"diamondback" i took a deep breath and things have only gotten much worse ! have you been reading the follow up story ? as you can see my comments are far nicer then what most people have to say about what is really going on at BHTC. i am not a sit around and wait and see kind of person and i wish more people would get upset at the way BHTC treats it's employees. when the day comes that they will have to pay for their actions and only then will i calm down. do you hear me Brian Gohlke and Eric Larson because i only plan to get louder until you change your poor business practices !

justsayno-After reading your comments on these blogs..... My I give you a little advice? Take a deep breath and let it out real s l o w. You are not doing yourself or your family any good by being so upset.I feel for what you are dealing with(chldren,fire,lost of job etc..),the feeling of hopelessness.Let your lawyer deal with BTC.Your family needs YOU!!!

Jackpot!

Brian Gohlke who got a $13,790.00 raise,could not even manage to send out the written notice to laid off employees by the deadline ! BHTC will now have to pay the laid off instructors due to this error. this error is gross negligence at best and shows that Mr.Gohlke is not able to perform his job in a manner expected of someone with this kind of pay scale increase !

this link to the award is better:
http://www.filedropper.com/6698/2007-zyl...

I found the Arbitrator's grievance award (what I think is the "WERC case file.")here:
http://w15.easy-share.com/1699960359.htm...

Man! I can't hardly believe it! That's a lot of money! Too bad the teachers at BTC didn't get a raise like that, maybe it would have been an incentive to offer more class times for general ed classes at night. And no wonder why our classes and books are so expensive, paying that much money for administration!!

The HR Director made the decision to lay off a person who later won a case in mediation so the college had to pay back pay and reinstatement. The same director and/or president created similar situations that are currently on-going at the college. These facts, combined with past monetary settlements to women who were promoted without comensurate pay increases lead me to wonder what does the Board at BTC do? Apparently they are a rubber stamp for whatever the president of the college asks for. Do they not see patterns or question legal expenses? How many EEO/Fair Employement complaints have been filed against this college? How could they give added responsibility (I assume) and such a huge pay increase to someone who is not successful in their current responsibilities, i.e. keeping the college out of trouble? Isn't that part of the job of an HR Director? Perhaps Mr. Larson and Mr. Gohlke are putting their own interests in front of those of the college and the taxpayers.

Consider us taxpayers lucky. Do some research, BTC is one of the LOWEST paying colleges in the state.

yu learnded me reel gud.....

Feels good, don't it?

I have gone to the garyprimer school of writing......

C'mon Run, don't be "rude" to JSNTM, like everyone else who makes a comment about her posts. She is the only one allowed can be rude on this blog.

justsaynotomath: No one commenting here said that you should feel guilt for the choices you have made. The only reason anyone is questioning your choice to stay home is your "poor me" comments about how you have no money. Stay home if you so choose, but live with the consequences that come with that.

justsaynotomath says "you should know all about this subject if you are commenting on it . right ???", and okiefed replied of having 1st hand knowledge of the administratin of BTC.
Does justsaynotomath have 1st hand knowledge, or is she commenting on something she does not know about?

"justsaynotomath":

You chose to cast aspersions with your inference that those who work for BTC administration do nothing to earn their pay. I happen to know first-hand that is not the case, and posed the question to you regarding your husband to ascertain more specifically why his position is more "valuable" to BTC.

I'll be awaiting your response....

"okifed" why are you asking me these questions ? and in a very rude way at that. you should know all about this subject if you are commenting on it . right ???

eating candy was a heat of the moment comment and should not have been said. with that i do not regret any of my other comments. mooser or looser should not comment on what mooser knows nothing about. just because i am not paid for my jobs makes them no less then yours. having 3 autistic children is a 24 hour a day job and i feel no guilt for staying home them.

Okiefed, I have a feeling your question will go unanswered...

justsaynotomath
GET A JOB LIKE THE REST OF US! WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF ALL OF COULD STAY HOME WITH OUR KIDS!!

Yes, I eat candy in my office, but I would take offense if it was implied that it was all I did all day. Maybe that was not the intent of the statement "a bunch of people sitting around eating candy" but that is how I read it.

I give up.

Tell me no one has aver sat in an office and eaten candy.

Tell me that no one has ever sat in an office and ate candy.

"justsaynotomath", I take umbrage to your statement about the workers in the Administration Office "sitting around eating candy".

Please tell me how many days your husband reported to campus for work last year. I don't want to hear any tall tales about him grading papers 100 hours per week at home either. I just want to know how many days he spent on campus, and how many classroom hours he logged.

justsaynotomath - My intention was not to be rude, but rather to focus the discussion on the issue at hand, not your personal financial situation. By the way, why did you assume my spouse was my husband??? I think your assumption was interesting and shows that things are not always what they appear at first glance...I really do wish you well...and yes, I do agree with those who stated that those with access to contracts and such should review them thoroughly. I did not mean to suggest that I know all of the details at hand, but rather again, to suggest that sometimes we don't have all of the information.

"ITHINK2MUCH" you should read the contract before you blab your mouth on and on ! the contract says exactly that ! a senior instructor can bump any instructor position that has not been there as long. the senior instructor must only be certified that area. your comment about how you and your husband make sure your covered is RUDE at best!

Seabee, businesses comparatively complain about taxes all the time. This is a strategy to pit states against one another. Businesses have a much harder time employing and retaining qualified people. And although we pay higher taxes then many states (the south) we have lower crime and an education system that ranks very highly when it comes to ACT test scores (these measure how well a student will do in their first year of college). The problem we have is keeping these educated people in our state.

Also, teachers have "Seniority" rights. In the arbitration ruling that BTC lost the Arbitrator ruled that it is by certification area and if the teacher has "sufficient ability" to teach. This excludes the more or same experience belief that many have. The ruling was WERC CASE NO. M-06-248. I have searched for an online copy but have not found one yet.

People, you live in Wisconsin, A.K.A. the Tax People And Businesses Into The Ground Capitol Of The Midwest! %^$# like this keeps happening because YOU have demonstrated time an again to your elected officials that you will take it with a smile every time they raise a tax and/or add some new program that is not needed.

ithink...You bring up good points about the contract details. I hope the contract is written with enough detail so that the settlement is fair and accurate.
Based on what I see about the other settlement here, the contract did have the details needed...

Justsaynotomath - you said that "funding" was insufficient. Does this mean your husband is paid out of special funds or grants? Just wondered, as it would make sense that if "special" subsidized monies were not adequate, that positions would be eliminated. Also, just because someone is "senior" doesn't mean he/she can bump someone. I believe that only qualifies if their are less senior fulltime instructors with exactly the same certifications AND qualifications. I am certainly not in favor of the pay raises for adminstration in light of the reduction in full-time instructors/teachers, however, it really is not appropriate to blame them for any individual's financial position. My spouse and I have always made sure that we would be covered if neither of us had a job. This is not any employer's responsiblity; it is your own.

"opinion80" the instructor won his case and BHTC had to reinstate him and pay him his back pay while he was laid off.

The UW system finances are controlled by the legislature as part of the state budget.

wisconsinheat, I'm with you on this one. Is it the same with the UW system?

I PLAN TO YELL VERY LOUD AND CLEAR VIA MY LAWYER !

If my info is correct, the gentleman that won the mediation against BHTC was laid off due to his position being eliminated. The admin then renamed the course and hired someone, at what was surely a lower salary, to teach it. Shame on this admin and I agree the board should be elected, not appointed. All of our voices need to be heard.

justsaynotomath - I was just going to mention that same thing. From rumor, Eric wasn't too happy the mediator sided with the union since his admin is used to having their way all of the time. He has his puppets at BHTC and rumor has it he is scheduled to retire soon. Probably wanted to make sure he got them big fat raises before his final curtain call.

the contract states "no instructor shall be laid off if they have more time served then any current instructor holding a position". last count there were only a few (maybe 3) instructors that have been there 17 years or longer. so again i ask what is the point of a contract if they have no intention of following it ? i guess the courts have to tell BHTC how to read a contract. as a matter of fact BHTC just had to pay for an employee they did the same exact thing to !

It's about time for technical college board memebers to be ELECTED instead of APPOINTED.
.
How many other non elected entities have the power of taxation?

True, life is money, but BHT is not taking away earning power from the individual. And contracts should be upheld when the person has met their end of the bargain, but are not guaranteed for life, they come up for renewal with both parties having the option to not renew. Terms of a contract are usually stated clearly, especially the length of the contract.

My first post was not in any way condemning or scorning the person. It was simply my opinion. Is it common decency to say these administrators don't deserve this and do nothing all day but sit around and eat candy? My point is that there are two sides of every story, there are no details as to what these raises entail. Maybe their workload is doubled - would that justify a double digit raise?

Why all the surprise now?
.

Wasn't there a war fought 200 some years ago based in large part on TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION?
.
That's exactly what is happening now with Technical college boards. APPOINTED board members have the authority to levy taxes without worrying about having to answer to the taxpayers.
.
So it should come as no surprise that lack of accountibility makes it easier to spend someone else's money.

I hope for the sake of decency that those were words of encouragement and not condemnation or scorn.

"run" a contract is guaranteed employment when you have kept your end of it. otherwise why have one ? why pay your union ? why invest in a career with no future once you cost more then they want to pay ? money is life when you can not get anything without it !

we will figure something out but, i know how ever it ends up it will not be easy. i should not comment on something i feel this strong about. so i will end it here. thanks for listening.

"they are taking our life away from us" justsaynotomath, that is an incredibly strong statement to make. You are blaming an employer for taking your life away? No employement is guaranteed for life. It is understandable to be upset about being let go from a job you have been dedicated to for a long time, but that is in no way "taking your life away"

Hope things get better for you...

yes, and thanks for asking. our home is being rebuilt and will be done on arpil 24th, we hope. i will no longer be able to afford the repairs outside of what our insurance paid for. the kicker is my husbands supervisor at BHTC was aware of the fire and still said nothing about the lay off ! even when the contract says we should have been notified 2 weeks before the letter by the BHTC board ! once again thanks BHTC !

I am sure these people are all qualifed for their positions, however when is enough, enough. The state budget shortfall allowed all of this to happen. The state was unable to pass their budget so they allowed all the tax districts from schools to technical colleges to do a "one time adjustment" instead of having to live within the levy's that were set by the state. They took their piece of the pie and will take more given the chance. This is what is wrong with our system of tax and having so much state control.

Justsayno: Correct me if I am wrong but didn't you post recently that your house caught on fire? I am sorry to hear that on top of that now you have to worry about your husband finding another job, especially with the economy in the shape it is...

for those of you on here who claim a "better education" is the answer. my husband has a masters in education and is currently getting a PHD ! so how much more education do you suggest ????

all i want is what my husband has worked for for 17 years, his job ! have you seen the administrations offices at BHTC ? a bunch of people sitting around eating candy.

This points out the misguided logic of the State Law giving VTAE districts the right to tax us POOR Citizens. Robson, Sheridan let's lower the state levy limit for VTAEs. Make this Bill number 1 when the next legislative session starts.

BHTC says don't go to school to be a teacher because they don't need any ! they don't even want the ones they have ! so when your racking up the student loans to become a teacher remember that you will have little to no pay, no health insurance and a contract not worth the paper it was written on !

When is it ever bad timing for the truth about government? It sounds like there will be more to this story and maybe some questions will be answered then. Thanks to Frank Shultz for reporting the news. Keep up the good work.

i can not tell you how angry i am with BHTC ! as a stay at home MOM of three children under 10 years old, they are taking our life away from us ! 17years and all we get is a "good luck" 1 paragraph letter from Dr.Larson ! we have 40,000. in student loans to pay ! a 116,000. mortgage ! this is wrong ! i will spend every minute i can come up with fighting BHTC over the lay off that is not supposed to be able to happen when you can bump new instructors. i guess they need to save money so they can pay the administration more then the instructors ! my son is autistic and now they are taking our health care away with the lay off ! BHTC you have a lot of answering to do !!

comment posted by "justsaynotomath" not "husbandofmath"

BHTC is a public institution and is paid for by the public ! so it is everyones business ! only the administration at BHTC would say such a stupid comment ! the administration at BHTC can not even read the instructors contract. BHTC is not going to lose students it is going to have no instructors to teach the students. the only thing BHTC will lose is in COURT! way to waste the public tax dollars ! i say fire the administration they do NOTHING anyways ! thanks Frank Schultz for telling the TRUTH!

Justsaynotomath...you are right. It's sad that teachers are being laid off. It's even more sad that teachers have to go through tons of red tape for wage increases. The BTC administration, and the vocational technical system overall, needs to stop looking at their own pockets and allocate money to retain quality teachers and more programming. Without teachers, students are cheated out of an education all in the name of pay raises. I believe we all deserve pay raises, but at the appropriate time. The salaries these people are making are already huge. Yes, promotions do often tag on a pay increase. But these pay increases are ill-timed given the state of the economy. Especially if teachers are being laid off within BTC. I wonder if the wages increased for the employees who work for them and make them look good?

#1 why is it anyones business when these people get raises, did the paper know that people where getting laid off so they printed this story just to stir things up? Extreamly poor timing on the Gazettes part here, and A public appoligy is in order for this goof! #2 Times are tough right now and by printing this story I'll bet many students with increased tuition costs are going to believe this is the sole reason, I will not be surprised to see A decline in numbers at Blackhawk Tech due to the article. Bravo to the wonders that decided that Frank Schultz should write this piece! Thanks for nothing..............

my husband has been an instructor for BHTC for 17 years and now they are laying him off because they don't have funding !!!! so as you can see BHTC does NOT care about it's instructors at all and only cares about the administration !!! we will now have to spend tax payers dollars making BHTC follow the contract they agreed to !!! otherwise i will have to give up our home we will no longer be able to afford !!!

In all fairness, I did not claim that was the case. I only raised the question, hoping to get a response. The response that I got was less than cordial and no one offered any information about the subject. So maybe Old Ben Kenobi does become Obi Wan to help justify a raise. Pure speculation. So...yes, I am ignorant about this. That is why I asked the question. Does anyone have an answer?

After reading the article and looking at the job titles, I have to agree with garyprimer on this one. Read the titles again, these were just a re-titling with a pay raise to boot.
I am sure there are some teachers out there that would rather be called...ohh say Obee Wan Knobee, or something along with a nice $10k per year raise.

Make more of what?

garyprimer maybe you should apply for the postion at Blackhawk with all your knowledge you might be able to make more!

garyprimer you need to reread your blog than??

Maybe Blackhawk Tech should hire a few more full time instructors instead of hiking pay to these administrative employees. There were multiple full-time retirements at the end of last year but only 1 or 2 full-time replacements. Just who are these clowns administering to? Doesn't it stand to reason that a college/tech school cannot run without instructors. Apparently, Eric and his cronies have decided there is more money to line their pockets if they hire a bunch of adjunct instructors and don't have pay out any benefits. What a shame our tax dollars go to support the administrative end of this tech school more so than the educational end of it. Time to contact our congressmen and tell them to stop throwing our money away.

After telling that joke he said he was being facetious, but we all know he was just looking for a smarter sounding way of saying he was full of ...

I think we must be hitting a little too close to home for comfort. What entitles another poster to tell me what to do or what to question?

My comment here was semi-facetious, but I was making two points:
1) People are reading the headline and then rushing in to grind their personal axes, without bothering to get all the relevant information (aka the Emily Litella syndrome).
2) People complain about others’ wages without factoring in the required qualifications. Yes, $80-100k is a lot of money, but for senior personnel, you can’t expect to offer $25k and get qualified candidates. The people who usually complain loudest are the ones in menial jobs, which they have because they decided not to invest the time and expense into getting a good education.

I don’t know if these three jobs were posted for open hiring, but there is another administrator job posted on the BTC site right now. Anyone who thinks $48-58k is a lot of money is welcome and encouraged to apply.

Sure is amazing how many people whine and cry about other people making more money than them. If it isn't GM, it is teachers, union workers, etc. Maybe, just maybe, if you would have continued your education or planned better, you could be one of these higher salaried employees. Be happy for the successful workers and quit complaining.

I never said I was a taxpayer. You need to have some knowledge about what you are talking about! Find out the facts first.

garyprimer, Yes you are entitled to your opinion, but do you really know what you are talking about?? Just because you are a tax payer you need to have some knowledge about what you are talking about! Find out the facts first.

Are these promotions to existing positions or is this a case of making up a fancier name for a person's job to justify a large raise? I'm sure that "someone" out there knows.

You know, I don't think they took applications from the general public for these jobs, so that comment is just plain silly. Their salaries are paid with tax dollars, so I think that it is every taxpayer's right to have an opinion about them and to express that opinion if they so desire. Other people's "opinions" seem to find there way to these posts.

It's amazing how people will comment without bothering to read the story. These "pay raises" all came about because the people involved got promoted to positions of higher responsibility. If any of the posters thought they were qualified for the open positions, they could have applied and been considered. Dang, if only they'd stuck it out and gotten that high school degree . . .

I'm sorry I can't accept this raise because a lot of people are experiencing financial hardship. I don't think anyone would say that. It's silly to expect them to. This is their job and I'm assuming these salaries are comparable to what they would make elsewhere. You wish your company would pay you those wages? Well Blackhawk feels that these salaries-given after promotions-are what these individuals deserve for their jobs. You can't blame the employees for being offered a raise with a promotion and taking it. Sour grapes, anyone?

16% raises and people are upset about teachers salaries. This is absolutely ridiculous!

This is wonderful that they got raises! My Blackhawk Technical College portion of my taxes went up this year almost ten percent! Give em some more money!!! Lets tax me right out of Clinton!

At a time when finances are difficult for a lot of people, we have employees making these high levels of salaries and have the nerve to accept even higher pay raises. I wish my company would pay me these wages. These individuals should be grateful for the salaries they are currently receiving. Think about the people who are paying their salaries. Students and the average tax-payer. For them to even have considered accepting those pay raises at the salaries they are already making is quite disturbing.