WCEA is working to get all teachers a pay raise

To the Editor:

While I do not believe the best venue for an intelligent dialogue is the pages of a newspaper, I feel compelled to respond to James Clark?s comments about the ongoing negotiations between the Warren County Education Association and the Warren County School Board.

Going back nine months as Clark suggests, we find the WCEA and the school board in agreement that teacher salaries in Warren County must increase if the system is to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. The board proposed a $2,500 raise for teachers with a BA and $2,000 for those with an MA.

From the time this proposal was offered, the WCEA opposed the idea of denying the teachers with the highest levels of education a much-needed raise. There was never disagreement that teachers with BA and MA degrees deserved substantial raises, but WCEA negotiators remain baffled at the board?s insistence on omitting local raises for those with higher degrees.

Negotiations were put on hold in April at the request of the school board so its efforts and ours could be concentrated on the important task of seeing the school budget approved by the Warren County Commission. Thankfully, the County Commission agreed that local raises for teachers were needed, and they approved the historic budget increase in order to achieve this.

Since then, the two negotiating teams have met five times. The WCEA has presented three different proposals that would distribute the local funds equitably, with no group of teachers omitted from well-deserved increases. These proposals have ranged from set dollar amounts to a simplification of the current salary schedule.

The school board has rejected all of these proposals.

It is also important to note that salary is not the only item still on the table. The school board has proposed the WCEA relinquish its right, provided by state law (TCA 49-5-611), to negotiate supplements including those for principals and coaches. It has continued to insist on random drug testing for all school employees, a proposal that WCEA is willing to discuss, provided a viable employee assistance component is included in the plan.

Since there has been no substantive movement toward compromises on these three issues, the WCEA has requested the assistance of a mediator who will be provided free of charge by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. It is our sincere hope he will be able to facilitate an end to the current contract talks with an agreement that is reasonable and acceptable to all concerned.

Nancy McNeal

Beech Cove Road

Doyle