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On February 22, 2010, the Idaho School Board Association (ISBA) wrote a response to Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, expressing frustration of a report the Idaho Department of Education released to the Idaho Legislature, concerning Teacher pay increases.
To fully understand and clarify this issue, the District is posting this letter for the benefit of it’s employees and patrons.
February 22, 1010
Superintendent Tom Luna
State Department of Education
PO Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720-0027
Dear Superintendent Luna:
I am writing on behalf of the 560 plus Idaho School Board trustees in Idaho to express our disappointment and frustration with the release of the report your staff prepared on administrator and teacher salaries.
As I am sure you are aware, your report was released the evening before 200 attendees of the Idaho School Boards Association (ISBA) Day on the Hill were set to arrive in the Capitol. While our trustees had hoped to discuss issues of concern in their local districts with their legislators, they were instead forced to discuss the findings in your report. For me personally, I learned of the report at 7:00 a.m. Friday morning when we met with Senator Goedde and discussed its legal conclusions at length.
I know that you and your staff work with our Executive Director, Karen Echeverria, on an almost daily basis during the legislative session. Yet, she was not made aware that your office was compiling the report or that it would be released the day before Day on the Hill. The timing of that release left her and all our trustees embarrassed and in an incredibly difficult position. There are those in our organization who believe the report was purposely released at that time in an attempt to embarrass the trustees in Idaho. I choose to believe otherwise.
Furthermore, statistics, without explanation, can be interpreted in many ways. While we understand that you certainly have the right to do so, the fact that the report was released without notifying us, or giving us the opportunity to respond is incredibly disappointing. Again, there are those who believe the report was not discussed with us in an attempt to further your personal requests for line items in the budget and to prevent trustees from receiving the flexibility we still hope to receive. In the end, we believe that had we been given the opportunity to discuss the report with you and/or your staff prior to its release, we could have all been saved a lot of time, explanation, embarrassment, and misinterpretation of the facts.
During the remainder of last Thursday and part of Friday, trustees were able to help legislators understand that we have a statutory obligation to pay teachers both education and experience movement on the grid, despite the fact that experience was not funded by the legislature last year. It was clear that legislators understood our dilemma and the reason for seeing increases in teacher’s salaries last year.
Most of our explanation to legislators about teacher increases centered on an interpretation of Section 33-515, Idaho Code. During our discussion with you, Senator Goedde, and other education stakeholders on Friday morning, it was clear that there was an interpretation by a member of your staff that school districts are not required to pay increases to teachers for movement on the grid. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I hope you now understand that all education stakeholders believe that interpretation to be inaccurate. We would encourage you to discuss this interpretation with your attorney general or any attorney who has extensive experience in education law. If you recall, you asked “What gives them the right?” Please remember that the language of 33-515(3) is contained within a continuing contract that is mandated by the SDE. As I said on Friday, the right flows directly from contract.
Your report also showed administrator’s raises as well. There seems to be some misconception that administrators include only superintendents. In fact, administrators also include principals. Once again, had we had the opportunity to discuss this report with you, we could have explained that your report only included part of the story. For instance, in one or our school districts, the Superintendent chose to not fill two administrator positions in his district. In doing so, he gave a remaining administrator an increase in salary to compensate him for taking over the responsibilities of the other two administrators. So, while your report states some data correctly, there was an increase to that administrator, the report does not show that two other administrators are no longer on the payroll resulting in a cost savings to the district. We have similar stories in all of our school districts.
Superintendent Luna, as we try to find our way through these tough economic times, it becomes even more important that we work through these issues together, not be fragmented or alone, and certainly not without discussing the issues with each other. One of the first lessons I learned as a board member was not to ask the embarrassing question of staff without giving them a heads up. For trustees, the timing of the release of your report could not have been worse. Add that to the fact that we were not given any opportunity to review or discuss the report with us prior to its release has caused us great concern.
We would respectfully ask that, in the future, you take the time to discuss, or at least notify us, of any issues or reports that could have a negative impact on education in Idaho prior to releasing such information. We would also ask that you consider the timing of such releases. And, finally, before releasing or discussing legal interpretations of any education law, we would ask that you rely on the opinion of an attorney familiar with education law rather than a member of your staff.
We appreciate your careful consideration of our concerns and requests.
Respectully,
Mark Moorer
Vice President, ISBA
Chairman, Governmental Affairs Committee
Cc: Robin Nettinga, Executive Director, Idaho Education Association
Wayne Davis, Executive Director, Idaho Association of School Administrators
John Goedde, Chairman, Senate Education Committee
Bob Nonini, Chairman, House Education Committee
House Majority Leadership
House Minority Leadership
Senate Majority Leadership
Senate Minority Leadership
ISBA Membership
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