Educators in the Brandywine School District are picketing in response to stalled contract negotiations. Teachers and specialists, who have been working without a contract since June, are seeking changes to compensation and assurances about their working conditions.
The union laid out it’s argument in a letter to its members:
To protect the interests of ALL of our members, BEA is holding firm on the position that we will not trade language impacting working conditions for money. The rights we have fought hard for over the years cannot be bought.
These changes to multiple working conditions would affect all our members. They would impact members’ ability to apply for positions, significantly reduce flexibility in areas which provide choice and ease burdens, and could potentially result in teachers working more hours without fair (or any) compensation.
Under the District’s financial proposal, many of our teachers would be paid salaries that are significantly less than neighboring comprehensive districts. We compared the salary schedules cell by cell for the first 26 steps (years). Under the district’s proposal that does not contain changes to working conditions, 38% of these cells would reflect salaries that are NOT the highest among our neighboring districts. If we agree to give away that language – those RIGHTS – it would have a significant impact on our working conditions but would do little to address the issue of teacher retention.
The “better” financial proposal, which we were willing to accept if it were not tied to changing our working conditions, would still have over 35% of the cells at salaries below our neighboring districts. Over 60% of the salaries would see no change. A large number of our members would lose rights and gain nothing.
Further, these shortfalls disproportionately impact highly qualified, experienced teachers. Some cells reflect pay that is as much as 11% below the local salary in neighboring districts. The difference can be thousands of dollars. This will make it extremely difficult for the district to retain quality teachers amid a critical teacher shortage. Many experienced teachers will be able to raise their salary by leaving BSD to work for a neighboring district.
We aren’t agreeing to trade our rights for a few dollars. Instead, BEA offered to exchange changes to existing working conditions that benefit our members for the changes that the District is asking for. The changes we proposed would be beneficial to ALL of our members. The District has rejected our proposals.
We will continue to attempt to reach an agreement with the District. We want a contract that will attract and retain high quality educators so that we can provide our community’s children with the education they deserve.”
The district stated that its proposals would not alter working conditions and would offer teachers the highest salaries among the five school districts in New Castle County.