[geeks] Teachers...

[wa2egp at att.net]

> I think that something got lost in the conversation - the FTE I saw had to do 
> with a multiplier (if you will) that explained why a certain teacher was making 
> 20% more than she otherwise would (her job is rated as 1.2 FTE), other teachers 
> were making 60 or 75% of their "rate", as they were working .6 and .75 FTE.
> 
> I don't think 1.2 FTE for 5 years = 6 years service towards pension, but it is 
> an interesting question...

OK. What I was saying was that in one system I know of, they would not give you
a full "load" (don't know if the pay was different but I would assume it was) but
it would not count as a full year.

> But if most are at the top of their payscale, thanit is not too misleading, it 
> might actually approach an accurate number as the number of top earners 
> appraches the number of total teachers.

Of course.  And our pay scale is higher than most surrounding towns because
they couldn't get teachers to come into the 'hood so they had to offer more
money.

> I wonder if the Union would absorb the $180K forever, or just the life of the 
> current contract, leaving a ticking bomb for the next round of negotiations when 
> health care costs would go up the $180K the union offered PLUS inflation/normal 
> increases...

Probably not, but that is for the next contract since it was just for the 
length of the contract.

> If you get paid for sick days, then you ARE getting paid for your time on the 
> line. State workers scream bloody murder when the state gov't shuts down and 
> sends all non-essential employees home for a few days, but amazingly, the first 
> thing the legislature does is give them retro-active pay for the days they 
> didn't work.
 
> This has been the case as long as I remember, yet somehow the union members 
> forget it and start screaming about starving children, missed rent payments, etc 
> at the hint of a shut down...

Well, with us, it's a little different.  I work 185 days/yr for a fixed amount.
If I miss a day, I can be docked the amount of pay for that day.  Now, in my 
district we have three sick days allowed per year before we get docked.  If
you have not used them, they roll over.  A benefit for having perfect 
attendance.  In spite of my surgery last year, I have over 220 sick days in 
my bank.  When I retire, I can sell them back to the board (for less then 
what I would get a day) as kind of a severance pay. Otherwise, just pension.

> I think teachers should pay a portion of their helathcare that is consistent 
> with what others in the community pay (i.e. if the average is that workers in 
> private industry pay, say, 50% of their healthcare costs, and have $15-20 copays 
> for each doctor visit then so should the teachers. Right now (in my district, 
> YMMV), teachers DO NOT contribute to their insurance costs and do not have 
> per-visit co-pays, they do not want to either get a smaller raise or contribute 
> to their health insurance costs, hence the impasse...

We do in ours.  Depending on which plan we have, there are various copays.  50% of
healthcare costs?  Sure, if I get the same pay as the others in that 
community.  Those teachers are lucky but it won't last.  Too bad health costs
are so high that it creates these situations.

Bob