Teachers, board mull contract compromise

PALMER — It’s not the first time anyone’s used the word in this year’s round of school union negotiations, but the demonstration Wednesday was notable for how blithely union members tossed it around — strike.

T-shirts passed out before the school board’s meeting repurposed words incoming schools superintendent Ken Burnley used to inspire the troops at the start of this school year. During a districtwide meeting, Burnley used a song from a car commercial to tell teachers they could “get with this” — the status quo — or “get with that” — excellence. The yellow T-shirts union members replaced status quo with a fair contract and excellence with, “strike” written in all caps.

The Mat-Su Education Association, which represents teachers, entered into arbitration with the district this fall. Talks with the district’s other union, the Classified Employees Association, which represents janitors, secretaries and other support staff, have been stalled since late 2008.

During a break in the meeting, Burnley said that despite a $2 million hole in this year’s budget, he wants to give teachers and support staff everything he can.

“We love our employees. We’re going to do what we can,” he said.

He said he wasn’t bad-mouthing the previous administration but that the hole in the budget and the stalled negotiations came about before his time.

“We’re saying, ‘look, we didn’t do this,’” Burnley said. “We need to be responsible with the resources we have.

All year, union representatives have been saying that the district has simply folded its arms and is coming to the negotiating table and offering nothing in the way of compromise.

Burnely said Wednesday that was going to change. The board was going to meet behind closed doors to give him a set of marching orders to bring to the negotiations, which are due to resume Nov. 12.

While he’s doing all this, Burnley said, he’s also been working to fix problems with the budgeting process. He told the board during the meeting that they and members of the public had been justified when, in the past, they had not trusted all of the budget numbers they were given.

One place he wants to fix the process, Burnley said, is with the fund balance. The district has often not known until the end of the school year how much money it has left over from a year’s worth of paying expenses. Often, he said, the district would try to spend that money in a hurry to avoid having to give it back to the borough. It created a perception of found money and wasted funds. Burnley said his staff has fixed that problem.

“We know what our fund balance is going to be now,” he said.

Ken Forest, one of the first people Burnley hired when he came to work for the district, laid out in stark terms the financial picture heading into budget season. He said that even if the borough ups its contribution to the school by 3 percent and the state ups its contribution by $100 per student, the school district is going to be left with a $2.8 million deficit

Forest said there aren’t a whole lot of costs that can be reduced; 88.5 percent of district money goes to employee compensation. A big chunk of the non-personnel costs are paid in utilities.

Small measures have been taken so far. Forest said that when the district loses an employee, hiring someone to fill that position is something Burnley has to approve. And staff is going to take a hard look at whether that position absolutely must be filled. The district is also eyeing a possible early retirement incentive plan as a way to reduce personnel costs.

One thing administration hasn’t looked at, Burnley said, is cutting programs.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the school board chose its new officers. Mike Dunleavy will serve as president of the school board. Erick Cordero was picked to be vice president. Susan Pougher was given another term as secretary.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.