District 207 teachers union to vote on saving jobs
The Maine Teachers Association is expected to vote soon on whether the union will grant salary concessions for one year to save teaching jobs.
The Maine Township High School District 207 school board earlier this month approved cutting 75 largely nontenured, certified teachers by school year end to save $5 million.
Meanwhile, the administration offered the union a deal to save roughly 40 to 45 teaching jobs out of the 75. Officials propose spending up to $2 million more out of the district's reserves for two years if the union matches that amount in salary concessions.
The union would have to agree to forego a 3.2 percent salary increase in the 2010-2011 academic year. Most teachers would continue to receive step pay increases based on years of experience, and a 3.5 percent wage increase for the 2011-2012 school year.
"The good news is they haven't said 'no,'" District 207 Superintendent Ken Wallace said Tuesday. "They are going to bring the question to the general membership for a vote within seven days of the March 1 board meeting. We will obviously respect that process and wait until we hear back from them. We're moving forward, and that's the positive thing."
The union earlier rejected the administration's request to forego the 3.2 percent wage increase in 2010 and the 3.5 percent increase in 2011 to save 55 jobs.
The District 207 school board will meet in closed session Friday to discuss the status of MTA discussions.
"We hope to know what our final tenure reduction numbers are by Friday," Wallace added.
A few tenured teachers are among the 75 cut. Due to leaves of absences and job shares, if some tenured teachers choose to return to full-time employment, they will displace other teachers.
The teacher cuts largely affect the English, science, special education, physical education, applied arts and technology, and mathematics departments at the district's three high schools.
"We have about 80 released right now, but between applied arts and fine arts we will have some people come back," Wallace said.
Overall, the school board authorized $15 million in cuts to reduce a projected $19 million deficit.