Letter to the Community

March 24, 2010

Dear Edina Public School Parents and Community Members,

Edina teachers recently approved a contract settlement with the school district for the 2009-10 and 2010-2011 school years. This agreement concludes negotiations that began over a year ago. We are relieved to have a settlement, and we thank you for your support throughout this process. However, we believe there is still significant work to be done to address professional and institutional respect and equity within Edina Public Schools.

One measure of these issues has to do with salaries and benefits. Figures released by the school district during bargaining obscured the fact that take-home pay for many Edina teachers is falling behind the cost of living.

In the agreement just approved, as well as the two that teachers rejected in October and January, the average annual increase in the salary schedule that determines take-home pay is 1 percent or less. Double-digit increases in health insurance premiums will cause teachers to fall even further behind.

Salary trends also suggest that the district places a higher monetary value on administrators than teachers. In state salary rankings, Edina principals’ and district administrators’ salaries rank between 4th and 13th, while Edina teachers’ salaries rank 28th (especially troubling while student test scores remain top in the state). Over a 10-year period, the superintendent's salary has increased by about 53 percent, principals’ salaries about 30 percent, and teachers’ salaries by about 24 percent; the cost of living for the same period was about 27 percent.

The district must begin to address such disparities if Edina is to continue to attract and keep the best teachers for our students.

But financial measures are only part of the story. The financial package teachers recently ratified was virtually the same as those they rejected earlier. What changed in the final agreement was the district’s willingness to take initial steps by including contract language that recognizes teachers' concerns with growing workloads and their desire for a modicum of control of their professional time.

However, it took a year of concerted public outreach, community support, and persistence at the bargaining table to get the district to the point where it would consider steps that teachers had proposed at the outset of negotiations. This is a clear reflection of significant climate issues that are at the heart of teachers’ concern about structural, institutionalized disrespect for them as professionals.

When the chair of the school board has to send a letter of apology to all teachers for statements he made to teachers attending the January board meeting, teachers know they need to lead an effort to change the climate of this district.

Further, a district decision-making model that treats teachers as second-class citizens, growing workloads, and a growing number of top-down initiatives are affecting morale and hindering Edina teachers’ ability to apply their superb knowledge, skills and professional judgment toward the success of each student.

Edina teachers care about their students, learning, their profession, and the future of society. They regularly exceed their contractual responsibilities and will persist in their professional commitment and generosity to students.

But be assured that we will also work to build respect for teachers and the teaching profession into everything this school district does, and we ask for your continued support in these efforts.

For more information and updates, see www.edinateachers.blogspot.com.

From the Governance Board of Education Minnesota/Edina

(The Governance Board includes four officers and twenty-four teachers who represent all schools and sites throughout the district.)