Burlington teachers will go on strike Wednesday unless their contract battle with the city school board is resolved.
Teachers voted to strike Thursday afternoon. The move escalated the tension in a messy labor dispute and created uncertainty for parents of the city’s 3,700 public school students.
“Moments ago, my fellow members and I voted to authorize a strike beginning on September 13 if the board fails to come back to the table and stay there until we reach an agreement for a contract covering this school year,” said Fran Brock, Burlington Education Association president, in a press release issued late Thursday afternoon.
Brock, a Burlington High School history teacher, lashed out at the board for imposing contract terms last Friday and also accused the board of neglecting student needs.
“We are done standing by while a shrinking percentage of the district’s budgets goes to student instruction. And we are done standing by while this board prefers condescension over collaboration,” Brock said in her statement.
Board chair Mark Porter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Battle lines have been drawn over raises and health care, as well as direct instruction time.
The board disagrees with the union’s assessment of the situation. Members have said they are trying to increase instruction time to pull underperforming students up to grade level — with resistance from the union.
The board voted 9-1 to impose a contract for the 2017-2018 school year that offered an average $1,702 raise for teachers, representing a percentage increase of about 2.4 percent.
Burlington teachers earned an average of about $69,000 last year. Top pay was $84,750 and entry level pay was just more than $43,565.
Teachers rejected the imposed terms.
Over the course of some 17 contract meetings, the board developed a number of charts that suggested recent teacher raises and local school taxes have outpaced what taxpayers can afford.
This year’s strike vote echoes the discord that soured that start of the school year in 2016, when the board also imposed a contract and teachers took a strike vote. But at the last minute, the two sides were able to hash out a one-year agreement and there was no strike.
It’s unclear how things will play out this year.
Brock said teachers truly want a solution.
“We don’t want to strike; no one ever does,” she said. “What we want is for this school board to recognize our determination for a contract that works to keep the very best teachers so our city’s children can thrive.”
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Every time this issue comes up, someone on here makes the simpleminded suggestion that instead of criticizing the public school teachers’ union for its arrogance and greed, we should all just ask our employers to give us the same salary, benefits, and working conditions as the teachers. Problem solved!!! See how easy that was?!!
I resent the accusation that we demean teachers if we don’t agree with their demands.
We all appreciate and respect teachers and the work that they do. Quibbling over whether they get 60 or 80 days of vacation each year or work 7 or 7.5 hours each day is not the point. The point is they get much more money than the average Vermonter for working fewer days. And that isn’t even a problem, nobody here is arguing they shouldn’t get more or work less.
People are upset because teachers aren’t happy with their higher salaries and Cadillac benefits and many days off. They feel it isn’t enough and they should get more. Saying this isn’t about money and benefits is not what their union says, every year it is precisely about the amount of their raises and the level of their benefits.
As teachers continue to exceed taxpayers salaries and benefits by larger amounts, resentment will grow. Especially for those of us who work two jobs and 16 hour days with 15 days of vacation. It is pretty upsetting to see people argue over 7 hours or 7.5 hour days. 60 days of vacation or 80 days. People respect teachers but that will change if teachers don’t respect taxpayers. I think their union could care less about how hard it is to meet their rising demands every year.
I know of some great teachers BUT I know some who shouldn’t even be in the school teaching our children.. $70,000 a yr with summers off, time off with pay for schools vacations. Teaching isn’t always easy, They wanted to teach, the thing I am not crazy about, they’re there to teach, then they need to teach, my nephew graduated from HS he did not know how to write nor spell hardly at all.. the teachers sure didn’t do their job…Why ???
There are few professions with a more important job than teaching. To see others so easily demean them is disheartening.
Yes, please inform yourselves, this is not false:
BSD calendar:
http://district.bsd.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/2383192/File/SY%2017%20-%2018%20Calendar%209-12.pdf?sessionid=e1f1b08e9e4be9ade681116c72360809
3 month summers off?
Most current contract:
http://human-resources.district.bsd.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/integrated_home.phtml?gid=2364460&sessionid=e1f1b08e9e4be9ade681116c72360809
Article VIII, section 8.7
“…seven hours, forty five minutes…”
page 18 of contract, page 21 of document
Article XVII, section 17.1(b)
“…187 school days…”
Calendar is ultimately established by the board
Regardless how one feels about the overall situation, facts are vital to any substantive discussion!
I do not have any interest in debating each and every one’s gripes, disagreements, etc…sorry.
I do, however, feel it necessary to call out misinformation and a glossing over of facts.
“Burlington teachers are contracted to work 7.75 hours/day, 187 days/year (approximately 9+months) – school ends in mid-June and resumes in late August – teachers put in about a week on either end of the student school term – so teachers are in the classroom during 10 of the months of the year.”
This is false, the contract is publicly available and I urge people to inform themselves. Beyond their three month summers off and 7 hr workdays, teachers get entire weeks off throughout the year, spring vacation and winter vacation et al. I notice you didn’t mention the 5 weeks of sick days. This all adds up to an amount of work days that is not considered full time in any other industry.
And those of us who work 8 or 9 hrs each day also show up for work early and leave late. And continuing education is a requirement for many professions. Excusing their unreasonable demands with weak arguments like this only proves our point. $70,000 is enough, taxpayers with masters degrees who work 12 months/year with five sick days deserve to have relief from teacher’s excessive benefit and salary demands. VT NEA’s team of highly paid negotiators ought to be requesting a rollback in pay, if they had any concern for our community. They do not.
“most of us working 12 months/year with few or no sick days, at salaries that are significantly lower. ” – so a job is a job is a job? If those are your working conditions they should be everyone’s?
Do you have a master’s degree and 15+ graduate credits beyond that? Do you foster and nurture people’s children-arguably their pride and joy and life’s masterpieces? Teachers are professionals who, by and large, dedicate their professional lives (and some personal) to other people’s children-please introduce me to any teacher you know who got into the gig for the money and the benefits and the respect from the public-I’d like to hear their story.
“Is their work more difficult or important than accountants, plumbers, or daycare workers? I think not.”
Well I think so.
Teachers work is definitely more important than accountants and plumbers (daycare workers are teachers as far as I’m concerned). I think working with children is far more difficult than pipes and water or forms and spreadsheets, to put it simply.
I believe most parents would essentially agree. If not, ok, but most parents I know value their children and their children’s education above anything else. I think we don’t spend enough on education: here’s an interesting article:
http://www.businessinsider.com/education-military-spending-comparison-2016-9
Try spending some substantive time in a classroom ASAP when you can and invite a teacher to join you at your job when they can. We could all do with more mutual understanding even if we have different priorities.
Surprising isn’t it, that Governor Scott could not get out of the gate with legislators to even consider having teachers’ contracts negotiated by the state. Charters can be changed. I think January 2018 will be a prime time to revisit Scott’s idea.
Here are facts for those posters who seem to have their numbers wrong:
Burlington teachers are contracted to work 7.75 hours/day, 187 days/year (approximately 9+months) – school ends in mid-June and resumes in late August – teachers put in about a week on either end of the student school term – so teachers are in the classroom during 10 of the months of the year.
No BSD teacher I know EVER puts in the minimum (7.75 hours/day – they’re there at least 15-30 minutes prior to students’ arrival and the same post student departure), and the majority take work home.
Most have earned master’s degrees or the equivalent number of credit hours and are required by the state to earn graduate level credits every 5 years to be re-certified (which is also costly).
However you feel about the current situation and either side’s positions, post and base your comments on facts, please.
“I think it’s time to fight for Vermont’s average taxpayer struggling to raise their children and pay their mortgage. These are the people who need our help, teachers have been doing very well for themselves for a long time now.”
I completely agree. The answer is not to reduce the salary of one profession. It’s to raise up everyone else. Wages all over Vermont need to improve. “Quality of life” is not a benefit that should be used in a compensation package.