The SAD is in protracted negotiations with the Support
staff (over a year) and the teachers (several months).
The main sticking points involve reductions in health
insurance. Everyone knows health insurance is expensive,
and the District has offered packages to the bargaining
parties that the parties claim are not fair and actually
cost them money because they must pay out of pocket
for a large portion of their health benefits..
These
people have worked long in the District- turnover
rates for Bus drivers, Custodians, Teacher Assistants,
and Food Service workers are low. They drive the busses,
feed the students, clean up after them, and aid teachers
in many support roles. The situation cannot be anything
close to tolerable when they toil long hours, over
many years, and see their paycheck actually getting
smaller because of increases in health care costs.
Add to that, they see that the Administrators get
full benefits.
Superintendent
Michael Wood’s gesture to voluntarily take a
personal reduction in health care benefits cannot
go unnoticed. (See news article, "Superintendent
takes voluntary cut") I do not know how much
of a difference it will make to those bargaining for
their contracts, but it certainly is a gesture that
hopefully will make a dent in the gridlock hanging
over the District.
