to the school board:thank you for putting your final offer online. after reading it these are my questions:1. why isn't your final offer detailed in the local paper? why isn't the total value of all that the teacher's are receiving, not just salary made a matter of public knowledge?
2.what percentage of the total yearly budget for sasd goes to teacher benefits and compensation...including the cost to replace them in the classroom?
3.how many total days away from the classroom are granted to eachteacher for any reason during the school year?
4.could you explain explicitly what teachers do on the 14 association business days they are granted per school year?
5. 7.71 percent is too much over three years. i think that the average(take the total dollar figure paid to teachers divided by the numberof teachers paid) teacher's pay should equal the average pay per household in the souderton school district. i do not think there should be a huge jump between, what is it year 14 and 15. i think there should be 25 equal annual steps. i think teacher salaries should be paid by individual taxpayers and everything else paid by a flat commercial tax of 5% that is not raised and that we should do what we can within those budgetary constraints.
6.what is involved in completion of national board professional teaching standards? how many of the teachers last year qualified forthe $2000 annual bonus that comes with the completion of this? how often must this be updated to remain eligible for the bonus?
7.are there not fact based performance standards in place in thedistrict for what must be accomplished successfully by grade level?(ie. master multiplication table to x, etc. etc.) if not, why not? why is a new performance bonus of $150,000 added to the budget? is it another form of pay raise for doing what should be being done already?why would you accept such subjective standards (ie.personality,technique, pupil reaction) for evaluating satisfactory performance pursuant of receiving a bonus? this is an absolutely unworkable quagmire which would do nothing but potentially cause hard feelings and disunity among other dysfunctionalities. it would be another camel (established teacher perk) with its nose in the moneytent. has it worked successfully anywhere else? unacceptable!
8.i can see after reading the horrendously long list of teacher obligations (meetings, meetings, meetings!) outside the classroom. how the tail is wagging the dog! teachers should have no duties outside of educating. they should be given the standards that need to completed during the year, given any assistance they ask for and held to that standard, period. if they choose to do more out of personal interest that, of course, should be up to them.
9. what is curriculum rate paid for? how much money has been paid to teachers since this has been instituted ( by year)? why has it jumped from $21 an hour in 2004 to a projected $28 in 2010? is this openended or is there a limit placed upon the amount of curriculum time?
10.how are unused sick and personal days reimbursed? there are two sections on this and i am confused. how many days in this category are granted per year? how much money (by year) has been paid for this? why again has this gone from $30 to $43 an hour, almost 10% per year.
11. how much $ is being paid per year (total) for teachers' retirement benefits from the district? how is the yearly amount figured? are teachers encouraged or required to retire early?
12. why are college/graduate/additional certification/change of subject/etc. (?) hours reimbursed? this section was very confusing to me - what exactly is the formula by which compensation is granted? do teachers of children really need doctoral level education? how much has been paid (by year) for each different type of reimbursed education? is this really necessary for good education to happen? it seems that much of it may be insubstantial as a real help to improved teaching and more a money making/ego enhancing scheme. can you show a spread sheet of how many souderton teachers there are in each type of advanced education and make a case for how this has materially improved education in the district?
13. how much are association dues? what does the association do? is their budget a matter of public knowledge or secret? if public, would you make it public? if secret, why is that allowed? let's have everything out in the open that we're not ashamed of.
14. what are continuing professional education credits for, how much do they cost the district (by year), how do they work, why can they(up to 6 hours) be used to bump up step advancement? what are all the other things can be done to hasten step advancement?
15. how does the 403b (tax sheltered annuity) plan work? how much does it cost the district (by year)?
16. there seemed to be missing sections in the contract that was shown on your web site? if so, can the whole contract be made public?
17. what exactly is non-binding arbitration and how does it work?
18. how much, and for what, does the district have to pay due to state law (by year)?
19. please publish the answers to these questions in the paper so that those of us who are paying for all this can give you more accurate feedback as to what we want you to do as our elected representatives.thank you. stephen paine 54 w. chestnut st. souderton, pa.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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