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Teachers union chief Ken Kurzweil.: No pay cut
President says calls to renegotiate salaries are 'teacher-bashing.'
According to newspaper reports, The Bedford school district teachers union will not reopen its contract and thinks past concessions
have been drowned in a wave of "teacher-bashing " union President Ken Kurzweil
whimpered yesterday.
The current contract expires in 1998. Renegotiating it was a primary theme in last month's election and was raised by residents at subsequent meetings.
"The board must take immediate steps to reduce teachers' salaries by one-third to
one half," resident Bonnie Laub said earlier this month. "If the teachers don't like it, they can leave."
The board has not asked to reopen the contract but said it would address several issues in the 1998 negotiations, including
" step" increases, starting salaries, benefits and the length of the school day and year.
Employee salaries and benefits made up about 80 percent of the district's proposed $51 million budget, meaning the board had little flexibility to cut after voters
rejected the budget May 3. Starting salaries of' $38,973 and median salaries of$71,500 have
drawn complaints that teachers are overpaid and the defense that they deserve good salaries.
The community votes on a $50.7 million budget June 7.
Kurzweil and more than 100 well paid teachers packed a board meeting last week to defend their position.
They said they thought the contracts were fair, yet still took the unprecedented move of reopening them last year.
"How would they respond if the bank which holds your fixed interest mortgage . . . approached you each year and said, 'Let's renegotiate a higher
Mortgage rate.' " Kurzweil said.
Last year, the teachers and Civil Service unions agreed to a salary giveback that saved the district about $478,000.
Kurzweil and other teachers said that the comments had hurt morale, but that they thought the comments represented a small percentage of the district.
"It's not the sentiment of the community that I live in, and it's not the sentiment of the people I know who have children in the schools," said Bobbi Marks, a district resident and counselor at Fox Lane Middle School.(
A real unbiased opinion hahahahaha)