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Janesville teachers: Contract keys on respect

JANESVILLE — “R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” goes the old R&B song. “Find out what it means to me.”

Janesville public school teachers are singing that tune as they prepare to negotiate a new contract Tuesday, May 19.

And when it comes to respect, it’s not money that first comes to their minds, said Jim Reif, the teachers’ lead negotiator. It’s working conditions.

“We’re just looking for simple, common things that show we’re valued and respected and that people downtown know that what we do is important,” Reif said.

Reif shared a summary of the teachers’ bargaining goals with The Janesville Gazette on Thursday.

The goals call for fewer meetings that cut into teachers’ class-preparation time and for cuts in training sessions teachers are required to attend, for example.

“These are all things that would cost the School District of Janesville no money and would show the teachers of Janesville that they’re respected,” Reif said.

Steve Salerno, director of human services, indicated the school board’s bargaining team has not yet decided whether it wants to make any of its bargaining positions public.

The board will finalize its own goals in a closed meeting Tuesday, Salerno said in an e-mail, and “it is expected the board of education proposal will include changes in language and a fiscal proposal which recognizes the current economic climate of the region.”

Reif said the release of the JEA document was a professional courtesy to the Gazette, which he said usually gets the information anyway, and not an attempt to negotiate in public.

In any case, Reif noted, the other side has gotten plenty of publicity of school board discussions about what salary increase—or non-increase—the district should offer teachers.

“We don’t feel we’re the ones breaking the ice. The ice has been broken and thawed,” Reif said.

Working conditions are important because teachers are being driven out of the district by burdensome work requirements that don’t help students achieve, Reif said.

Reif said the union has data showing Janesville has the highest teacher turnover rate among Big Eight Conference schools and other Wisconsin districts of similar size.

The union started bargaining on the last contract with a focus on working conditions. Those negotiations stalled for months. Reif said he hopes that doesn’t happen again, and that’s why the teachers couched their overview in language familiar to the board.

Retaining high-quality staff is a school-board goal, for example.

The JEA document is broken into categories such as “quality,” “people” and “finance” —the same language the district uses in its Studer quality-improvement program.

“We’re going to focus everything on the Studer principles. We want to be sure that we’re valued, respected and that what we are doing is respected,” Reif said.

“We’re here for the kids, and we’re here to have our working environment be as positive for the students as possible,” Reif added.

Reif would not discuss salary issues, but the JEA overview refers to the millions of dollars the district has budgeted but not spent for teacher health insurance over the years. This is a longtime bone of contention.

“We will simply ask to have a reasonable amount of the money the district made through over-funding insurance over the last few years to be returned to its rightful place in the salary schedule, as is done in almost every district in the area,” he document states.

“We hope the board of education understands the role salary plays in attracting highly qualified educators to the district that will benefit the students and community.”

TEACHER GOALS

The Janesville Education Association’s bargaining overview includes these goals for the 2009-11 contract:

-- Giving teachers time off as compensation for volunteering to advise clubs and to provide other learning opportunities. In addition, teachers who oversee FFA, DECA and other nationally recognized programs would get extra personal days off.

-- Setting up a committee to review compensation for those who are paid for extra-curricular duties.

-- Giving preparation time to teachers who have to travel between schools, in addition to travel time. Now, travel eats up prep time, teachers say.

-- Allowing teachers to use their state-required, license-renewal coursework to meet the district’s professional-development requirements. Teachers contend that most other districts allow this.

-- Protecting teachers who decide to go part-time. Those teachers now are the first to be fired when jobs are cut, teachers say, and they should be given the choice of returning to full-time in order to save their jobs.

-- Allowing teachers to take more of their required courses online. Now, the district limits the number of online courses allowed.

-- Eliminating the “effective teaching” course required for new teachers. Teachers contend the course repeats what they learned in college.

-- Protecting teachers who speak up about problems in their schools. Teachers contend that now, they’re afraid to speak up because they believe they’ll be transferred to other assignments if they do.

-- Increasing dental coverage from $1,000 to $2,000 per year, which teachers contend is standard in other area districts. Also, adding vision care to the insurance package, at $2,000 per year.