Sunday’s Portland Press Herald featured an extensive investigation of the effects of a new teachers’ contract that was adopted in 2006. The contract allowed teachers to advance within the pay brackets through taking courses and through other activities, such as leading field trips, participating in extracurricular activities, and even for writing college recommendation letters for students.
The results were diastrous, at least from a budgetary standpoint.
Forty-two public-school educators in Portland got pay raises ranging from 20 percent to 53 percent during a four-month stretch in the school year that ended in June. They were among 218 people who received an average pay raise of 12.8 percent – thanks to a union contract negotiated in 2006 that school officials now acknowledge was financially shaky.
The raises went to teachers and others who continued their education by taking college courses, attending workshops or completing special projects, such as mentoring student teachers, leading field trips or writing letters of reference for college-bound students.
The number of teachers and other educators who moved into higher salary brackets under the contract was three times the number forecast by the school district. Their raises added $854,000 in additional salary spending to the fiscal year 2008 school budget.
That’s 144 percent more than the budgeted amount of $350,000.
The contract also increased the number of college courses eligible for tuition reimbursement from two courses a year to three a year, per person. The increase drove total tuition reimbursement spending in the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years to $716,588.
That’s 46 percent more than the budgeted amount of $490,750.
Nasty! A look at some of the individual cases is even more shocking:
Portland High School teacher Suzette Olafsen moved up two salary brackets, largely on credit she earned by leading student field trips to Greece and Washington, D.C. and a grant-supported teacher tour of China, in 2007. Her pay rose from $51,358 to $66,990, a 30.4 percent increase.
Olafsen declined to comment on the union contract.
Troy Crabtree, another Portland High social studies teacher, earned partial credit toward a higher salary bracket by writing college recommendation letters for 12 students, in addition to attending USM classes. His pay rose from $40,464 to $58,577, a 44.7 percent increase.
Crabtree also declined to comment.
Forty teachers, a guidance counselor and a psychological examiner completed so much continuing education that they moved up two salary brackets, earning raises of 20 percent to 53 percent.
Joseph Robinson, a teacher at Portland Arts and Technology High School, was paid $38,908 in 2006-07, the last year the district used the old salary scale.
He was placed on the new scale in September 2007 and moved up one bracket to a salary of $50,163. In January 2008, his pay was raised again to $58,577.
That’s a 51 percent increase over his previous year’s salary.
Robinson, who teaches woodworking to special education students, moved up two brackets because of nine courses he completed from 2001 to 2006 at USM, where he is working toward a master’s degree in special education. He also took one online course offered by the University of Phoenix.
The district reimbursed him for his tuition expenses.