Published: May 13, 2008 09:55 am            

Hundreds rally in push for contract for NA-FC teachers

Hundreds of teachers with their children and spouses by their sides stood alongside Grant Line Road on Monday, wearing orange and holding signs urging people to honk if they support a contract settlement.

The teachers, all with New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp., have been in contract negotiations for months. Their last deal expired in December, but will remain effective until a new agreement is reached.

“I think this raises awareness that we are united as teachers in this,” said Michelle Cassady, who teaches at Grant Line Elementary, as she held her 15-month-old son, who was dressed in orange like his mom. “I believe this will show the board that we’re united.”

“I just think it will help make people aware of what’s going on if they don’t read the news or watch TV,” Hazelwood Middle School teacher Therese Stevens said, holding two signs she made — one saying: “The only time we’ve asked to be average is in salaries.”

Even some parents and students joined in to support the teachers.

“I think it’s (rallying) necessary at this point,” Laura Cashman, 17, said, wearing an orange band across her arm. “It’s sad it got to this point, but it’s necessary.”

After rallying outside the administration building for nearly an hour, the group marched in for the school board meeting. The association’s president, Doug Taylor, said one person, who stood at the door, counted each person wearing orange. He said it totaled nearly 500 people.

Inside, there were also the usual audience members, who don’t miss many school board meeting and a few more students, who say they are neutral in this situation and came to hear both sides.

The board approved a short consent agenda and moved on to the president’s prerogative section, where the public is allowed to speak for three minutes per person.

Various people representing the association spoke, one saying the salary and other figures in board president Rebecca Gardenour’s statement at the last meeting don’t clearly reflect the true situation and the real averages.

Another, Michele Adams, called for more elementary-level planning time.

“Inadequate planning time is a working condition,” she said, saying it should be given and not be negotiated along with pay and benefits.

Taylor then took the microphone. He quoted Sunday’s story in The Tribune, which interviewed an administration member as saying that all new money that the association is seeking is already accounted for.

“That means they spent it all on paper before sitting down with teachers,” Taylor told the board members and audience at the meeting. “That’s what they do every time, so here we are again in the same old adversarial pattern.”

He went on to say that the administration overestimates the expenditures and underestimates the income to make it seem as if the money is not available. He said that has been the case for the past six years.

“We agreed to zero percent raises in 1995 and 2002,” Taylor said. “We trusted the administration and discerned for ourselves that there was not adequate money for raises.

“We have studied and analyzed this budget and there is enough money for the proposals we’ve made.”

The audience, filling every seat, much of the floor and wall areas, cheered, whistled and hollered in agreement during the speeches. Many times, they gave standing ovations.

At the end of Taylor’s speech, almost all of those in orange filed out of the room, clapping in unison. Taylor said they decided to leave because they had heard enough talk from the administration and are wanting to see action.

The remaining audience members listened as a few more spoke on the bargaining issue. One of those, Paul Etheridge, said what the teachers are asking for is simply too much.

“I don’t mind teachers getting raises, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “But teachers in private schools don’t make half of that.”

Etheridge, who works for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said he never sees the kind of raises that the teachers are seeking. He said they went three years recently with no raises, and this year got 1.5 percent.

“We’re not up here griping about it to Mitch Daniels. He has a budget to balance and we understand that,” he said. “We just suck it up and go. We still have to plow roads in the winter and fix potholes in the roads.”

New Albany High School senior Lauren Hettinger was one of the students who said she was just a spectator.

“I am neutral because my teachers are great,” she said. “However, a lot of the students are being persuaded by a lot of the teachers in the school and it’s creating an unnecessary anger in the students and they don’t have the full story.”

Hettinger was at the last board meeting when Gardenour read the board’s statement. Taylor had accused the statement of being inaccurate, so Hettinger decided to confront the board members to get the numbers for herself.

“There’s reason they (the administration) just can’t do this for them (teachers),” she said. “I just wish they’d understand.”

After the meeting, many board members said they not only expected, but were also pleased with the turnout.

“I want people to support our teachers,” said board member Lee Ann Wiseheart. “I support them. We all really are on the same team.”

“I thought it was interesting,” board member James Zoeller said about the comments made. “I thought (the meeting) went very well.”

“They want to get this settled and so do we,” Superintendent Dennis Brooks said. “We’re going to try our best to listen to all their concerns and process what they had to say and go to the bargaining table with a very open mind.”

Brooks is optimistic that going back to the consensus model of bargaining — which had proved to be successful in the past — will help at Friday’s session.

Bill Briscoe, assistant to the superintendent for administration and operations, told the audience the switch is because what they are doing now is not working.

Hettinger said she hopes this new strategy gets results and that this is all over soon.

“If this extends any longer, I don’t know what it will be like for students next year,” she said.

Editor’s Note: Lauren Hettinger is not related to staff writer Tara Hettinger.

        

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