The Philadelphia School District stands to receive $65
million annually in new money, thanks to the city’s reassessment of commercial
properties.
District teachers, who have gone without a contract for
almost four years and without a raise for almost five, think they know just how
to use that revenue stream: Give them a new deal.
Backed by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers,
educators are tweeting, emailing, and calling Superintendent William R. Hite
Jr. and the School Reform Commission, demanding that the district put its money
where its mouth is.
“Everybody says, ‘If we had more money, we would love to
give you a contract,' ” said Kathie Tomczuk, a 14-year veteran teacher at
Farrell Elementary School in the Northeast. “Now, they have more money. Did
they mean what they said?”
Tomczuk tweeted at Hite, the SRC, and Mayor Kenney on
Monday to get her point across.
The PFT rejected the district’s last contract proposal —
a deal the district said would cost about $150 million. The union countered
with a deal that would cost the school system $400 million more than it had
offered.
Each side has called the other’s offer a nonstarter.
Because there is no contract, teachers' pay has been frozen at 2012 levels.
Jerry Jordan, the PFT president, was emphatic in an
interview.
“I think that the entire $65 million [annually] needs to
go help fund a PFT contract," said
Jordan. "It isn’t enough to fund the entire contract, but it should help
us get closer to settling,”
District officials last week said they would use the new
money to help plug a projected $900 million budget deficit in its five-year
plan.
Lee Whack, a district spokesman, suggested it would be
unwise to dedicate all of the new city money to a contract, and took issue with
Jordan's suggestion that $475 million - five years of city revenue, plus the
district's $150 million offer - wasn't enough money for teachers.
"These new revenues must be spent in a way that
balances our education priorities," Whack said Tuesday in a statement,
adding that those priorities included more classroom resources, fair contracts
for all unions, hiring more teachers, sprucing up buildings, and plugging the
deficit.
Dedicating all of the city money to a PFT contract would
leave "no money for educational investments for children," Whack
said.
Darrell L. Clarke, the City Council President, indicated
in a statement that a contract was a priority, sooner rather than later.
“The School District’s structural deficit is a
long-running concern, but making it the first priority over classrooms and
students is not how our schools make progress,” Clarke said. “District teachers
and staff step to the plate every school day because that is what their
profession demands. They deserve a fair contract and a raise, and not just
because of the District’s improving economic outlook – but because the future
of our public schools and our City is one and the same.”
Teacher Kelsey Green is crossing her fingers.
She’s in her fourth year of teaching but is frozen at a
starting teacher’s salary. With no raise in that time and $800 monthly in
student-loan payments, she is unable to move out of her parents’ house.
“I have so much debt, and I still have to save for
retirement,” said Green. “My friends who are teaching in the suburbs make
$20,000 more than I do. I can’t move forward in my life at all.”
Green, the daughter of a Philadelphia teacher, doesn’t
want to leave the district, but she has applied to other districts. She can’t
afford the alternative — especially when new teachers hired by the district are
paid for their years of experience and advanced degrees, but her pay is frozen.
“We get emails saying, ‘Thanks for all you do,’ ” Green
said. “Well, how about a contract?”
Bryan Steinberg got tired of waiting. He submitted his
letter of resignation Monday. He’s leaving the district not for another school
system, but for work as a server and bartender. With that job, plus some
marketing work for his parents’ business, he’ll earn more money.
He loves connecting with students as a high school social
studies teacher at the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush in the Northeast, but
working with no contract has worn on him, causing a “constant state of
financial anxiety and distress,” Steinberg said.
“I never thought I would become a rich man teaching high
school, but I also never thought that I would be a near-destitute peasant eight
years later,” Steinberg wrote in his resignation letter. “The money owed and
promised to me five years ago is over $20,000 under our collective bargaining
agreement, but I will not sacrifice my dignity to an employer that is slowly
and methodically starving its teachers into attrition.”
Steinberg is paid as a fourth-year teacher with a
bachelor's degree, $54,365, vs. the $67,778 he would be making by now if the
district hadn't frozen him at his 2012 pay.
Contract talks are ongoing, the two sides said.
Jordan said that he met Monday with Gov. Wolf and asked
him to intervene to help get a deal inked.
Through a spokesman, Wolf confirmed that he met with
Jordan. The governor “has planned for some time to reach out to Superintendent
Hite as well,” said J.J. Abbott, Wolf’s spokesman. “The governor strongly
believes that both sides should find a way to come to an agreement that is fair
to teachers, students, families and the district.”
Mayor Kenney, through spokeswoman Deana Gamble, said he
would reach out to both sides this week “to get a sit-down scheduled.”
“The mayor believes that it is critical for all sides to
come to the table now to reach a fair contract that acknowledges the sacrifices
our teachers have made, while at the same time recognizes the significant
deficit and urgent needs our schools currently face,” Gamble said.
Source: Philly.com
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