Prince Frederick, MD – With documented claims that Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) administrators and Board of Education (BOE) have not kept their word to teachers and other employees, a former superintendent and current school board president had finally heard enough.
Breaking from the tradition of not commenting during the open forum segment of the BOE’s monthly meeting, Board President Dr. Eugene Karol delivered his prepared remarks at the Thursday, Sept. 11 meeting.
Karol’s comments were prompted by a local newspaper advertisement purchased by the Calvert Education Association (CEA), the union representing CCPS teachers. The ad lamented “a trail of broken promises and bad decisions by the Calvert County Board of Education.”
The CEA ad stated that Calvert teachers were promised salary step increases “based on performance evaluations.” However, “teachers have received on two of six possible steps since 2008” the ad stated, explaining “it’s like getting a promotion and getting the responsibility but not the compensation.” The CEA also contended that the Calvert County Commissioners provided the BOE with money to fund the step program but the school board used the additional funds “to reduce their portion of the healthcare cost increase.”
“First, let me make it very clear that by state law we legally must adopt a balanced budget,” Karol stated. “In order to do so it was necessary to take $2.6 million of unassigned fund balance money to balance our FY [fiscal year] 2015 budget. This did not even include the new funds that were promised by the commissioners. Over the past three decades, you will see that our boards have done much better than most systems in Maryland in compensating their staff.”
Karol chronicled the past twelve school years, which included back-to-back years (2007-2008 and 2008-2009) when teachers received 4.5 percent pay raises and step increases. A third straight 4.5 pay increase negotiated for the 2009-2010 school year was reduced to 0.5 percent through a lengthy renegotiation process due to a dramatic downturn in the economy.
“In the 2013-2014 school year, the average annual salary of a 10-month teacher working 190 days for Calvert County Public Schools was $74,875.36,” Karol stated. “This equates to $394.08 per diem and $56.30 per hour.”
Karol also listed several benefits CCPS teachers have in addition to salaries, including term life insurance, employee liability insurance, incentives for obtaining additional degrees, enrollment in the system’s health, vision and/or dental plans along with the Maryland State Pension System.
“The Board of Education members have truly valued and provided substantial compensation over the years for our employees at a level better than other school systems in Maryland,” Karol concluded.
When asked later if she had any reaction to Karol’s remarks, CEA President Debbie Russ said “I didn’t think about it one way or another.” Russ, who was in the hearing room and in fact had addressed the BOE prior to Karol, added that she did not believe the board president was speaking for the entire panel.
The CEA and CCPS negotiation team had still not finalized a new contract. Russ said she was hopeful CEA’s latest proposal calling for the “back-loading” of a step increase effective with the start of the 2015-2016 school year would prevail. Negotiations were originally set to resume Sept. 22. However, Russ said the next bargaining session probably won’t occur until sometime in October.
During his September report, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Daniel Curry pledged “to build a budget for FY ’16 with raises for everyone.” Curry advised employees that CCPS’ FY 2015 budget that went into effect July 1 is balanced with $2.5 million taken from savings.
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com