From Harford County Public Schools:
On May 14, 2016, at the conclusion of impasse negotiations, the Board of Education of Harford County (the Board) and the Harford County Education Association (HCEA) reached a tentative agreement on behalf of the approximately 3,000 certificated instructional employees exclusively represented by HCEA.
The agreement between the Board and HCEA, subject to necessary fiscal support as outlined in the agreement, provides that eligible employees of that unit will receive a two (2) step advancement on the pay schedule and a two (2) percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) applied to the pay schedule. Additionally, the Board and HCEA have tentatively agreed to multiple contract language items including assault leave, increased elementary planning time, notification of sick leave, and agency fee.
This agreement will be in effect for three (3) years beginning on July 1, 2016, and ending on June 30, 2019, with the option of re-openers for language items in year two and year three of the agreement.
In the event that sufficient funding is not provided by the funding authorities to implement the above compensation plan, an agreement has been reached on a contingency compensation plan that translates into one (1) step and one (1) percent COLA effective July 1, 2016, and one (1) step, for those eligible, and one-half (.5) percent COLA effective January 1, 2017. This contingency compensation plan, if implemented, would be in effect for July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017, and the parties would renegotiate the compensation plan for the following years.
Upon ratification by HCEA membership, the tentative agreement with HCEA is scheduled for ratification by the Board in June.
If you have any questions, you may contact the Harford County Public Schools Communications Office or the HCEA directly at 410-838-0300.
It’s good that they negotiated what seems to be a fair contract. The teacher-haters will never be happy no matter the terms. I see they have a smaller compensation package ready to go in the event of underfunding, so why don’t they have a bigger compensation package ready to go in the event they’re over-funded?
How about that agency fee? It’s about time the scabs have to pay their fair share. Even if it only applies to new hires next year, it’s a step in the right direction. Nice work!
Cola’s are meant to cover inflationary costs as a promise to ensure real dollars are equal to salary promises from years past usually part of a contract. Almost no one in the private sector gets these 2 bites of the apple type of salary increases but I digress. I wonder how the 2% cola was justified when real measured inflation was negative in 2015 and no having questions about a very expensive new contract does not mean anyone hates teachers.
Well, maybe because they haven’t received a COLA in how many years? Having questions about a “very expensive” new contract does not mean anyone hates teachers. But when you question a 2% increase when they have received virtually nothing for 7 years while their colleagues in surrounding counties have continued to receive regular step increases and pay raises doesn’t exactly ring of support or affection.
In that 7 year span, teachers who did not receive step increases in Harford County made about $30,000 less than those in surrounding counties, not including COLA’s that those counties provided but HC didn’t. And they will continue to receive less because they are STILL way behind on steps that weren’t given here, but were given elsewhere.
And you have concerns over a 2% COLA???
Not about the steps, about the cola.
My guess is that COLA might a misnomer, could be just trying to keep up with the salary disparity between the other counties that surround Baltimore. Inflation, especially if you include energy has been very flat. Social security may have not received a COLA for the 3rd time ever in 2016.
In the context of overall inflation since 2008 vs Board of Ed pay raises since then, you would find that people have moved backwards, not only against inflation, but bordering counties competing for the same grads.
See the posting below for inflation statistics. Or look them up on your owm.
For once in your miserable life can you try not to be an ass and just be happy that those who work tirelessly to educate the youth of our county are going to receive something they were due to receive 7 years ago. You do realize that the schools which are some of the best in the state (and the country) are part of the reason that home prices continue to rise throughout Harford county. Those schools are only as good as the teachers that work within them. They should be some of the highest paid in the state and not the lowest. A 2% cola hardly makes up for the more than 30,000 they are already behind due to frozen salaries.
Perhaps ask your miserable wife to put out more often and maybe you will be a more tolerable human
Why not call it a step if the purpose of the cola is inflation that right now doesn’t exist? Just call it 3 steps…what’s the issue? I won’t return the insults…thanks.
You don’t want to call it a step because those who are on step 15 would get nothing ever again without COLA’s. Also a Step is typically more than 2% depending on where you are on the salary scale and educationally.
The reason people insult you is quite simply you are typically an asshat on this site. Opposing views are great but when you are always negative people tend to hate you.
So admittedly this increase will represent roughly 8%. That’s a generous raise. To your comment about me being an zzzhat, I would add I’m not the one who goes foul mouthed here – typically it’s the teachers who arrive on queue to understandably support their raises. It’s a perfectly valid question about cola’s ando not logical to grant them to all just to provide raises to those at contract maximums in the absence of inflation.
But it won’t be roughly 8% for those who are on step 15 or higher. It will be 2%.
Annual inflation rates:
2008 3.82
2009 -.32
2010 1.64
2011 3.14
2012 2.08
2013 1.47
2014 1.61
2015 .12
So you’re right. They shouldn’t call it a COLA, because it doesn’t even come close to keeping up with the cost of living.
Oh Money Tree, you’re so cute. Come on, no one is going to see 8%. HCPS has their nice and neat “opt out” if funding is lacking….and we all know funding will be lacking. If you believe any teacher will see the 2 steps and 2 % COLA, then I have some swampland in Arizona to sell you.
I am glad an agreement was made. Who decides what “sufficient funding” looks like? I hope it’s not asking Barry for an additonal $30 million every year, otherwise seems like that language is an unnecessary waste on ink.
In a vacuum, it would be difficult for teacher to complain about their compensation, however competition is the great equalizer. Why apply (unless you are a less desirable candidate) to Harford Cnty when you could easily earn more than $100K in most of the surrounding counties (and PA) over the course of your career?
$3K – $11K more per year for 30-40 years, not only adds pay, but makes the state pension calculations pay out more. Even the education haters in Harford Cnty can appreciate that math.
As a heath care worker, I wouldn’t think twice about leaving for that kind of financial inequality.
Sad part is that this long term pay disparity will have an effect on the quality of education our children receive. It may not be palpable to people who think a warm body is as good as any other, but if your child has ever had a truly special teacher, you know what a difference it can make if you actually know
what you are doing. 95% of the time, a teacher with <5 yrs experience will not be effective as a one with 5,10, 20 yrs plus, it's not something you are just naturally effective at, like other professions I'm sure. Also the bad teachers aren't the ones who leave, as they can't get hired again by anyone else.
What's interesting about the Board of Ed's lack of pay increases, is that the starting pay magically goes up every year (It's every. That way they don't get laughed out of the conversation/competition when trying to fill all the open positions. Little do the new hires know that their pay will essentially be frozen at 2010 rates. So it is nice that both sides are playing in the sandbox togerther, I guess I was a little amused at the "sufficient funding" trigger language.
No one cares how effective a teacher is based on their experience. There is no “effective” performance rating system, in fact, it’s pretty difficult to terminate employment of a local
.Gov employee unless they break an obvious criminal law.
The schools will just continue to fill vacancies of the #1 picked applicant for the job, and the work continues, because that’s what the living do.
In your opinion a less tenured employee won’t be effective as a greater tenured employee.
I would think that in almost any profession, someone with less experience would be a lesser employee. Would you want you kids on a plane with the 23 yr old who just graduated, or a pilot who has made 5000 flights? Is that rocket surgery Jackie boy
Obviously schools will continue to fill positions, another brilliant observation. However, basing the argument on the truth of the above statements, and knowing that truly talented employees can and will leave, the remaining employees, collectively are not as effective, and therefore kids aren’t as successful as they could be. Should have studied more JH
Guess you are ok with mediocrity. your kids must have graduated.
People have been stewing up the same old bullshit for a few decades.
Show me how bad our students are and I’ll shut up and admit I was wrong.
Show me where talented employees are leaving and there are huge gaps in effectiveness and student performance.
Your candor is noted, and comparing airline pilots tenure to school teachers is moot and makes no sense in this argument.
It doesn’t matter who I feel comfortable flying a plane as I know they all have the required hours and training to get to that status.
Flying a plane and teaching are two different things, ass.
So I guess you would say that no salaries should be based on years of experience?
New grads have passed the minimum standards only and have scant experience on how to teach, handle classroom dynamics, deal with multiple demands and students with varying learning styles and abilities , learn new curiculum. Every profession from nurse to mechanic to astronaut has a learning curve. Some new teachers drop out because they had no idea how challenging it was goin to be. Apparently since you belittled the teacher vs pilot comparison, you place little value on education.
…and opening one’s mouth and using one’s brain are also entirely different things….
It’s an extreme example meant to demonstrate why experience is crucial. Obviously you aren’t concerned with how your children are edumakated Mike. Hopefully for our sake you are sterile.
I think teachers deserve a raise but 8% this year is a little too hefty. The average worker this year in the private sector is lucky to get 2% and average retiree is only getting a 1% or less cola. Also increased elementary planning time is ridiculous. They already have too many early dismissals, do they really need to add more for teachers to prepare??
Milton – 8% is the spin. There is no way anyone sees anything close to that. It is all based on funding and HCPS will always say that they don’t have enough money to fund anything.
Thanks I didn’t know that.
And you would know because you have yeats of experience being an elementary school teacher, or have shadowed an elementary teacher for an extensive period of time. Therefore, you have a thorough understanding of all that goes into being an elementary school teacher.
It’s not more early dismissals it simply garuntee a principals can’t take all that time for PD and allows elementary teachers time to actually plan on those days.
Milton, elementary teachers currently receive one planning period a day, at 45 minutes. Middle and high school teachers receive TWO 50 minute periods for planning. Consider also that elementary teachers have to prep for 5 different but subject areas, while middle and high, only ONE (typically) so to have extra planning time means I can spend more time ensuring my lessons are high quality since I teach it ALL. And the planning time I currently get CAN be used by my principal to hold meetings if he chooses. At any rate, extra planning world be amazing!
Elementary teachers certainly have it tougher than secondary teachers when it comes to preparation and shortage of planning time. But to clarify, most high school teachers have only 45 minutes of uninterrupted planning time each day, as is required in the negotiated agreement. They may have an approximately 85 minute block of time that is called their “planning period” each day, but often half of it is used to cover classes or supervise a duty that has been assigned. Also, the vast majority of high school teachers have at least 2 different courses (ie government and world history or biology and chemistry) to prepare for, many have 3 and some have 4 or more. I’m definitely in agreement that elementary school teachers need more planning time, more so than high school teachers, but your statements needed to be corrected.
Yeah…I’d love to know where this two planning period thing occurs, because it certainly isn’t the case in any high school in HarCo that I’m aware of.
Its a scam…if it even happens the board of miseducation will approve the 2% cola then raise teacher pay in to something such as their health insurance or retirement by 2-3% so the teachers will actually lose money on the back end with no press about it as it has happened the past few times 3s incrrases have been given in the last 10 years. At the same time administrators will get a healthy raise while everyone else is taking it through the back door.
Remember when 300 or so teachets left a few years ago….instead of trying to intice teachers to fill vacancies our wonderful superintendent created 8 new administrator positions at about 100 grand a year each….that should say how screwed up hcps’s priorities are.
Trachers teach and they need to be made happy…modern administrators hide in thier offices instead of doing their jobs…someone needs to break up the adminstrators little boys and girls club or the system will continue to topple.
This isn’t reality. Sure, you can say everyone is going to get a 2 step and a 2% BUT it still has to be passed through the county government. They’re never gonna cough up the funds.
HCPS has a few options if they really want this:
-Stop hiring a TON of non essential AA roberty staff
-Reduce school based staff
-Cut the fat
-Start eliminating budgets and give each school/department an allowance (eliminate the ‘spend everything’ budget)
The ROBerty building is a bubble. Remind me again how much does the Superintendent make? How many in AA R make more than 100k? The year I left there was a MIRACLE BUDGET and grandstanding over the Super not taking a raise. What didn’t get as much fanfare is that the Superintendent’s pay made up for that loss the very next year. How many steps does it take for an administrator to reach the top? Have they skipped steps and COLA the last 7 years? Has everyone in the AA R building seen flat increases for the last 7? The hopes out there now are just as much fiction as the rest of the budget. I’ll wait until the numbers are final to see. How many tens of millions are the CE and the BOE off by this year?
The pilot comparison would be great if you could use it. To use it in the classroom, one teacher would have a beautiful new plane that has been inspected and maintained regularly, and only flies during beautiful weather, no turbulence, and no other air traffic. The teacher in the next room is trying to fly a plane that gets no tlc, the wings are ready to fall off, the motor makes strange noises, and it only flies during bad weather. Now we ask the passengers which pilot flew the plane better, and we make sure that pilot gets paid better. Teachers don’t have the same conditions as one-another, like it or not. Some kids come from nothing, and I don’t mean money, they get nothing in the form of parenting. One more comparison: let’s rate dentists on how good their patients’ teeth are…..one dentist’s patients brush and floss, the other’s don’t. Same with teachers….they’re only as good as their students.
The Board of Ed’s agreement with HCEA is the only agreement with a union where if the county government does not come up with sufficient funding, a contingency plan takes effect where the teachers get at least a COLA(s) and a step if eligible. This agreement provides for increases that are definitely needed. However the agreements reached with other unions (HCESC, AFSCME, and so on) do not have a contingency plan. This means that if the county does not provide funding, only the teachers will get a COLA or two and a step. The other employees may not get anything unless the Board and the other unions reach new agreements. This probably explains why the principals were so unhappy at the last Board meeting during public comments. If the contingency goes into effect it may also mean the Board of Ed will have to make cuts that will impact not just the staff in the AA Roberty building but also by students in the classroom. Cutting the top staff, instructional facilitators, etc might be needed but honestly may not be enough to allow the Cola and step under the contingency plan. This is the elephant in the room.
Cry me a river, cheese with the whine, blah blah blah its been stated over and over again and should be fairly obvious by now every union can talk chat discuss argue plead do whatever but nothing is going to happen unless there is funding from multiple levels and with the county’s budget just getting approved i’d say its going to be a safe or sure bet the funding will not be there and the BoE or Canavan will once again have to come up with a similar scenario again of here are 2 budgets: one we cut said number of jobs give out raises or two we cut several budgets freeze positions no one gets raises live within means keep jobs etc.. and try to get by another year. Same story different year leading to a new fiscal year, yipppeee!!