MADAWASKA, Maine — With teachers still reeling from a Madawaska School Committee vote Monday to reduce their salaries by 9.45 percent, a lawyer representing the teachers is warning that the school department could be sued if it proceeds with the cuts.
In a letter sent Tuesday to members of the Madawaska Education Association — the bargaining arm of the local school system’s teachers — Shawn Keenan, Maine Education Association general counsel, said the salary cuts were made in bad faith.
“Please be assured that any action by the [school] committee to unilaterally impose such a wage reduction or furlough days will constitute an unlawful refusal to bargain in good faith,” Keenan wrote in his letter dated Dec. 4.
On Monday, members of the Madawaska teachers’ association negotiating team met for five hours behind closed doors with members of the school committee’s negotiation team and the superintendent to discuss reopening the association’s collective bargaining agreement. That meeting was prompted by a voter mandate in November to cut $525,000 from the proposed school budget.
Then on Monday afternoon, more than 200 residents packed into the Madawaska High School library for the school committee meeting and stayed through a nearly two-hour-long executive session in which the full committee addressed the reopened collective bargaining agreement.
Teaching positions, academic and athletic programs and extracurricular activities were all on the chopping block as the Madawaska School Committee looked for ways to cut more than $525,000 from the current budget.
According to comments made at the start of Monday’s open school committee meeting by Gisele Faucher, veteran Madawaska teacher and member of the negotiating team, the team that day had put forth an offer to reduce teacher salaries by 5 percent over three years through a combination of pay cuts and furlough days and with the knowledge the proposal could still result in elimination of teaching positions.
Moments later, the five members of the school committee voted unanimously instead to cut teacher salaries by 9.45 percent, to reduce administrative salaries by 2 percent, and to implement three furlough days.
“The action we took was a direct result of the mandate we were given by the people,” Dube said Tuesday night. “The school committee made a decision and the association has every right to challenge that decision.”
Dube said that night that he had not yet seen the MEA’s letter.
Superintendent Terry Wood, who had received a copy of the MEA letter, said Wednesday morning that she had spoken to members of the teachers’ association.
“We are working on the issue and are really trying to meet each other where we need to be,” she said.
Last month voters rejected the proposed school budget, which included a $275,000 increase over the previous year. The residents mandated that the school committee reduce the proposed budget by $525,000 before presenting it to voters again. Those same voters approved a municipal budget which reflected $250,000 in cuts over the previous year.
The need for the budget cutbacks was prompted by property tax abatements granted to Twin Rivers Paper Co., reducing its valuation from $170 million to $85 million over a four-year period beginning in fiscal year 2010.
“We were shocked by the [school] committee’s [9.5 percent] proposal,” Jenny Bechard, Madawaska teacher and association co-president said immediately following Monday’s meeting. “That is not what we came up with in [today’s] negotiations at all.”
It is well-established labor law, according to Keenan in his letter, that an employer’s “unilateral alteration of the terms and conditions of employment after the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement constitutes a violation of that employer’s statutory duty to bargain in good faith.”
Should the school department go ahead with the 9.5 percent cuts, Keenan said in the letter, the school system could be required under law to reimburse any wage reductions implemented under a bad faith agreement.
On Tuesday, Dube said he would not be surprised if both sides of the issue feel the need for a “cooling off period” after Monday’s meeting.
“This does not mean in the interim we cannot have discussions about any of these things,” he added. “But I think we should start leaving strong rhetoric behind and work together [and] the school committee would welcome meeting with the teachers’ association again.”
Following Monday’s vote, Wood said she would work out details of the proposed cuts before posting warrant articles for a special town meeting during which a new budget would be presented to Madawaska voters. A date for that meeting has not yet been determined and it was unclear Wednesday morning how the latest developments would affect plans to hold it this month.
Probably a great time to throw out the union. They are, after all, useless.
The school is thereto educate the student. Cut out all the extras to save the academic programs.
Make everything else pay as you go. While basketball and soccer and all the
frills are nice and do help make school a better place for everyone involved in
this system, it isn’t so shouldn’t be why the school is there. Put people before
things. I’m betting if the Board had the REAL courage to do those things , people would riseup and pass the budget. I’m betting the school’s mission statement says nothingabout athletics. Let them get that in gym. Keep what’s important first! The Union by the way, is there to protect the workers from a heavy- handed and Illegalaction by the Board. I’m sure you’d be more than happy to have the protection of a Union if this were to happen in you work place.this type of thing shows why Unions exist in the first place.
Getting rid of the union is the LAST thing you want to do.
The pattern of punishing teachers in this country–even as we fight long, ugly, unethical wars–is absolutely wrong. I’m just going to quote Mark Twain, whose books were banned for a long time, and still are in some places:
God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.
Cue the union reps and their hired hands to inundate this forum with their cries of;
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TEACHE……….CHILDREN WHAT WILL THE TE…………CHILDREN DO?
Not all that long ago the same thing happened to Hostess Bakeries. The company had to make tough decisions and proposed a pay cut. The union fought and thousands of people lost their jobs. Lets hope the teachers’ unions don’t foolishly follow the same path.
an the CEO got a raise
Funny, a couple years ago in a little town called Madawaska, Twin Rivers told the union to take a pay cut or they would lose jobs. The union voted to protect their jobs rather than their salaries and took the cuts. A month later Twin Rivers announced bonuses for upper management that totaled a few million more than the pay cuts. I think the teachers have a bit firmer ground to stand on than the mill workers and they should fight it. They agreed to 5% and furlough days so it is not like they are saying no how no way.
Isn’t that the same company who also paid it’s CEOs and other executives huge bonuses while the workers were blamed for the economic woes of the company?
Good thinking! Same here.
Teachers take a 9.45% pay cut…Administrators take a 2% pay cut…Yeah, what a shock. Keep taking care of their own. I’m surprised teachers didn’t take a 15% pay cut so that administrators could be given a 5-6% raise to soothe them through these trying times.
Let’s do some math. Let’s see, I’ll assume a teacher in the great town of Madawaska is pulling down $40,000 a year. That means $3,780 pay cut. Let’s assume an administrator is pulling in $60,000…or even $70,000…That puts them at a pay cut of $1,200…or $1,400. Heck, let’s say some admin. turkey is bringing in $100,000. That gives them a grand old cut of $2,000.
Make sure the top gets the $$$ when the times are good and the bottom gets the biggest cut when they aren’t. SHOCKED I TELL YOU!!!
You say $40,000 a year a teacher is making… Try $50-60k and some close to $70k … Yeah THAT is the reality were facing!!!!!
Ok ile tell you what firer all the teachers an hire some one off the street to teach the kids an pay them 7:50 an hr an no benefits
PLUS benefits, education payback, etc.
Teachers only make that much after being in profession for well over 20 years and having earned advanced college degrees. Show me people with a Master’s+ and 20+ years experience making less than $50k in the private sector… just isn’t happening.
At least YOU get it. Bravo!
Well….they went to college and earned a degree, then agreed to do the job for a certain amount of pay, per their contract that was agreed upon between the district and the hire. I don’t see what the problem is….except that voters who were not well-informed decided not to give the school what it needed to sustain itself at its current level. If they don’t want to pay, something will have to be cut.
How about the fact that they negotiated a fair wage rate and without due process it was taken away. Lousey management should not be rewarded. Administration should be fired to pay for the teachers.
Ya right let the one who do not teach only take a 2% pay cut while teacher take 9.45% pay cut. We can tell who is looking out for the best interest of the kids.
none of these people are looking out for the kids…..they’re looking out for their pocketbooks and that’s it
save it with the “it’s for the kids” garbage….the line is BS, tired, and worn out
When you make drastic cuts to the teaching staff, you are affecting the kids. The programs don’t teach themselves you know.
So you want theses people to go to collage an make nothing ? How would they pay back there student loans ?
If he start complaining (Shawn Keenan) we could always pay the teachers salaries and just cut all sport activities and all other sport activities , sending the band to Bangor for Christmas Parade, that the Super said wouldn’t be good for the students. Seems like that is what he (Keenan) has in mind.
just to clarify, the school did not pay to send the band to bangor, the bangor rotary and the band boosters, raised the money and paid for the trip, it cost the taxpayer a bus. get your facts straight before you type
Administration should face the same cuts the teachers face.
Apparently the administration thinks much more highly of itself and its role in the education of youth than it does of those who are actually providing the education of youngsters. Any respectable leader would not ask more of his workers than he asks of himself. As a show of good faith, this superintendent should propose salary cuts that impact the top salaries as much as the others. At the very least, the two percentages should be closer together. A reversal of the percentages would be more palatable.
Can anyone say “Good old boys” club?
The Superintendent has already refused a raise and given herself a $7,000 cut FYI… The other Admins wages are right in line with those all over the state… HOWEVER the teachers are making between $55-70k…
And yet the teachers face a pay cut about 5 times the size of the administrators. How is that fair?
It’s not fair… I understand what you’re saying. Yes the cut should have been divided equally and not all of it should be on the teachers backs. I do understand that. BUT…something has to be done!! 3/4 of the schools budget is salaries and health insurance. Something has got to give!!
I agree, something has to give. I have a suggestion: when schools face budget cuts, let’s follow best practices in the rest of the world. You see in the rest of the world, the teachers won’t take a pay cut, instead they will cut EVERY EXTRACURRICULAR before they touch teacher salary. How much do you think that would save? Marching bands ain’t cheap you know, and if the parents want their kids in it they can pay for it.
Good luck, every time those suggestions are made, the parents go crazy.
Maybe that’s what it will take. Maybe if the whole town goes crazy we can decide to get serious about what our priorities for our children will be. Madawaska teachers are among the better paid in our state, and yet that still only equals 74k at the top end (after 15 credits above a PHD and 35 years of service). As a teacher, I have more stress than I did in the private sector, work as many hours over the course of the year, and make half of what I did. Luckily I am in it for the kids, however you cannot expect everybody to be as altruistic.
Teachers arst line of education for students, It’s rediculous to make cuts there.
And they have expensive benefits, and pay very little.
I’m sure that you are talking about a small percentage of teachers, whose wages and benefits were negotiated fairly.
Check your figures, research does not bear your comment on teacher pay in the district whatsoever, as a recently retired teacher, I can tell you there aren’t many teachers anywhere in Maine making that kind of money.
http://www.maineopengov.org
I will agree with you that perhaps the percentage decrease should be similar, however, the number of teachers significantly outweigh the number of administrators. The percenatge of reduction for the teachers needs to be much larger than the administrators for the percentageof slary for the teachers is significantly larger. Does not make it right, however it makes it true. If there are 5 administrators salried at 80,000 (and remember they work the calander year, not just 185 dyas) and they loose 50% of their wages that is only 200K still leaving 225 to make up. Granted tough situation (I would stick in another word but I won’t) but the numbers don’t work many different ways.
Good points.
This is a serious legal matter. Bad faith negotiating is against the law. Apparently despite the Madawaska School Department’s budget issues, they still have plenty of money to pay the lawyers they’ll need to get themselves out of this mess. Maybe it’s time for a recall of these school committee members.
Basic contract law and labor law are quite clear:
You cannot change the conditions of a contract without agreement of both parties.
The conditions of employment when a contract ends, remain in force until a new agreement is negotiated.
I’m tired of people abusing teachers because they have stayed in a union and because they are making a reasonable wage ( given their level of education). If everyone would have stood up to support unions instead of voting for Republican union busters, there might still be a middle class in this country.
Teachers on average make less than someone else with a Bachelor’s Degree even when you include benefits, even though their education at college costs the same, and yet they should be taking a pay cut? That makes tons of sense.
When teachers in Finland are asked why their students’ test scores were so much better than America’s, they consistently say it’s because their society values education and treats (& compensates) teachers like doctors. Save a half a million dollars now, and enjoy the tens of millions you’ll pay in welfare and prison costs when you’re schools have gone down the drain…
You’re spot on.
Ah, another school system and town being held hostage by the MEA. Do you suppose that the teachers union dues will go down if they take a pay cut, not likely!!!
OK, go ahead and sue me. Imagine that, I pay their wages and I don’t want my taxes to go up because I cannot afford it. If these people cannot figure out that we need to have concessions during this tough time in order to help this town, than greed is more important than preserving their jobs. How sad that it has come to this. I have lost a great deal of respect for these servants.
After receiving my K-12 education in the Madawaska School System from many of the teachers that are indeed still teachers there I would like to weigh in and offer my piece. You see those teachers did provide me with an education on which I can deduct and create my own position on what is happening. In no way do I think teachers can ever be “overpaid”. I had some great teachers and to them a monetary amount can not be placed on the education they gave me. I also had teachers that were worse bullies than any student and who should never be paid for the things they did. The argument is endless on why or why not teachers should be paid more or less. So the only fair thing to do is take a look at what these teachers get paid in comparison to teachers around the state. Obviously this would show that the teachers should probably make less than they are. And that’s where the teachers union comes in. The teachers union is there to protect the teachers that means they would obviously support some of the highest paid teachers in the state because if they don’t they lose their base on with which to show what teachers could be paid at other schools. It’s all a vicious cycle and none of it actually involves the value of the education the students are receiving. There is no “right answer” to solve this but cutting school programs is the first wrong answer. You could keep everything the school already has if you cut the pay and the teachers would still be making numbers that are comparable to those around the state. If the teachers really cared about the students education they wouldn’t be trying to save their pay, they’d be doing the best thing they can in order to provide the students with the education they deserve.
Teachers have suggested to raise town taxes in order to help the budget shortfall, because they obviously must have enough money to pay those higher taxes. Lower income families in the town will suffer if this happens. I know my parents for example would not be able to afford this change. Instead of paying higher taxes why not just take the cut? It’s silly and stupid of the teachers to continue with what they are doing. Having been through some past turmoil in the system as a student, I know well how the teachers involve the students in everything in order for them to look like the victims. In actuality the teachers are the ones victimizing the students and creating an army to defend themselves, it’s almost as though they brainwash the kids. It’s very sad to see this type of action in the system and abuse to the students. If these teachers are so upset about the potential pay cut why don’t they go elsewhere? Oh, that’s right, because they wouldn’t make as much as they do now. I hope that everything eventually gets resolved because frankly I’m tired of hearing about it and I know my education suffered because of conflicts between the administration and the teacher’s union when I was in school, the same thing is going to happen to these students.
I do want to say again that I had teachers at MHS that influenced me in several positive ways and in no way do I think they deserve to be paid less but I’m sure those teachers are the same teachers who are keeping their mouths shut through all of this because they actually value the students and their educaion and they are also grateful to have a job whether or not they get paid less to do it. Anyway that’s my food for thought.
Thank you! You hit it spot on! And yes…the same politics are going on, and the kids are the ones suffering and being brainwashed that the big bad taxpayers are going to ruin their education and that they don’t care for them. At this point, I think it would be easier to just close the doors and send the kids to the next town over…. would solve a lot of problems and maybe even bring our taxes down…. $9000 tuition per child to send them to a neighboring school and almost $14000 per student here…. Where is that $5000 difference going?? They keep saying they are working with the bare essentials….so where is it going?? I’ll give you one guess…
It’s sad that it comes down to the contracts and so on a so forth, I thought this was about an education! I agree, bus them all to FK or Wisdom… those schools would be able to up their programs with tuition money from Madawaska, and all the kids would receive a better education. In addition those schools would be able to add staff, probably former Madawaska teachers, and there they would be making less without a choice. The students are really the ones suffering right now, shame on the teachers for using the kids to their advantage.
Every comittee that looks to cut corners and save money always start at the bottom of the pile and work their way up and they should start at the top where the biggest salaries start at over $100,000 why should we lose 9 or 10 teachers and sports programs when we could do away with top heavy admin section and still come out ahead
Rediculous!!! Impact bargaining should have come into play. Vote those idiots out on the School Committee. Shameful.
Madawaska needs to have competitive teacher and administrator salaries because no one would want to work there if they didn’t. It is easier to find teachers in urban areas that will work for less because they are in desirable areas where their spouses can find work, etc. It is far less likely that you will get good, experienced teachers in a very rural town if it is for less money than a more desirable area. Your teachers stay there because they have set up roots in the community, you should be grateful for that. The alternative is having new teachers or administrators come and go every few years. Believe me, I am in a school teachers commute to for a few month, or years until they can find a “better” salary. It’s not fun to have so much turnover, especially when students have to pay the price. You do, truly, get what you pay for.
close it and send them to van buren.
The same people belly aching that teachers are over paid and have tons of vacation are the same ones that use the school system as a baby sitting service for their own kids. By the same token, the union membership is a waste of their money and could wisely be spent elsewhere. My family has been in the admin and teacher side of education for a long time and if the admin is doing their job, they are bargaining and negotiating products and services that are fair, reasonable and within budget constraints. Teachers deal with the students. 2 separate issues, 2 separate paychecks. 2 separate work weeks.