Since October, students and staff at IHS have been greeted by blue, letter-sized signs posted around school that exclaim in a grimly mocking tone, “Welcome to Ithaca High School, home of some of New York State’s lowest paid teachers.” The signs state that ICSD teacher compensations rank 579th out of 667 school districts in New York State. According to the SeeThroughNY database, the median salary for teachers in ICSD is $51,217.
The poster indicates that 30 teachers resigned from the district last year to take positions at other districts that pay higher wages, and add that ICSD teachers earn significantly less than those at Groton, Horseheads, TST BOCES, Auburn, Watkins Glen, Cortland, Lansing, Whitney Point, Trumansburg and Union Springs, citing public statistics.
Since the Ithaca Teachers Association (ITA) contract’s expiration date, June 30, 2015, the terms and conditions from the previous agreement, signed July 2012, are in effect until a new settlement is reached.
Eventually, once an agreement is reached between the representatives of each party, members of the union will vote the proposed contract. Negotiations between the ITA and Superintendent Luvelle Brown had begun even before the expiration date, but end date for the negotiations is still unknown.
“The Ithaca Teachers Association and the District have been bargaining very collaboratively,” Brown said, “but ultimately were unable to reach a final agreement to take back to the members for their vote.” The ITA and the district jointly filed for an impasse in October, which has allowed a third-party mediator to give assistance in bringing the parties to resolution.
Historically, Piasecki said, there have been many times when certain employee groups have had to operate under an expired contract at ICSD. Some have taken short periods of time, and others, several years before a settlement was reached. Currently, all five bargaining agreements affiliated with ICSD are currently expired, according to the bargaining agreements posted on the district website. These include contracts between the superintendent and the Education Support Professionals, which expired June 2014; the Ithaca Principals and Directors Association, which expired June 2013; the ICSD Employees Association, which expired June 2012; the Ithaca Substitutes’ Association, which expired June 2013; and the ITA.
“The Employees Association union and the district both knew that their contract negotiations would go well beyond the targeted negotiation date for a new contract,” Brown said in an email. “Both sides are working very collaboratively to bring a new contract.” He added that the Ithaca Substitute Association and the Education Support Professionals are close to resolving their collective bargaining as well.
“Updating contracts is a good thing for both the employer and the employees as things change over time and language becomes outdated,” ITA President Adam Piasecki said. “Often, new laws and regulations are made by the state or result from court rulings, and therefore need to be incorporated into contracts.” Several areas will be updated through the collective bargaining process, such as curriculum, assessments, professional development, job postings, transfers, maternity and other leaves, health and safety, substitutes, and professional development.
Nonetheless, it has often taken longer to reach an agreement on certain topics, he added. The hottest of these topics for the current teachers union negotiation is compensation.
The issue of low teacher salaries has generated the most distress. “The situation with teachers’ salaries hasn’t changed since those articles were written,” Piasecki said, referring to articles written in April and May 2014 in The Tattler about teacher salaries. “In fact, it has gotten worse.”
One IHS teacher said that ICSD teachers’ salary increases have been lower than the inflation rate and their growing insurance bills. Under the current contract’s terms, he said, teachers have earned progressively less over time. Due to various restrictions in the district’s budget, the state’s aid formula, taxes and other sources of revenue, teacher compensation has not risen to catch up with inflation and rising insurance costs.
Another teacher was concerned about how the district hired multiple administrators in newly created positions while teachers still earn less than half as much as each of them. Working year-round, as opposed to about ten months as teachers do, central administrators earn nearly three times as much as teachers. In the ICSD Executive Team, each member earns $134,774 annually. Principal Jason Trumble earns $137,470 and Superintendent Brown, $185,711, according to the New York State Education Department website.
“I would be better off finding a new job,” another teacher said, citing that his salary is in the fifth percentile among teachers in the state who have taught for as many years as he has. Still, what keeps him at IHS despite the low salary is the other great teachers with whom he collaborates, as well as the highly motivated students he gets to teach.
Both Piasecki and Brown said they could not publicly comment their opinion on teacher salaries until mediations end. But responding to the outcry, Brown said in an email that the union members ultimately voted to accept the current terms and conditions their negotiation team bargained for. “Sometimes, unions accept smaller increases in salaries with an understanding of an employer’s financial status,” he said. “But in all instances, nothing is in a contract that is not voted on by the members of the union.”
Though in a community based on education, Piasecki said, the situation is “very alarming.” He said that teachers must be treated with respect, including how teachers have a say in their teaching and in their classroom along with being paid a professional and competitive wage. “When teacher turnover is high and morale is low, I think many community members see that as a concern and would like to see it addressed.”