By adopting a take-it-or-leave-it negotiating strategy, they've refused to acknowledge years of concessions made by teachers to help cut costs district wide. In fact, Superintendent Greg Baracy refuses to even acknowledge that there have been any savings at all.
The truth is that the teachers have saved the district over $10 million during the last contract. That represents around 8% of the school system's annual budget.
In the last contract, more than 60% of the district's teachers agreed to pay cuts of $3,000 a year for each of the next twelve years.
That's twelve years of future pay cuts, on top of the decade of stagnant salaries that preceded it. Now thanks to those give-backs, Wayne Westland's starting salaries are $6,000 less than neighboring districts. Indeed, Wayne Westland ranks near the bottom of all districts in Wayne County. (you can look it up).
To help the district financially, teachers also agreed to a doubling of medical co-pays and to ever cheaper health care packages.
All this adds up to significant savings for the district.
Baracy should stop being so mean-spirited and take negotiations seriously.
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