DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 1:43 p.m. January 06, 2009
Fayette furlough request would have to be unanimous
If all county employees don’t agree to return raises, county wouldn’t ask it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, January 05, 2009
Fayette County school officials insisted Tuesday that any talk of asking employees to voluntarily give back their raises is just that.
And any such plan would have to get unanimous approval from all the county’s employees, not just teachers, in a survey to soon be distributed.
“In order for it to be even considered, we would have to have 100 percent of all of our employees agree on the survey,” said school spokeswoman Melinda Berry-Dreisbach. “We feel like we owe it to our employees to let them tell us. If we don’t get 100 percent, it wouldn’t be fair to look at it.”
The county’s roughly 1,800 teachers were abuzz with talk during Tuesday’s first teaching day of the new year.
Several felt blindsided by the news, but declined to be interviewed for this story.
On Monday night, school board members discussed asking teachers to give back the 2.5 percent pay raises they would receive for the second half of this school year. That giveback, members said, would help the cash-strapped school system stay solvent through the current 2008-09 school year and avoid layoffs.
The raises totaled $4 million from school coffers. The state had been scheduled to pay for half, but reneged after slashing state education budgets.
The voluntary contributions would not be retroactive to the start of the school year, Berry-Dreisbach said.
If county employees choose to donate their pending raise money, the county would recoup $2 million. Current projections estimate Fayette County schools are en route to a budget deficit of roughly $1.8 million. State law requires each school system to have a balanced budget.
In return for giving up their raises, employees would take furloughed days. No employee would pony up any cash.
The request highlights the severe difficulties facing the Fayette County school system in the wake of unexpected state budget cuts and diminished property tax revenues in a struggling economy.
“Something has to be done,” superintendent John DeCotis said at the board meeting. “It’s a matter of what has the least impact on students.”
Board members Bob Todd and Marion Key sounded confident that county employees, including the teachers, would embrace the idea of returning their raises in the interest of community.
Both board members cited the number of calls they’d received from teachers saying they’d prefer to take a small hit than to see any colleagues lose their jobs.
They also noted the Montgomery County, Md., teachers who took note of the struggling economic times and agreed in early December to forego a 5.3 percent raise promised to them.
“They did it to protect the jobs of everybody,” Todd said.
Only the money they sacrificed wasn’t expected until the 2010 fiscal year. Fayette County’s employees could be asked to take money immediately.
The gesture of the Maryland teachers allowed that state’s largest school system to balance its budget by saving $89 million, said Dan Kaufman, a spokesman for the Maryland State Teachers Association.
The Maryland teachers were represented by a union and took home some big concessions in health care benefits and other promises in exchange for their sacrifice, Kaufman said. Fayette teachers are not represented by a union.
The decision to turn to Fayette teachers and other employees followed a lengthy meeting in which the board had discussed a number of other cost-saving measures, both for the current school year and beyond.
Those options included the furloughing of some contracted employees, such as principals, starting next month and the slashing of pre-kindergarten para-pro salaries, all in the hopes of avoiding layoffs.
Other measures considered include a reduction in county contributions to employee life and long-term disability insurance plans and a possible reduction of the 180-day school year.
The board will reconvene on Jan. 27.
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Comments
By Arsenio
Feb 23, 2009 12:25 AM | Link to this
Sorry. Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
I am from Liberia and too bad know English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "Start home based business idea learn how to start home business, internet business or any small business."
Thank :-D Arsenio.
By John
Jan 12, 2009 5:58 PM | Link to this
Montgomery County, MD teachers are the highest paid teachers in the state. They can afford to give back a 5% raise. When you're making $100K a year it's easy to be "generous" with money you haven't gotten yet.
What about the teachers who went without raises last year, in the state? Should they be giving back money, too? No-it's time for the school systems to step up and keep their promise to provide raises this year--even if they need to reduce overhead in some central offices. Look for the fat that can be trimmed. How many teaching positions are being held by people who don't actually work with children? Shouldn't a teacher be teaching? Get rid of the fat!!!!
Oh, and if the Superintendent is getting a raise - everyone should be. If no one else is, he shouldn't be either. But that's another story.
By Ann VanderLaan
Jan 8, 2009 9:04 PM | Link to this
When Senators and congressmen pay Social Security and also take a big salary break (minus) a lot then maybe others who are suffering could be paid better and then the economy may get back to normal.
By Teacher
Jan 8, 2009 5:23 PM | Link to this
I hate when people are making judgments about a job they know NOTHING about. Teachers WORK VERY HARD FOR THE LITTLE MONEY THEY EARN. Those vacations are GREATLY needed, especially, when parents are sending their children to school with no reality on life itself. Teacher spend PLENTY of hours outside of school planning, that they are sacrificing their family on a daily basis. I guarantee, those who love to try and look in on teaching from the outside wouldn't last a DAY, dealing with the stress from the state and parents, who don't want to take any responsibility for their children education. For those who love to say this and that about teachers, go volunteer at each level of education for a week, look at the workload teachers endure and the students, along with their parents,. and tell me if you reconsider your "judgment". Make sure to go to schools that are on free-reduced lunch and little parent involvement. Then you JUDGE! Learn to be OPEN MINDED because their is a different world outside of the "box", some of you think and live in and until you have walked in those shoes, you can't JUDGE!
By Grannycares
Jan 8, 2009 9:17 AM | Link to this
I cannot help but wonder if the same board of education members who were cast aside in Clayton County did not find their way into Fayette County!!?? Are they going to get that system in the same pickle as Clayton? My, my! what has happened to the South Side??
By Johnny Shoe
Jan 7, 2009 11:37 PM | Link to this
Teacher whine & complain...they say I work 180 days a year. 180 days. Normal people work 250 days. You, teachers, are getting 70 days, not including weekends free. Teachers say they get paid year round. How about we pay them only when they work, so they learn how to budget money & understand that they won't be getting paid 3 months out of the year.
By Tom
Jan 7, 2009 7:17 PM | Link to this
Teachers with their powerful union and lobby managed to hold on to raises when every other state employee received NO raise and many are being furloughed. Give me a break. Many teachers I know get two months off in the summer, two weeks off at Christmas, one week in the fall, one week in the Spring, get to work around 7:30-8:00 am and leave by 3:30 pm. Other state employees work eight or more hours a day 52 weeks a year and have to use their vacation time to take a week off during the year.
Most teachers have an equivalent hourly wage of $30/hr or more. That works out to a lot more than state troopers, prison guards, child welfare workers and many other state employees earn. Teachers have become the sacred cow that can't be touched at the expense of many other hard working state employees. We now have two classes of state employees. Teachers and everyone else.
Let them sacrifice like everyone else.
By BearFoot
Jan 7, 2009 3:51 PM | Link to this
Thought that Fayette County had better leadership than what is portrayed in this article! Thought it was supposed to be one of the top counties in the state -- which is not really saying a lot! But, if this is true, members of the BOE and the superintendent should be held to account! Surely they did not wake up last week and learn the economy was in decline!! Who is responsible for LACK OF PLANNING? The folks in Fayette County might want to start looking for a new BOE and superintendent. Their collective lack of regard for teachers speaks volumes, and this is going to stick in the minds of many who might give thought to working in that system. SOUNDS LIKE THERE ARE SOME BUREAUCRATS TRYING TO COVER THEIR COLLECTIVE ERRORS IN LACK OF PLANNING -- AT TEACHER'S EXPENSE!!
By Grannycares
Jan 7, 2009 3:41 PM | Link to this
Sounds like a superintendent and a BOE fired; then aimed; and lastly, tried to get ready. Feel for the kids in that system. Sounds like a major leadership problem from this old lady's chair!
By Craig
Jan 7, 2009 2:07 PM | Link to this
I'm in the west, it was 9am for me. If it makes you feel smart though, than touche I guess.
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