Three Cheers for the BASD Bus Drivers!
Oct 13th, 2009 by Randy Toman
Publius II has something to cheer about and these days thats something, see what it is and dare we ask; Whats the matter with the school teachers?
The Bethlehem Area School District (BASD) bus drivers and ACT 93 employees recently struck a very notable pay agreement with the BASD Board. These employees struck a deal of 0% pay increases for the next three years and a 3% pay increase in years four and five. It appears that the combination of a recessionary economy and the troubling financial position of the BASD motivated these employees and the school board to reach a very reasonable agreement for all involved parties, including the tax payer.
The BASD bus drivers, the BASD ACT 93 employees, and the school board should all be very sincerely applauded. This rare example of level-headed and insightful action should be a standard followed in all future school district contract negotiations. This result clearly demonstrates that a reasonable balance can be struck between the interests of school district employees and the community, while not impacting our students.
This is a lesson that the teacher’s union should embrace. During the deliberation at a public BASD board meeting, prior to the recent budget cuts, a citizen provided a common sense alternative that would have avoided any budget cuts, teacher layoffs, or negative impact on students. Unfortunately, the teacher’s union chose to ignore the suggestion. As we all know, the budget was cut. Teachers were laid off, and programs supporting our students were negatively impacted.
What was this simple common sense suggestion that was ignored? Since the BASD employee benefits annual expense line item is over $30M, a relatively minor increase in the expected teacher’s contribution to their benefits would have eliminated the need for any of the almost $3M budget cuts. Anyone other than a member of a public employees union would recognize that this suggestion was reasonable and realistic. It is consistent with common commercial marketplace practices.
The teacher’s union boisterously and disingenuously claimed that their position was the only one that made students a priority. Any objective examination of the facts will determine that the teacher union’s claim is hollow. If students were the priority, the re-design of employee benefits or some other compensation modification would have been implemented.
The unfortunate reality of our school district’s financial position is that we are not out of the woods, yet. It appears that the school board has started to improve our financial position, but it will probably still take years to fully get us out of our current financial mess. It will take sacrifice and cooperation by all school district constituencies to get us through these hard times. The tax payer has already stepped up to the plate and endured tax increases during a recession. Our financial problems can not be solved solely on the backs of the tax payer. Shared sacrifice is the only effective way forward. Next time, let’s hope that the teachers learn from the bus drivers.
Ever wonder why a teacher who is also a school district property owner would continually support school property tax increases? We will discuss that at another time.
Publius II
CC-BASD