Open Letter to School Board and Leadership

To:      Members of the ORCSD School Board and

            School Administration Leadership Team

Date:  March 4, 2011

On March 8, the taxpayers will be asked to vote on a school budget and the Teachers' Guild contract for the ORCSD.   In our opinion, background information has been insufficiently publicized about the schools, teachers, and administrators, and how they address the education of our children. Therefore, we believe a high percentage of us have had little opportunity to comment publicly on the proposed budget and to voice our opinion on related topics pertaining to how school budgets evolve and some underlying problems as we see them.

In particular, the proposed budget appears buried under obscure links on the district's website that lacks any user friendliness to any older or inexperienced computer user. The newly formed ABC has made efforts to release information through the town and school electronic media about the budget, but again the elder citizens who do not receive email communications miss out.  The District must find ways to openly communicate with the public that gets taxed without adequate explanations.

The Proposed FY12 Budget:  The School Board and Administration declare the proposed budget as lower by 1.029% than last year's budget, yet school district taxes will be increasing.  It appears that the lower budget was produced partially by one-time savings from accounting adjustments to employee benefits and from the retirement of a bond.  The fact that the FY12 budget was developed from FY11's inflated budget (with a $1.2M surplus projected) that in turn was developed from the FY10's inflated budget (with a $2.2M surplus) creates an illusion that the schools will be “level” funded next year.  In our opinion, the School District budget should be developed closer to actuals than proposed desires.  We charge the Administration and the School board to build budgets based on reality – real expenditures – and not on inflated prior budgets.

Teacher Salaries:   Based on the existing teacher contract, teacher salaries increased 2% for the present 2010-2011 school year and 119 teachers (out of the 170 teachers in the ORSCD), who were at the top step of the salary scale, received a $1000 stipend.  Those who were part time received a pro-rated amount of $1000.  It is projected that in 2011-12 there will be 128 teachers at the top step; 139 for 2012-13 and 149 out of 170 for 2013-14.  The ratio of “top step teachers” is comparable to having a University’s academic department made up of almost solely full professors and just a few associate professors, assistant professors and adjunct professors.  As we see it, in the new Teachers' Guild three-year contract, as the top step stipend decreases to zero, the COLA increase goes from 0.5% back up to 2%.  However, in these difficult economic times, across the board raises are hard to justify, especially for employees who receive much more than the average teacher in NH.

Average salaries for teachers in our District for the 2009-2010 year were $62,199.  Average teacher salaries for the State in districts with 140-170 FTE teachers were $51,433.   That means that ORCSD teachers receive 20.91% more than the New Hampshire average and are now the highest paid teachers in the State in districts of comparable size.  (ORCSD teachers are second highest if Hanover’s average salary for 137 teachers is included in the range.). 

We know that Oyster River has many outstanding teachers and the most of the students are high achievers.  Also it is good to know that our teachers are well paid relative to what teachers in other school districts are paid, but these are difficult economic times for many of our residents.  It is a time when the salary gap between our teachers and others should be decreased by freezing salaries for a year or two.  Even the Federal Government has frozen the salaries of all government workers for the next two years.  Why shouldn’t the salaries of teachers and administrators be frozen for a similar period of time?

Teacher Unions: The Teachers' Guild represents teachers.  They do not represent our children.  The negotiation process and the tenure system primarily are for the economic protection of the teachers.  This combination of teacher protections for unionized and tenured teachers leads to systematically raising teacher’s salaries regardless of their competency and regardless of severe economic downturns such as what we are currently experiencing.

It is virtually impossible to discharge a tenured teacher with seniority. Teachers with less seniority are more likely to be discharged during an economic downturn even if they are the more competent teachers.   In addition, it is virtually impossible to reward superior teachers with such a system.  This approach of rewarding all at the expense of taxpayers is unsustainable.

Conclusion:  We strongly encourage the ORCSD School Board and Administration to find better ways to communicate with the District's taxpayers, preferably via written mailed notices and/or newsletters so that ample background information is received by all taxpayers well in advance of when they are asked to vote on Warrant articles.  Additionally, publishing information about the salary schedule (with numbers of employees at each step) from the administration to the bottom step for all employees would help clarify salaries.  Our neighboring educational institution, the University of New Hampshire, makes all employees' salary information available in the UNH Library.  Neighboring towns and cities also publish employee salaries and make new contracts available before voting occurs.  We believe that such transparency is what all informed voters deserve.

Respectfully submitted by concerned Durham voters,

David and Lynn Holmes

Lee and Doris Irwin

Dolly Bechtell

Lew Knight

Zelda Moore

Dolly Bechtell

Jane Grota