The Post Standard, January 10, 2010, Sunday

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The Post Standard (Syracuse, NY)

January 10, 2010, Sunday

Taxpayers don't get to know what's in teacher contracts before they are approved

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The first tentative agreement between the Liverpool school district and its teachers' union came to the school board Nov. 16.

No copies of the contract were made public for residents to review before the meeting. At the meeting, no copies were available. In an unusual move, the board rejected the contract.

A week later, a new contract was brought to the board.

Again, no copies of the contract were made public before or at the meeting. At the meeting, the public was told it couldn't comment on the proposed contract. This time, the board approved the contract that sets teacher and staff pay for three years.

Liverpool isn't doing anything unusual -- school districts typically keep pay raises and entire contracts secret before they are presented to the school board. Nearly all contracts are quietly approved with little or no public review or input.

Negotiations between a district and union take place in secret as part of collective bargaining. That's the same for other public sector labor contracts, too.

But once there's a tentative pact, the proposed contracts should be made public, but that almost never happens, said Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government.

"The public has no opportunity to express a point of view," he said.

Altmar-Parish-Williamstown recently reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract with its teachers and the union, but it hasn't been approved by the board yet. The district doesn't release any details of the tentative pact unless it's been approved by the board, said Superintendent Jerry Hudson.

To do that "would be a breach of good faith negotiations," he said. "It's not easy to reach an agreement with both parties now, and if we got the public involved, it would be hat much more cumbersome."

Because taxpayers are footing the bill for these costs, they need to have input, said Lise Bang-Jensen, senior policy analyst for the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a taxpayers' watchdog group.

"The public has the right to know what's in that contract before it's too late," she said. "Often, school districts would prefer the public not have the chance to criticize the contracts."

If proposed pay raises were made public before contracts are voted on, "I suspect the raises would probably be smaller," Bang-Jensen said. Shining the light on contracts might result in criticism and a backlash from taxpayers, which districts don't want, she said.

"The way they do it now, it's too late for the public to make any meaningful comments on the contracts before they've already been approved," she said.

Union and district officials disagree, saying until a proposed agreement is ratified by the employees and the district, it's still technically open for negotiation.

"If negotiations were public, what incentive would there be for either side to move even one inch for fear of being publicly criticized?" asked Richard Korn, speaking for the New York State United Teachers.

Korn said taxpayers have a voice through the school board members they elect to represent them in good faith during contract negotiations, and to open it up to the public could create "grand-standing and gridlock."

East Syracuse-Minoa School Board President Kevin Burke agrees.

"We're talking about a personnel agreement, and the negotiations aren't for public discussion," he said. "If they were, it would just create more waves. The board is elected to do what we feel is best for everybody."

Cornell University's Lee Adler, who teaches public sector collective bargaining and labor law, agrees that bargaining must be private, but not after the two sides have reached a tentative agreement.

"Citizens should have the right to ask questions or make comments as part of the ratification process," he said.

There are efforts to open the process to the public.

Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, D-Ossining, sponsored a bill in March that would require the proposed terms of a collective bargaining agreement be made public when it's sent to union members for approval or rejection. The bill also calls for copies to be posted on the school's Web site, in public libraries and in school district offices before the contract is approved by the district.

Elizabeth Doran can be reached at edoran@syracuse.com or 470-3012.

Contracts up next These districts are or soon will be in talks for contracts: Onondaga County: Fabius-Pompey, North Syracuse, West Genesee, Westhill Cayuga County: Auburn, Southern Cayuga Oswego County: Alt-mar-Parish-Williamstown*, Central Square, Mexico Madison County: Brookfield, Canastota, Cazenovia, Madison, Chittenango Cortland County: Cortland, Homer, Marathon *APW has a four-year tentative agreement in place; it is expected to go before the school board Jan. 28. Source: NYSUT, NYS Public Employee Relations Board, CNY school district

Impact of recession Here's a snapshot of what's happened since the recession hit more than a year ago. Cost of liv-ing nationally: Down 0.02 percent for the year ending October 2009. Weekly wages nationally: Down 1.4 percent for the year ending September 2009. Weekly private sector wages in CNY: Up 0.009 percent. Wages went from $750 in the second quarter of 2008 to $757 a week in the second quarter of 2009. Weekly private/public wages in CNY: Up 0.001 percent. Wages went from $767 in the second quarter of 2008 to $775 in the second quarter of 2009. Teachers' pay: Up 3.69 percent in the 10 contracts settled since the fall of 2008. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, state Labor Department, school district contracts

Extras increase the pay The base pay for a Liverpool school teacher without a master's degree who's been teaching in the district for 10 years is $49,150. But no one earns that. That's because the contract -- like contracts in all Central New York districts -- calls for paying teachers extras that increase a teacher's pay. Here are some extras a 10-year teacher could make in Liverpool: $2,327 a year for a master's degree. (In New York, teachers must earn a master's after five years, so all teachers with 10 years should have a master's degree). $4,260 a year for the college course to get the master's degree. That's $142 each for 30 credit hours. $2,983 a year for getting tenure. This 10-year teacher would be making $58,720. A teacher could increase his or her salary more by doing extra work or being a coach or club adviser. If the teacher chaired a social studies department, for example, the teacher's annual salary would go up $2,450.

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