A Response to Both Supporters and Detractors
I want to thank all of you for your comments on the recent post “A Little Known Perk at the Wicomico County Board of Education” which appeared both on Delmarva Dealings and on Salisbury News. Whether you supported my point of view (POV) or not, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I am responding in a separate post because I feel the need to correct a few misconceptions, clarify a couple of things and also to acknowledge an error on my part.
First of all a minor point; Joe Albero did not write this post. For those of you reading on Salisbury News, don’t hang him with this one. He catches enough grief about things he writes himself. My name is clearly at the bottom of the post (I realize most folks don’t look for it since Salisbury News is Joe’s blog) and it’s cross posted to Delmarva Dealings.
Second, I made an error in the original post. After a lengthy discussion with the good folks over at the WCBOE, I was well aware that one of the justifications given for the Early Notification Program (ENP) was its use as a planning tool. One commenter pointed out that the BOE would use the ENP to help put people into slots as teachers and staff put in for retirement and the BOE could now time such moves more precisely.
Lastly, I want to clarify some items because I evidently wasn’t very clear to some readers.
A few of you think that I’m blaming teachers or the MSTA (teachers’ union) for the ENP. First of all, I’m not blaming anyone. I clearly state in the post that the WCBOE “has a program to give teachers and staff a 10% raise for each of their last three years on the job”. A minor point I know, but several folks seem to be really worried about that one. As for blaming the union, that is not the case. I am a big believer that management bears 100% of the burden of any labor contract that is adopted. It is the union’s job to try and get the best package for its members. If management can’t live with the contract don’t agree to it. To go off point a bit, that is a real bone in my craw. I hear people complain about unions destroying the American economy. B.S.! Every contract that management complains of now was agreed to by one of their predecessors. To be completely candid, I also believe that management has a perfect right to bring in replacements if they feel that a strike or work action will be too detrimental to the financial health of that enterprise.
Back to the comments.
Several readers claim that I misconstrue the BOE when they claim that the ENP is a retention tool. You state that the teachers that are leaving are not the ones ready to retire. True enough. Again, I was well aware of this but failed to explain it properly in the original post. According to the WCBOE they face a problem with teachers leaving who have 20 - 25 years of service. Evidently, this is because you need to have X years in at the new school district to take full benefit of that county’s retirement package. The idea behind the ENP is to give an incentive for teachers to stay because they will reap this benefit in later years (right before retirement).
Remember, the state picks up the tab for the pension. The county is on the hook for the retiree medical benefits. Currently WCBOE pays 55% of a retiree’s premium for an individual policy only. According to the WCBOE, Worcester County pays 90% of any plan (single, retiree and spouse, family). I have no evidence to contradict this.
There are also numerous comments that seem to confuse two separate issues raised in the post. One is the ENP and the other is a claim often put forth by teachers that they should be paid comparably to the private sector. For the purposes of the post these are totally separate.
Thanks for the comments.
cross posted at Salisbury News
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