MESP – MCPS Impasse Hearing

1. MESP – MCPS Impasse Hearing Briefing for the Marion County School Board MCPS Board Room Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 9:00 AM Presented for the MESP by: Dr. R. Craig Ham Executive Director, United Service Unit

2. Where are we now on the AY 2011-2012 Contract? • The Administration notified us via letter that they were declaring an impasse in our negotiations for the current (2012-13) contract on February 28, 2013. • That letter also indicated that they would not participate in efforts to mediate a compromise using a Federal Mediator. • Subsequently we mutually agreed to waive the use of a Special Magistrate. • We are here to request that you impose the wage request we provided to your attorney in advance of this hearing. • The MESP’s wage request is significantly less than the amount contained in the budget you have already approved for that purpose.

3. Issues at Impasse • The money issues at impasse involve: • step advancement, consistent with the existing wage schedules, • a 3% across-the-board increase to the wage schedules, • the advancement of Highly Qualified Paraprofessionals to the midpoint of the C-3/C-4 pay grades, and • payment of wage adjustments retroactive to July 1, 2012 • The delayed migration of Highly-Qualified Paraprofessionals to a higher wage schedule is long overdue: • A past agreement to elevate the wages for Paraprofessionals once they earn the “Highly Qualified” designation under NCLB has not been honored. As a result our District’s Paraprofessional wages lag behind their peers statewide, and other district employees. • The amounts paid all non-instructional personnel on the various steps of the wage schedule lag behind statewide averages for their job titles and behind those of other employee groups within this district. • The lone language amendment provided is required to bring the reopener language in line with the reality that this is the last year of the three-year master agreement.

4. This Is A Reasonable Request • We are not asking for more than is reasonable under the circumstances. These personnel are the lowest paid (according to state and local norms) in the District. • We are asking for experience credit to be granted as it is described in Florida Statutes. • We are seeking a living wage for the non-instructional personnel who work shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers to accomplish the District’s core mission. • We are asking for a modest 3% increase in the wage schedule – a schedule that has been unchanged since 2009. • We are seeking a modest movement up the wage schedule to at least begin the process of paying Highly Qualified Paraprofessionals (NCLB Requirement) comparable to what we pay other District support staff who have certification requirements.

5. It Would be The Right Thing to Do The district’s practice of giving similar raises negotiated by the MEA and MESP to unrepresented employees (professional/ technical and administrators) is patently unfair! It freezes an inequity that currently exists in salary rankings. When the NCLB requirements for Paraprofessionals to become “Highly Qualified” took effect, we met and agreed to gradually migrate their wage to one comparable with other non-teaching staff who have certification requirements. We have failed to do that for eight years! Marion County Salaries expressed as percent of statewide average for selected groups for 2011-12, now stand at: Blue Collar (IUPAT) Positions: 108.8% District-Level Administrators: 106.0% Professional/technical (Unrep.): 104.8% School Based Administrators: 96.3% Instructional (MEA) Positions: 93.3% Noninstructional (MESP) Positions: 92.7% http://www.fldoe.org/eias/eiaspubs

6. Appropriate Data As the district argued last year, different districts award different length contracts. Accordingly, we have adjusted all of the DOE data for this year’s presentation:

7. The District Can Afford to do This! “The combined assigned and unassigned fund balance of the General Fund, representing the net fund balance that is spendable and not restricted or committed, total $14,094,436 at June 30, 2012, or 5.15 percent of total General Fund revenues.” MCPS Superintendent’s Annual Financial Report 2011-2012, dated November19, 2012 The difference between that 5.15% and your stated reserve requirement of 3.00% is 5.15 – 3.00 = 2.15% or .0215 x $273 Million (Revenues) = $5.87 Million You could grant our requests today and remain well above the 3% recommended by the State.

8. Historically the Fund Balance has been Underestimated Fiscal Year Final Budget Actual Amount 2007-2008 - 30,077,496 28,812,129 2008-2009 - 43,323,314 32,346,706 2009-2010 - 49,960,383 31,272,767 2010-2011 13,255,163 26,909,569 2011-201210,597,57218,593,243 So now . . . . 2012-2013 10,250,957 ??? Data from CAFR for years indicated

9. The District has adequately budgeted to do this! The budget lines for instructional and noninstructional salary appropriations in the approved 2012-2013 budget are: All Funds: 5000-100 $132,435,118 6100-100 $16,731,230 6200-100 $3,287,640 6300-100 $3,730,907 6400-100 $2,984,880 6500-100 $1,296,354 7200-100 $886,788 7300-100 $13,022,313 7500-100 $1,687,929 7700-100 $2,427,370 7800-100 $9,777,284 7900-100 $6,306,239 8100-100 $4,880,884 8200-100 $1,464,089 9100-100 $2,133,058 Total available funding in approved budget: $202,952,083

10. The actual cost of implementing the combined requests from the instructional and non-instructional bargaining units for the 2012-2013 budget year are: Instructional bargaining unit: Salaries as frozen:$126,508,544 Payment of step:1,452,357 $1,000 added to plateaus:886,000 Non-instructional bargaining unit: Salaries as frozen:$24,460,048 3% across-the-board735,472 Payment of step:55,690 Movement of Paraprofessionals: 398,211 Total cost to budget: $154,496,322 Total available funding in approved budget: $202,952,083 Source: District Roll-up Calc file 10-19-2012 and District approved budget on line 5-6-2013

11. In summary, the question is not about whether you have the ability to pay what the MESP is requesting – it is about having the political courage to do the right thing!