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Phil Christe took information about school administration salaries to its lowest depths
To the Editor:
On Friday, May 12, longtime public school critic and defeated school board candidate Phil Christe reached an all-time low by placing a full-page advertisement listing the names and salaries of the 200 highest-paid employees of the Bedford Central School District. In some distorted and mean-spirited way, could Mr. Christe possibly have believed that by publicly embarrassing the people charged with providing a quality education for our children in our district, he is improving our school district?
The major point of Mr. Christe's ad seems to be that 80 percent of the budget increase is going to salaries. In a profession where teachers are the key to a successful educational program, and where the K42 enrollment is increasing significantly, where should the money be going? Would Mr. Christe be happier if 80 percent of the increase went to purchase items that do not directly impact the education of our children? Mr. Christe also implies that the most recent contract between the board of education and the teachers is creating an "economic burden on the taxpayers," In the last round of negotiations, the teachers signed a four-year contract. That contract includes a zero percent increase in year one, followed by three years with increases under
3.6 percent. That contract, which also included significant concessions in the area of health insurance costs, is fiscally responsible to both the teachers and the community.
Educating the children in our community is a tremendous honor and responsibility. The teachers in our schools deserve to be compensated at a rate that is commensurate with their responsibilities, years of experience and education. Mr. Christe fails to point out in hi~ ad the number of teachers with doctorates and other higher-level degrees, and those with more than 25 years of experience in the profession. When one looks at the salaries that these teachers, make compared with salaries of other professions with similar degrees and experience, it becomes very obvious that those of us who went into the teaching profession certainly did not do it for the compensation.
Mr. Christe also fails to mention that the salaries listed include a variety of other responsibilities beyond that of being a classroom teacher. Departmental coordinator stipends, coaching stipends, club advisorships, summer school work and curriculum writing, as well as many other activities available to students, are compensated separately from the regular teaching salaries.
A significant number of the teachers in Bedford, myself included, have cho
sen to be residents and taxpayers in our school district and to have our children educated in our superior schools. It is disgraceful that our salaries are now dinnertitne discussion material for our neighbors and the children we teach. This tactic sends out a message to new teachers and future candidates for teaching positions in our schools that teachers in our community are not respected or valued, and that perhaps they should took elsewhere to live or work.
Mr. Christe took public information to its lowest depths, and has offended all of the teachers in Bedford. He needs to hear from members of our community, either through the ballot box or directly, that this is not the way they want to treat the teachers in our district.
Ken Kurzweil Bedford
Mr. Kurzweil is president of the teachers association in the Bedford Central School District.
Christe's motivation is transparent
To the Editor:
As a parent from the Bedford Central School District, I am outraged at Phil Christe's listing of teachers' salaries in his full-page advertisement in last week's Record-Review. To garner votes against the budget, he listed teachers'W-2's from the past three years to make the point that there have been "exorbitant... payroll increases." In point of fact, the salary numbers show the opposite of Christe's claim. They show that there have been payroll increases consistent with cost of living increases.
Consolidation of this highly personal information is compietely unethical. Collected and published by teacher name, it only served to create discomfort and potential disharmony for our children's teachers, who happen significantly to not be Christe's children's teachers.
Would you be so quick to publish all the salaries of your children's teachers, Mr. Christe?'Better yet, publish your W-2's for the last three years... let's look at those numbers and assess your "value." Did you get a cost of living increase over the last three years?
Our teachers' salaries reflect that as a community we value educators as professionals. Christe has chosen not to be part of our school district. It's simply despicable that he would print this ad, not only unsettling to our teachers, but reported so irresponsibly. His motivation is transparent - despite the benefit of our schools to his neighbors, Christe does not personally benefit from the school district.
Lynn Biederman Bedford
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