Comparing Teachers Contracts with a Similar District

Generalized Comparison of Teacher Contracts at Shenendehowa CSD (SCSD) at Clifton Park, NY effective through June 30, 2003 and Monroe-Woodbury CSD (MWCSD) effective through June 30, 2004.

            In a further attempt to assess the reasonableness of the teachers’ contract here in MWCSD we have obtained a teachers’ contract from a similar sized school district, SCSD, and compared interesting points and various areas of compensation.  This analysis is not intended to be all-encompassing and no attempt is made to determine if one is more reasonable than the other.  Furthermore, no attempt is made to make one school district look bad or worse than the other.  It is simply a comparison intended to alert the concerned taxpayer as to how things are done in other school districts and realize that the way we do it in MW is not the only way to run a school district.

 1.      At the SCSD they, “…guarantee all Shenendehowa students 180 days of instruction,” whereas at MWCSD, “the number of teacher workdays will not exceed 185 days.”  The length of the school day appears to be comparable in each district, to a casual reading.  Again, an in-depth, point-by-point analysis was not done.  The difference in days may be due to more possible snow days in the Northern district.

 2.      The SCSD contract directly acknowledges the importance of professional growth in its teaching staff and has set up Councils on Professionalism to promote this.  Each teacher is given 3 professional days to attend seminars, conferences, etc. for this purpose.  MWCSD does not directly address this but does discuss teacher salary increases for completion of “In-service Credits” which are discussed in the Teacher Handbook (not available to me as of this writing), so it is clear that the district does encourage professional growth in the teaching staff.

 3.      Neither contract explicitly states how a teacher’s starting salary is determined although the SCSD contract does indicate its teachers are offered some transfer credit for prior public school teaching, Peace Corps, or military service.

 4.      Teachers at SCSD are given 12 days of paid sick leave, 10 starting in the 4^th year of employment, and 5.5 days of personal leave.  Teachers in MWCSD are given 16 days (20 if hired before 1976) which can be used for personal days (up to 3), educational leave or professional development (up to 5), or all as sick days.  Other leave compensation is similar between the two districts. How much can be accrued?  How much can be cashed in?

 5.      Health, dental, and life insurance compensation is noticeably different between the districts.  MWCSD covers the full cost of all health insurance premiums for the employee and his/her family. (MWCSD pays $12,948 annually for family coverage.) The contract does not specify details concerning the health plan like deductibles or co-pays.  Retiree premiums are covered at 100% for the retiree and 50% for dependents.  MWCSD contributes up to $295K (we believe this is paid to the union which provides the dental coverage to its members) toward dental premiums so it is unclear what, if anything, employees pay toward dental insurance.  MWCSD provides group term life insurance at 1x the teacher’s salary.  SCSD pays only 95% of health insurance premiums and 95% of the cost of a separate drug plan.  Retirees get 75% of their personal premiums covered, which can then be applied to offset self or self-and-family insurance costs.  Their contract does detail deductible and co-pay information.  SCSD contributes 60% of employee dental premiums.  SCSD provides group term life insurance at ½x the teacher’s salary.  Interestingly, in MWCSD employees are offered (annually) $1500/$1000 for family/individual coverage if they withdraw from the district plan.  SCSD recognized the potential for cost savings where unit members (teachers) have double coverage from a spouse’s employment and was going to explore developing incentives to share savings with such members.  Although the review results are not listed (the review was to be completed by 1997) the district recognized that, “…such incentives will be limited to insure that short term savings do not turn into long term costs.”

 6.      Both districts pay additional compensation for coaching or advising extracurricular activities.  SCSD offered raises in each of the 3 years while MWCSD pay remained the same.  Each district offered step increases in pay according to a schedule but neither contract explicitly states what merits a step increase.  MWCSD pay was nonetheless higher across all steps for all years covered by the contracts.

 7.      Base salaries are harder to compare since the salary schedules are set up differently.  MWCSD has 5 columns (different according to earned academic degrees and graduate credits) of 14 steps each while SCSD has a single column of 29 steps and teachers are placed in a given step according to their experience.  From lowest to highest salary, MWCSD exceeds SCSD at all steps for the 2003-2004 year.  With each contract, teachers are given an annual, across-the-board percentage increase in addition to the annual pay increase received upon advancing to the next step.  With each contract, teachers at or above the highest step pay receive only the across-the-board percentage increase.  While the MWCSD offers a huge increase in going from the second-to-last to the last step (13 to 14) averaging 14.3%, SCSD offers a 1.3% increase from step 28 to 29.  However, the SCSD Board of Education simply reserves the right to reward excellence in teaching by increasing pay at any time, even beyond the top step.  A significant difference  between the two districts is the amount of increase teachers get when advancing in the steps.  MWCSD is more generous in this area.  You can see MWCSD salary rates with the step plus annual increase here for the appendix B schedule.  To see the MWCSD appendix A schedule look here.  You can examine the SCSD salary schedule here.  Look for yourself to see if one is more generous than the other.

 As stated in a previous article, compensation should be based on what is reasonable and what the economy can support.  It does not make sense to do things the same simply because we have always done it that way.  Sometimes change is necessary because it is fair and it is a reflection of what the economics of the community can support.

Although we have a copy of the current MWCSD teachers contract, unfortunately it is in paper form.  Hence we can't make it available here for you to examine.  We do have the SCSD contract and you can see it here.

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Last modified: 10/21/07