The Lisbon Education Association released their opening proposal to the Lisbon School District Wednesday, April 19.
Meejin Kramer spoke on behalf of the association, with several other teachers present.
“We live in a state where defunding education, the movement of taxpayer money to private schools and tax reform continue to make succeeding as a small school district difficult,” Kramer said. “We continue to face a teacher shortage, and an even greater substitute shortage. Filling positions with quality employees and the retention of these employees are high concerns of not only you, the board, but the Association, Lisbon staff and the families within our district.”
Kramer said that over the last three years, Lisbon has lost nearly 20 percent of the certified staff, not due to retirement. Many of those noted monetary reasons were an issue, receiving higher salaries at other districts or not making enough at Lisbon.
“We cannot continue to lose veterans teachers’ knowledge and guidance,” Kramer said. “It disrupts student relationships, content delivery consistency and curriculum vertical alignment knowledge.”
Kramer noted that the district has high expectations, hard work and constant improvement, and that shows in the growth of students’ test scores on Iowa School Performance Profiles and other assessments, as well as the culture within the district.
Kramer said that the 10 schools in the Tri-Rivers Conference and five neighboring local school districts negotiate and document with permissive language. Among those 15 schools, 73 percent of the districts include a negotiated salary schedule within bargaining. Fifty percent of those districts have a higher base pay than Lisbon.
“We are at a pivotal point,” Kramer said. “We need to invest in our people so that the work, time commitment and dedication that every one of us have put in continues to breed success.”
The LEA was asking the handbook be put into a contract where the school and LEA negotiate all language and wages within. They were also asking that a salary schedule be reintroduced to the contract.
“The Consumer Price Index is still soaring at 6.0 percent,” Kramer said. “Financial burdens continue to affect our community, including our staff. Many employees have had to supplement Lisbon School salaries with other sources of income.”
The education association wants the base hiring salary ($32,292) to be the same as employees base salary (now $31,200). The opening is a salary increase of 5 percent. The LEA also wants payroll to move to twice a month, as opposed to the current monthly contract.