Parkland Teachers' Union To Consider Early-Bird Contract

The head of the Parkland Education Association said the teachers’ union would pursue a possible early-bird contract with the administration as a way to help with the district’s on-going budgetary issues.

Association President Sandi Gackenbach said this weekend that union officials have not had any formal meetings or votes with members, but that they planned to be “very reasonable and very realistic in our request” in future negotiations with the administration.

She said that could mean a zero-percent salary increase in the first year of the contract, though membership would have to vote on that.

Gackenbach’s response follows the district’s day-long budget seminar on Friday, in which administrators proposed $6.4 million in cuts to the 2011-2012 school budget to offset revenue losses. Administrators proposed the elimination of 60 staff and teaching positions, many through retirements and resignations, and program cuts.

“We are committed to being partners with the district to help solve their budgetary issues,” Gackenbach said, “but we do feel the timing is poor because we’re about to wrap up a five-year contract in the 2011-2012 school year.”

She said both the union and administration had “felt good” about the contract when it was negotiated.  “No one could have foreseen the current economic situation that we have been in,” she said.

The current contract allows for a 4.9 percent increase on the total payroll next year.  Not everyone would realize that increase, she said, depending on a teacher’s education level and years of service.

Gackenbach said more than 30 teachers could retire at the end of the next school year.  But if the current contract was frozen or extended out, she said, the district’s highest-paid teachers might forgo retirements as a result, affecting district costs longer term. 

She said it makes more fiscal sense to start with a new contract, with negotiations possibly starting with the district administration as early as this summer.

For months, Parkland officials have struggled with budgetary issues as revenues dipped in a poor economic climate, in part because of lower interest earnings and reduced property assessments. Compounding the problem has been Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed state budget, which calls for deep, and unexpected, cuts in charter school and Social Security reimbursements.

Gackenbach said the administration has kept the union leadership apprised of the budgetary issues.  She said she believes the union and administration share sentiments to finish out the contract and enter early discussions for the next one.

The Parkland Education Association has 646 members.