Contract pays REA president for time to do union business

By Brent Killackey

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 9:04 PM CDT

The salary and benefits provisions of teacher contracts - not the technical language covering grievance procedures or parent/teacher conference days - typically draw the most attention.

But Racine Unified's tentative agreements for the 2005-07 and 2007-09 contract periods contains leave of absence language that has raised the eyebrows of some School Board members and raised the ire of a local taxpayers' group.

The contract provision in question allows the Racine Education Association president - currently Betsy Kippers - to take off essentially a full school year to be used for "association business." The district would continue paying salary and benefits for the union president while the REA would pick up the cost of a substitute teacher.

School Board member Armin Clobes said the provision is basically asking the school district to take taxpayer dollars to subsidize a REA position. The School Board will consider ratification of the contract on Monday.

"I personally have concerns about it because we're a cash-strapped district, and the provision is we're paying salary and benefits and we're being reimbursed at a lesser rate," Clobes said.

Kippers' base salary for 2005-06 was $57,095, according to school records. The district pays long-term substitute teachers $138 a day, which comes out to $25,806. The district does not extend health benefits to substitute teachers.

While the language in the tentative agreements is new, the practice of giving union leadership time to attend to union duties is not.

Superintendent Tom Hicks, who helped negotiate the current tentative contracts, said past contracts contained language that union officials were released for union business, with the union reimbursing the district for substitutes.

"This is the same type of arrangement," Hicks said in a written statement. "For years, superintendents here have signed off almost weekly on absence excuses for union leaders, a practice that is fairly standard in school districts. Many districts perform this function quietly, but we wanted our process to be transparent. We especially wanted to assure that qualified long-term substitute teachers are in place in order to create the best learning environment for our students."

In past arrangements, the union president requested time off on a day-by-day basis, with a separate request required for each day. That didn't allow for finding long-term substitute teachers.

"Our primary focus with this language was to eliminate disruption for our students," Hicks said.

Dennis Wiser, executive director of the REA, said the new leave of absence language streamlined the process. It's similar to an arrangement that has existed in Kenosha for probably 20 years and has functioned well, he said.

Green Bay, Milwaukee and many other large districts have something similar, he said.

"In a large association of this size, there are so many duties relative to supporting the members that a president can't reasonably do it on evenings and weekends," Wiser said in an interview.

Wiser said that union representatives hadn't decided how much time the president would take off for union duties next year, but even releasing the president from their school job full time wouldn't adequately cover all of the hours that the president's job requires. The proposed contract would require notice that a union president planned to use the leave by July 1 of each year.

This year's tentative contract agreement seems to have marked a new era of labor relations between Unified and the REA. Rather than the bitter relationship that started with the labor turmoil and strike in the late 1970s, there's a greater sense of cooperation, the district and union said this week in a press conference announcing teacher ratification of the contract.

In the past the union president hasn't requested a full year off, but it's possible with all of the district-union discussions, that a full year would be requested for 2006-07, Wiser said.

Wiser said allowing time off was a win-win because the president would be available to work with the district to help address teacher issues and the district would get smoother operations and happier union members.

Hicks also spoke of benefits: "A side benefit of this is that we have entered into a new time of improved relationships between the district and the teachers' union, and that does involve more work revolving around meetings of the Partnership Group, collaboration on our teaching and learning mission, and other efforts to keep us unified regarding our educational goals. Time is needed to continue the work we are doing in moving our district forward."

The practice still doesn't sit well with Jim Morrison, the liaison to the School Board from the Racine Taxpayers Association.

"Taxpayers' money is being used to support the union," Morrison said. "The union should be paying for Betsy, and Unified should pay for the teacher that comes in."

Teachers voted overwhelmingly to ratify the proposed contracts last week. The School Board will consider the proposed contracts on Monday.

Board members cannot amend the language or remove parts of the contract they don't like - it's an all-or-nothing, up-or-down vote.

To a certain extent, the contract is largely a done deal no matter what the School Board decides. If the board votes no, the contract talks will probably head to interest arbitration. When arbitrators craft imposed contract settlements, enormous weight is given to tentative agreements that have been ratified by one side.

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