Arbitrator’s decision to side with district saves about 134 teacher jobs

About 134 teacher positions were pulled off the chopping block Wednesday after an arbitrator sided with the Clark County School District over who will pay $10 million in increased teacher retirement costs.

The money represents an increase in payments that public employees must make to the state's retirement plan.

State law requires that teachers pay half of the
2.25 percent increase, same as other employees. Teachers have been paying this since July by way of a 1.125 percent deduction from their gross salaries, meaning paychecks won't be affected now. However, the teachers union has opposed the deductions.

The district's other option was to increase teachers' salaries by 1.125 percent to cover the retirement cost increase. But that would have been a $10 million setback for the cash-strapped district, something officials said it couldn't afford. No other district employee groups received raises to cover the increase in retirement rates.

"As we've struggled to balance our budget, it has been necessary for all employees to share in the sacrifices," Superintendent Dwight Jones said.

Because the conflict couldn't be settled in negotiations, it went to an objective third party, an arbitrator, who made the decision.

In a response to the decision posted on the Clark County Education Association's website, teachers union officials criticized Jones for not absorbing the retirement cost increase.

"It is part of his systematic approach to cost everything down," the website post said.

The decision saved some positions, but teachers aren't out of the woods yet.

"We are still far from having a balanced budget," Jones said of the budgets for this school year and 2012-13.

The district seeks an additional
$58 million in concessions for 2011-13 from the teachers union. A second arbitrator is considering whether teachers should take a pay freeze also being sought by the district. The union argues that teachers should continue to earn raises for seniority and for continuing their education. All other district employees have agreed to a pay freeze.

LAYOFFS STILL POSSIBLE

Without the teacher pay freeze, hundreds of teacher positions would need to be cut should the second arbitrator side with the union, district officials have said. The district probably won't be able to wait for that arbitrator, who recently announced that his decision won't be released until late April or early May. That is bad timing for the district.

The School Board must approve a balanced budget on April 11. Without knowing whether the arbitrator will make teachers take a pay freeze, board members must assume and plan for the worst, meaning hundreds of teachers still face layoffs to balance the budget, district spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson said.

That may mean handing out hundreds of pink slips -- informing teachers that unless the situation changes, they will not be coming back next year -- in April before the arbitrator's decision. If the arbitrator sides with the district, those pink slips will never go out.

PLANNING AMID UNCERTAINTY

Among this chaos, principals must plan their class schedules and staffing for next year, without knowing how many teachers they will have.

"Good luck to us all," said Henderson's Coronado High School Principal Lee Koelliker, who is making two schedules based on each possible arbitration outcome. "A lot of it is just a gamble."

Either way, he will have 3,000 students but may be down by seven teacher positions, according to a memo the superintendent handed to him and every principal in November. It outlined the number of layoffs at each school based on student enrollment.

Koelliker may be able to cut positions but not people if layoffs happen. That is possible because when the district gave him extra positions, he didn't hire new teachers but dispersed those duties to staff members, paying them more for teaching six classes instead of five. If positions are cut, he can eliminate class offerings and have teachers return to a five-class schedule.

But all schools won't be able to do that.

Koelliker never thought arbitration would still be unsettled in April. He recalls when the decision was expected in early February. In effect, teachers still don't know whether their jobs will last.

"They come to me and ask, 'Will I have a job next year?' " Koelliker said of his younger teachers.

Teacher Jose Sandoval isn't as worried as most. He has 24 years in the district and now works at Bozarth Elementary School in the northwest valley. He has been a union member all this time but doesn't fall on either side.

"It's never been like this," he said of the contract controversies. "They don't want to give, either side. It's going to hurt every which way."

Even if the district wins the pay freeze, teachers will have to pay back any raises that were initiated this school year.

"Nobody wins," he said. "I just hoped things would get better sooner."

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@review
journal.com or 702-383-0279.