While stopping short of a formal protest or strike, teachers within the elementary school district of Cypress are visibly upset over the School District Board’s refusal to pass on a cost-of-living increase it received in state funding to teachers.
The district, meanwhile, maintains they have made a fair offer to teachers, which they say is in line with the other elementary school districts in Orange County.
According to Assistant Supt. for Business Services, Dr. Timothy McLellan, Cypress is a unique school district with six elementary schools and approximately 200 teachers.
“We’re a destination district,” said McLellan, and “our teachers are very important.” Yet, he said, the district has a responsibility to many other constituents to make the system work as a whole.
At issue in the current negotiations is the 5.33 percent COLA (cost of living adjustment) the CSD received from the state formula funding and the less-than-adequate amount of this influx they are offering to teachers in the form of a pay raise and benefits.
McLellan said teachers began the negotiation asking for 6 percent, a figure he called unrealistic. After taking a close look at what the other Orange County elementary school districts were offering, he said the district took note that many other districts have begun offering “realistic caps” in their employee compensation plans.
“So,” he said, “we [Cypress School District] made them two offers, and they were insulted.”
Elizabeth Dunagan, a district teacher who serves as the Association of Cypress Teachers’ top negotiator, acknowledged the two offers and did not disagree with McLellan’s assessment. “Really, to have such a low offer on the table just feels somewhat like a slap in the face,” she said.
“At this point in time, the district has two offers on the table,” said Dunagan, “a 2.5% wage increase, if we leave healthcare alone, or a 4.5% wage increase, if we change from our health care system that we have now, which is a percentage-based system to a hard dollar cap system.”
“So, if you’re an employee who is only getting insurance for themselves, it would be $11,000. If you were an employee, you had a plus one, it would be $13,000. And if you were an employee who is going to insure their entire family, it would be $15,000 hard cap.
Any amount over that price that’s charged by the insurance companies for the premiums would be the responsibility of the employee, said Dunagan. She estimated family premium costs, in some cases, of $22,000 per year.
Though the district and the teachers have met for the past couple of months, the two sides are apparently still far apart.
Courtesy photo
McLellan said this week he understands the teachers not accepting either of the offers, but said he is expecting a counteroffer from the teachers and is curious why he has not yet received it.
Dunagan said Monday that ACT will, in fact, have a counteroffer to make when the two sides meet later this week. “We wanted to first poll our members,” she said.
Teachers are also actively seeking community support. Cara Patton, President of the Association of Cypress Teachers, said many community members were “gracious enough” at the last public meeting of the Cypress School District board to offer public support to teachers.
“We appreciate the public support,” she said.
In addition, the group of 188 teachers within the Cypress School District have also resorted to a public campaign to generate grassroots enthusiasm within the community. Teachers, and some students and parents, gather outside each of the six elementary schools every Wednesday morning with signs, said activist Brittney Cook, whose children attend CSD, and she supports the teachers.
Cook said she’s concerned about the district’s ability to attract top teachers in the future. “How are we going to attract new and adequate talent to our district with low pay and capped benefits,” asks Cook?
The answer, however, within the universe of school district formula funding, is complicated.
McLellan points to spreadsheet comparisons to demonstrate his point that the district feels Cypress teachers are already fairly compensated, and that the district is on par with most other elementary school districts.
The district, of course, recognizes the need for the retention of high-performing teachers, said McLellan. He said the Cypress Board of Trustees and the administration are convinced they have some of the best elementary school teachers in the county already on staff and intend to keep them.
Nevertheless, “our board does have the responsibility of remaining fiscally solvent,” said McLellan, who reiterated the administration’s goal of fair compensation across the district.
“They [Board of Trustees] really want all of our employees, from custodians to principals to all of our teachers, to be competitively paid,” he said.
Under both pay raise options offered thus far to teachers, McLellan said the district would provide to every employee a pay raise, including benefits. Where the math becomes more complicated, he said, is the district employees that have a plus one, or an entire family and the benefit variations.
Dunagan said the teachers’ own investigation revealed no evidence of financial problems within the district. “When we’ve analyzed their financial records, we do not find that there’s a deficit,” said Dunagan.
According to Dunagan, those same cost comparisons show that Cypress teachers’ pay remains ranked in the bottom third of most comparisons.
“Amongst the elementary school districts,” said Dunagan, “we are at the bottom, like third from the bottom,” she said.
“In most all of the comparisons, even after a potential wage increase, we’re still below the median in most of them,” she added.
The comparison spreadsheet comparison provided by the district shows comparisons to various elementary school districts in Orange County. It does appear to show that in most cases, Cypress teachers are generally at the median, or average levels, yet in some cases, do appear to slightly below average and in lower tiers.
Also, it should be noted that those comparisons do not yet include teacher raises for the current year, which, when agreed upon, will be awarded retroactively for the current school year, and which could elevate the district to higher averages.
Both sides are preparing for this week’s negotiating session. Dunagan and McLellan, each with their respective teams of four additional representatives, will meet again on Thursday, April 28 to again try to hammer out a deal.
“I’m worried about where we are at the moment,” said McLellan, noting the district wants to move on and negotiate for next year as well. “We want to get started focusing on next year and figuring out how to get to a settlement. McLellan said hopefully, once the two sides reach an agreement, the district and the teacher union can perhaps agree to work on a two-year agreement going forward.
“It’s frustrating that we’re we’ve got a month left in the school year and we’ve not given the teachers a raise,” he said. The district does have some flexibility, said McLellan, yet he said there are limits.
Even Dunagan, as she prepares her team to go back to the bargaining table, understands the gravity of the situation. The teachers’ top negotiator said she understands that a teacher work slowdown or stoppage is, at this point, not likely.
“We’re not yet to that point,” said Dunagan, “because well, frankly, too many of our teachers are just not willing to go there until we have to.”
“We have a lot of things we need to do for the kids,” said Dunagan, “and there’s just not enough time in an elementary school teacher’s day to do them.”
“We just want it solved.”