From Harford County Public Schools:
Since August of 2014, Superintendent of Schools Barbara P. Canavan and her staff have been working closely with the Board of Education of Harford County (the Board) and the school community to identify cost saving measures and reductions in order to implement salary improvements. Along with the $3.1 million dollars in funding proposed by the County Executive, the Superintendent and her staff identified $7.0 million in additional cuts to the FY16 proposed budget. These combined efforts resulted in the opportunity to offer a proposed compensation package for all employees.
In accordance with the Open Meetings Act, on April 21 and 22, the Superintendent and select members of her leadership team met with members of the Board to present options for employee compensation packages. Consequently, during closed session and prior to the public Board meeting on April 27, the Board voted on a compensation package to present to the Harford County Education Association (HCEA).
On April 29, 2015, negotiators for the Board presented this proposed compensation package to members of the HCEA negotiating team that translates to at least 90% of our teaching staff receiving as much as a 4.5% increase in pay. HCEA has tentatively agreed to the package and contract agreement.
This package provides all Harford County Public Schools teachers a 1.5% increase in pay to include a 1% COLA and a .5% base pay adjustment. The .5% pay adjustment is a direct result of the collaborative health insurance negotiations between the Board and all bargaining units that occurred earlier this year.
The package includes a step or longevity of approximately 3% for all eligible teachers.
“Harford County Public Schools remains committed to preserving an exemplary instructional program and a collaborative systemic culture. It is my belief that this proposed compensation package will serve as an initial step to improve the long overdue compensation adjustments for our workforce,” said Superintendent Canavan.
Board President Nancy Reynolds shared, “The collaboration with Superintendent Canavan and her staff over the last two years has shown our dedication to maintain the level of education the students of Harford County Public Schools deserve while recognizing the need to enhance employee compensation.”
The Board has now reached a verbal or tentative contract agreement with all five bargaining units, including HCEA, the Harford County Education Services Council (HCESC), the Association of Public School Administrators and Supervisors of Harford County (APSASHC), the Association of Harford County Administrative, Technical and Supervisory Professionals (AHCATSP), and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Finally, a well deserved raise!
This is wonderful news, but before we get too excited, is it contingent on, “if there is money available?” Because that’s what happened a few years ago. In any case, it’s a step in the right direction.
I am happy for teachers to get *something*, considering that Glassman specifically put money in the HCPS budget to fund salary increases. I’m confused on why only 3% of teachers will get their step increases. How will they determine what 3%? How will the other 97% react? How can HCEA accept a compensation package that divides the teachers like this? Curious as to how this all plays out. and I wish that EVERYONE got their negotiated step increases.
It says approximately 3% increase – not teachers
I think you need to read it a little more carefully. It says “The package includes a step or longevity of approximately 3% for all eligible teachers.”
I.e. All teachers eligible for a step will get one and that step is equal to about a 3% pay raise.
It’s about time, but it still leaves most teachers $10k+/year behind where they should be since this doesn’t make up for any missed steps, just gives them the step that they were due this coming year.
HCSO is still 7 steps behind where they should be and an 8 year DFC is making the same as a rookie fresh off their probationary period.
This absolutely does not divide teachers. All teachers who have been entitled to a salary increment for the past five/six years will get a step. Anyone who has missed or is entitled to a longevity will get one. Everyone will get a 1.5% COLA. That sounds like a win for everyone to me.
Entitled to raises?
Yes, entitled.
As a former President and current member of HCESC, I have a problem with seeing our name misquoted by the press. HCESC stands for the Harford County Educationsl Services Council!
Perhaps you of all people should spell “educational” correctly.
You got 99 problems and a what ain’t one? Eat some ass.
What did they cut to find $7 million?
In the past, it’s been cuts in positions through attrition that has funded “found” money. Is it so again? How many positions in each school are going away this year?
You might have 35 kids in your class next year, but at least you get a step and a COLA.
As always, be careful what you wish for.
I have had 35 students in my classes for the past few years.
35 students in a class! OMG! How will they ever learn? When I was in grade school, we always had between 60-70 students in a class, all day! And, you could forget about individual help. It was sink or swim. We never went to daycare, nursery school, or kindergarten. And you were expected to know how to read when you started first grade. So cry me a river over 35 students in a class.
Don’t forget walking 2 miles uphill both ways in the snow in June…..
Yes, and you probably had parents that would bust your butt for misbehaving in school, so lot’s of well behaved students are no problem for teachers. There would have been a “special” class for the kids with “problems” and they wouldn’t be in the general population wreaking havoc.
Times are different, parenting is different-your school experience is not valid in today’s times. Principals have been told to cut back suspensions so kids think they’ve got the upper hand. Not to mention the parents that are blind to what their kids are into….
When I was in school a phone call home meant my life was miserable at home for a long time. Nowadays half the parent phone calls I make have me fielding a parent yelling at me for “failing their child” when said child doesn’t do the required work.
You should sit in on a high school class for about a week. You’d be getting an education for sure.
@ Spare me
You must be so old that you remember that long walk for miles to the one room school. I bet you remember gas a 5 cents a gallon and coke for the same price. Well those days are long gone.
Kharn, why is it that for every article that concerns HCPS, you are always there with an abundance of commentary, but ONLY when there is a negative slant, or you can add a negative perspective? I never see your comments under articles like “Science and Math Academy Students…Present Capstone Projects”, or “Two HCPS Teachers Selected to Attend 2015 Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy”, or “Bel Air High School Biomedical Sciences Program Wins Statewide Award”.
Which do you prefer, seeing schools, teachers, and students succeed, or seeing them fail? I have to think you enjoy more having them fail, because you seem to revel in it, while you completely ignore any success.
Teachers in this county have continued to teacher their classes, run their clubs, direct their plays and musicals and concerts, have their art shows, all to the benefit of their students, and all in spite of not being given a raise in years, having been denied literally thousands of dollars in income, and becoming among the worst paid in the state. They finally get a 1.5% pay increase and a step, and all you can say is “be careful what you wish for”?
I think your active hostility and desire to see the schools and teachers fail their students speaks volumes about your character, and what kind of person you are. I think the teachers actions over the last five years have demonstrated the same. The world needs more teachers like the ones who teach our kids every day. The world does not need anyone like you.
Entitled, if you don’t like what someone is posting, don’t read it.
Its pretty simple, right? Wow, some people have different (see; not positive) opinions.
Take your butt hurt somewhere else, and by all means, hit “reply” and “tell me how it is” I really care.
Thumb me down too! Oooooo!!!
…to you, Not Entitled. If you don’t like what someone is posting, don’t read it.
Its pretty simple, right?
Exactly. I never claimed I didn’t like what you were posting. I was only offering advice that I didn’t particularly follow in by my own admission.
Not Entitled, by your own admission, you are an intolerant hypocrite.
Entitled:
Because I do not agree with the idea of a singular public school system with no choice afforded to the parents. Students shouldn’t be locked into attendance areas based solely upon where they live (unless they’re academically exceptional, then they’re bussed to the two worst schools in the county to prop up test scores and attendance rates), parents should be allowed to compare school performance and available programs to decide for themselves which one is the best fit for their child.
I vehemently oppose the idea that government workers should unionize. Public unions serve only to extort more tax dollars from the community, while protecting poor performers and preventing meaningful rewards for those that have earned them.
I disagree that teacher pay should directly correlate with years of service, instead of performance in the classroom.
I disagree with teachers being able to leave the school as soon as the last bus is out of the parking lot, offering few opportunities for a parent to approach them for a meeting and be left with discussing the concern with the principal who is not directly knowledgeable of the situation. I disagree with teachers who refuse to respond to emails or take phone calls outside of school hours.
I object to the idea of including students of all performance levels in the same classroom. Inclusion does nothing to help the ones that most need it, while annoying the average students and absolutely destroying the desire to learn of the gifted.
I disagree with the curriculum, the grading policy, and social promotion. It is a travesty that students are receiving high school diplomas and immediately enrolling in remedial math classes at HCC. AP classes should not be forced upon any student that can fog a mirror, they should be restricted only to those that show aptitude, fortitude and a desire to learn the material. The number of students in AP classes is a meaningless metric if students refuse to take the test or the majority receive a score of 3 (fast becoming an unacceptable score at most universities). A high school sophomore is not able to handle college-level material, watering it down so they receive decent grades in HCPS only deludes them into thinking that they will excel until they encounter reality a few weeks into their first semester.
I do not agree with HCPS’s public mantra that every student must go to college. HCPS needs to acknowledge that a four-year degree is not attainable or a worthwhile investment for many students. I do not believe HCPS is acting properly by offering votech classes at a single location with a limited number of seats (and a significant number of those seats are focused on college-bound students).
In short: HCPS is not serving the best interests of the community.
So, you therefore hope for the children to fail, for the schools and teachers to fail the kids; and any evidence of success that is contrary to the failure you desire to see, is irrelevant. You criticize anything you feel the teachers don’t do (leave at the end of the school day), but ignore all the extra-curricular things they do. You are quick to point out anything you perceive as a failure, but ignore the students who graduate each year, who collectively receive millions of dollars in academic scholarships.And, you disagree with ANYTHING that would earn teachers more money. You claim that you want “merit pay”, but to you that means saving tax dollars, because after all, so many teachers are failurs and wouldn’t earn it. You would screw teachers out of anything beneficial, then wonder why they need to unionize. They need to unionize because of people like you.
As I said, the world does not need people like you, who actively hope for the failure of our schools, teachers, and students. But they need more people like our teachers, who work diligently every day with our children, in spite of people like you.
Disregard everything I posted.
Entitled,
I would love for Harford County to convert to a PA-style school system, with individual districts covering 1-3 high schools, including independent taxing authority and truly local school boards.
If HCPS produced quality graduates across the board, I would be more than willing to pay higher taxes. But they have to earn it first.
It sounds like you want teachers to work more hours and do more work but don’t want to compensate them for those services. You can’t have it both ways!
There are two people using the name “Entitled”. I posted the original statement to Kharn, and the reply. I did not post the one that says “disregard everything I posted”.
Cdev:
That’s the point of a salaried position, you’re responsible for working until the job is completed to the standard regardless of how long it takes you.
I am the original.
Kharn,
Teachers don’t create policy, they just enforce it. Your views about academic advancement, believe it or not, are shared by many teachers. Your perspectives about funding are not popular because they punish teachers, are misdirected and naive. A diploma, or lack of, seems really unimportant because it is an arbitrary document that basically ropes school district into continually funding students that aren’t invested. You should be relieved that they are “handed out freely,” ease tax burdens, and create parental/personal responsibility. Remedial math at HCC places the financial burden on the student and his/her family rather than property owners in Fallston, Bel Air, and more affluent areas of the county. You are really unrealistic in your expectation. I am curious, do you perform 30 miracles in a year? Hope so … you need to practice what you preach. Sorry your family failed you, your failed yourself, or that your childhood environment misguided you into believing teachers are Gods and Godess who are responsible for every societal failure. Have fun attacking them and all the other government employees that you clearly resent. I’m certain everyone feverishly reads your comments and appreciates how you injection yourself into the conversation and scorn the real drains on society.
Sincerely,
A Neighborhood Drain
I have to agree with Entitled. The public school system certainly isn’t perfect; but to actively hope that kids fail so it justifies your views? These are kids we’re talking about, Kharn. You disregard all the kids in Harford County who are successful, and there are plenty of them, year after year. You find a way to disregard every mark of accomplishment they have. You are essentially sh#tt%ng on children, telling them they are failures, telling them their successes don’t count because they are only successful because the schools let them succeed without earning it. Does that make you feel like a man? Does it make you feel empowered to write the sh%t that you do about the children of Harford County, and the people who bust their @sses day after day, year after year working with these children? Entitled is correct. The world does NOT need people like you in it. And it would be a much better place without people like you.
Thank you, but your gracious understanding is not appteciated.
Kharn: so you would love for Harford County to convert to a PA-style school system, with individual districts covering 1-3 high schools, including independent taxing authority and truly local school boards.
You mean like the ones in Pennsylvania where the teachers can legally go on strike when there is a labor dispute?
No, MD’s law against striking civil servants is a good idea.
Wow…Kharn really is out of touch and talked out of his bum. It’s 35 already dude and has been for years. LOL
I didn’t count 35 desks in the classroom I was in on Friday.
Like anyone believes that you leave your mother’s basement to set foot into a school. There are plenty of classrooms with 35 plus desks. Basing your assumptions on one classroom is highly unscientific and highly illogical. I thought Kharn was better than that.
I do agree with your comment that teachers should stay later to interact with students and parents. However, you should be willing to pay them for the extra hours. Of course, you would never agree to this.
Sadly, you simply want a underfunded school school system. That’s the bottom line.
I don’t have a kid in every classroom in HCPS so I can only say what I observe.
I don’t want an underfunded school system, I want funding to be proportional to the level of service to the community. But that means horrible service equals horrible funding.
I’d much prefer an excellent school system with excellent pay, but that would require increasing the level of performance.
Lol, I agree that Kharn is out of touch and possibly delusional. He must be imagining things because he was in school on Friday. According to him this is impossible since teachers don’t reply to emails, return telephone calls, and create a line behind the school buses.
It is wonderful but comes to late to stop the food gates of people who are leaving for other counties. The deadline to resign for no tenured folks is Friday and many people have already secured positions in other counties.
Cdev – where are you getting your information? Did the HR department share this information with you? Obviously the “food” gates aren’t open .
Or, you can be like me and just plan on quitting before I leave Maryland for good, and never plan to be rehired as an educator – posted under a few different names now rubbing my exit plan into peoples faces because I’m that type of person.
I’m heading to FL a lot sooner than expected, have secured a job, going down next week to sign paperwork on big acre property for nearly the price of a shit residential lot in yuppyville Harford county.
Don’t be hater, my starting salary is going to be $230,000, with my education/background. Been fun, but my employer has taken no interest in how I exit my current job.
Goodbye. Enjoy Florida. Don’t forget to write.
Well, I’m sure its going to be not satisfactory when I cease communication with the school system I work in. I mean, all of a sudden, nothing.
It sucks for them, but I’m #1 and when I gotta roll out, is when I’m rollin’ out. Can’t please everyone.
Looks like the teachers got the money that was going to build a New Havre de Grace high School.
@none….so what. What good is a new building with highly effective disgruntled, teachers or a staff of new, inexperienced college kids? There are worse school buildings in the county; my own children just graduated from HDGHS and it should not be a priority over the teachers!! David Craig is gone..thank God and get over it.
90% of “teaching staff” to receive up to 4.5% increase. Any word on what, if anything, the support staff, facilities, custodial, central office staff, etc. could be receiving.
What?
The article only indicates that teachers could get up to 4.5%. What about the nurses, guidance, custodians, facilities departments, etc.
nurses and guidance counselors are part of the HCEA unit and the rest have a me too clause!
Looks like a 1 percent COLA and a 1/2 percent increase due to savings on agreeing with HCPS to move to a new health care plan. The headline seems more than a bit misleading as the rest of the increase goes only to employees getting what should be a scheduled salary increase due to having an additional year of educational experience or somebody who is scheduled for the 5 year longevity increment. Neither of those really “raise” scheduled salaries in order to make the system more competitive for attracting/retaining better teachers. Everyone else just gets first 1.5%. Doesn’t look too good to me.
Yes, the overall pay scale is increasing 1.5%; the other increases will be from steps. So you are correct in stating that the increase to the pay scale does little in the way of becoming more competitive. HCPS teachers will still be among the lowest paid in the state.
The 5 year longevity increases you mentioned only occur after a teacher completes their 19th, 24th, and 29th year of teaching, and are $2000 each. So after a teacher is on step 15 (theoretically after 15 years of teaching) the only pay increases they receive for the remainder of their career are these, plus any COLA’s.
By the way…if the county continues to dole out step increases at the rate they have been (one step every 5 or 6 years, or whatever it’s been…I’ve lost track), it will take a teacher only about 60 years of service to reach step 15!!! In fact, it’s quite possible that the time it takes a teacher to reach the top step in HCPS will exceed the average life expectancy of said teacher. But hey…it gives them something to strive for, right?
One step every 5 years would be 75 years to reach 15 steps, not 60.
And once again, we have direct and conclusive evidence as to why I should never write, post, or do math after midnight!!!
Stop bull shitting, ass eater.
I am the real Entitled.
…you can tell you aren’t the same “Entitled” who originally addressed Kharn. That person was quite eloquent and very classy in the way he/she addressed an issue. You, on the other hand, are clearly unable to do so.