The SAU21 School District earnestly asserts that without the citizens’ votes on 14 March 2023, the teachers in their schools will suffer and seek employment elsewhere.
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Representatives of SAU21 School District ask that citizen taxpayers in South Hampton, Seabrook, Hampton Falls, North Hampton, and Hampton approve by Warrant the updated and amended Collective Bargaining Agreement (the CBA) with the Seacoast Education Association (the SEA).
The District completed negotiations with the SEA in early November 2022 but only in January released the agreed terms of the agreement to voters. Based on the composition of the negotiating team, there was no party representing taxpayers. Only the interests of the District and its employees are represented. The information presented to the public concerning the amendments to the CBA, while factual, is superficial.
The District asserts that only with this Agreement has the District become competitive with nearby schools and Districts. Based on the longevity of the tenure of the employees in Hampton Falls, this seems unlikely. Nineteen of the twenty-five professional staff there have worked at Lincoln Ackerman for more than ten years – 14 have credit for 30 years of experience and are at the highest step for compensation and receive the maximum “longevity” bonuses.
No teacher has left the school, other than for retirement, in more than ten years. Equally, on point – academic achievement has declined over that same period, and the District no longer seeks and identifies gifted children, nor standard test achievement “with distinction.”
I will vote against this Warrant in Hampton Falls and ask other taxpayers to vote against it in their Towns.
I reviewed the CBA as well as other agreements for schools in this area and believe the District is misleading taxpayers: the SAU21 salary and benefits schedules have been very competitive with other Districts, and the proposed CBA extends and enriches benefits teachers enjoy, without any reductions, which would reflect economic pressure on taxpayers.
The CBA does not consider the job layoffs and cut-backs ongoing in the private sector and which affect many Town taxpayers. If private employers are not firing employees, they are granting raises approximating 3%, eliminating bonuses, have long had no provisions for defined benefit pension plans, and have reduced employer health benefit contributions. The amended CBA reflects the following:
1. The only reductions in the budgets presented by the District are the result of decreased numbers of students in all schools. The District has not acknowledged this ongoing trend and does not present any awareness of implications for the Towns in the District.
2. The District’s projected salary schedules reflect an increase in total District salary cost of 17% by 2026, at which time it estimates 73% of the credentialed staff will be at the highest step (earning approximately $99,000 per year, not including other annual stipends,) with all of those teachers having advanced degrees and also receiving degree bonuses.
3. Stipends schedule:
• Activities bonuses previously fixed (currently $800- $1,723) for three years; now increase by % salary increase each year; will range from $842 to $1,958 for clubs like jump roping and $3,896 for elementary athletics. High school athletics and clubs bonuses are higher.
• Advanced degree bonuses (currently $1,700 – 2100) increase annually at a percentage salary increase rate; maximum for Master’s equivalent will be $2,083; for Ph.D. $2,410.
4. Sick leave days increased from 12 days to 15; cumulative to 120 days.
5. Longevity bonuses:
• 10-year bonus ($550) added at the top step;
• 15 and 20-year bonuses increased: range from $2,369 at 15 years in 2023 to a maximum at 20 years in 2026 $2,986. The increase is 7% in 2023, 3% in 2024, 2.5% in 2025, and 2026; the cumulative increase is 16%. The contract increase in the CBA ending in 2023 was 8%.
6. From 2023 on, employees who do not use personal days in any year will be paid up to 300% of the rate paid to the substitute daily rate (budgeted at $110/ day.) Under this provision, Schools will pay more than the cost of the substitute if an employee does not use personal days.
7. Health insurance benefits remain generous and are increased: taxpayers pay 79-96% of plan costs and make contributions of $1,500 (single) to $3,000 (family) to employee Health Savings Accounts; dental maximum benefits were increased, and there are no deductibles nor co-pays.
8. All of the increased components of compensation are included in calculating pensions’ benefits at retirement. Employees will contribute 14% to that State plan, while taxpayers will contribute 19%. It’s not clear from the language in the Warrant whether additional compensation is reflected in the proposed increases.
Many tax-paying working parents in Hampton Falls will question the automatic salary, and benefits increases for school personnel requested in the Warrant article while they wonder if their own jobs will be secure in 2023-2026. They have not forgotten that no school staff lost jobs during the time the State locked down its economy, and businesses were closed for months, some permanently. In light of the long tenure of LAS staff, it seems unlikely the School is at risk for losing teachers who seek higher salaries elsewhere.
Diane Martin Hampton Falls
Note: Lightly edited and reformatted from the original.
