What's more important: a bonus paycheck for teachers or saving about 150 teaching jobs at at-risk schools of the Lafayette Parish School System?
What's more important: a bonus paycheck for teachers or saving about 150 teaching jobs at at-risk schools of the Lafayette Parish School System?
"Sometimes cuts have to be made" - teacher Debra Thrower
Since the passage of a half-cent sales tax proposition in 2001, teachers in the Lafayette Parish School System have annually received a bonus check in October. The check is based on interest earned from the half-cent sales tax collection, and last year's check, which rang in at $2,100 per teacher, marked the biggest payout in the history of the tax.
Enter 2014: The school system is faced with a major budget deficit, and with the school board unwilling to dip into its more than $60 million reserve fund, close to 150 teachers now face termination from a lack of funds.
One option, which was presented to the board during a special meeting on June 5, involves doing away with this year's bonus checks - estimated at $2,800 per teacher - in order to maintain the salaries of those 150 teachers currently slated for the chopping block.
The language of the tax included in the ballot only stated that the revenues would be used for "providing classroom teacher salaries and related benefits and equal percentage increases in same, and to establish a Teacher Salary Reserve Fund with the annual interest earnings to be paid to classroom teachers as a 13th check in each fiscal year."
Yet, prior to the tax's passage, the board adopted an accompanying "Administrative Plan," which further spelled out how the revenue from the tax would be used, specifically to fund the salaries of teachers at the district's under-performing schools to reduce class sizes.
"If we keep the 14th check, we're ultimately making a decision to eliminate positions and increase class sizes," LPSS Chief Financial Officer Billy Guidry told the board during the June 5 meeting.
The response from teacher Debra Thrower: "Sometimes cuts have to be made." Thrower was among several teachers/retired educators who spoke out during the June 5 meeting against using the money for saving the jobs of their fellow teachers.
According to retired educator Melinda Mangham, "It's not about teachers being greedy."
Perhaps not.
But it is nonetheless troubling that educators would argue for keeping bonus checks that could instead be used to retain 150 teachers at schools where they're most needed.
"I regret that we're looking at a decision of taking away a payment to teachers that they've grown accustomed to receiving ... versus cutting 100 or more positions," public education advocate Greg Davis said at the June 5 meeting. "When I look at that choice as a citizen of North Lafayette, the decision that would be in the best interest of the children would be to keep the money in the budget so we don't have to cut as many positions as we're looking at. It will be detrimental to the entire parish, but even more so to the children of low-performing schools."
The board sided with the teachers.