and town should follow
east providence and do the same,
these teachers are grossly overpaid
for a part time job,throw out all the
teachers unions,then start with the
police and firemen unions also,no wonder this state is in the shape
it,s in
The City of East Providence appears to have money to spend on legal fees, but not money to honor a contract it signed with its teachers. Since it is illegal to ignore the terms of a contract, what does East Providence hope to accomplish by its actions? We live in a world where there is an increasing movement to ignore contract language for a variety of reasons. Are people justified when they defy more than 200 years of precedent guaranteed by the Constitution because of increasing fiscal problems? Should we ignore the sanctity of contract law if community leaders say that their cities have budgetary concerns? If we allow this to happen, I fear that we will not only leave our children the legacy of a world in economic devastation, but even more frightening, one that is also devoid of ethical fiber.
I see many negative comments posted. I can’t disagree with some of them. I’ve never considered myself to be pro-union but appreciate SOME of the work they do for the teachers.
I have several friends and family that are teachers and hear many stories that are concerning. The inefficiencies and sometimes incompetence that plagues the school systems is sickening. If most of the schools in this state were private industry, they would have gone bankrupt long ago.
First, you have people with no understanding of education (or running a business), often with an ax to grind, running the school board.
Next you have superintendents and administration that hinder education rather than facilitate the learning process.
Yes there are some bad teachers in the system but most of the time, the administration does nothing about it in the first three years before tenure to get rid of the problems.
Before you condem the teachers, understand that they, like most of you in your jobs have little control over the overall workings of the school. In addition, they are highly educated workers that deserve a fair salery.
I just hope this moron superintendant is willing to take at least as much of a pay cut as he is trying to force upon the teachers.
FAM Paul Maziar——Maybe you and your wife should have gotten a better education
My wife and I live in East Providence and have to struggle to pay our FULL health insurance benefits not just a co-pay. We work TWO jobs just to keep up with our bills. We are NOT even guaranteed we will have a job tomorrow yet the East Providence teachers want their cake AND eat it too! They are “guaranteed” jobs through tenure then want guaranteed pay and benefits as well. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all got that type of job and benefit guarantee? The School Department should take the next step and do away with the outmoded tenure and let the teachers see how it feels to be vulnerable to job loss and the high cost of health benefits like us normal people are.
Im sure if the USA can bail out Wall St. and General Motors, they can bail out the incompetent East Prov. school committee. I have heard continuously that East Prov. is the only city in RI that teachers don’t pay part of their medical, this is a lie perpetrated by the school committee. Why didn’t they follow through with the school closings that were proposed in previous years? How much money was wasted there? How can the school committee justify giving the new superintendant a raise and then cut the salaries of union teachers? We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship. By dictating the conditions to the teachers, Mr Cacieri is embracing a form of communism.
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