Residents Protest Contractual Raises For Teachers

During a town hall meeting jointly held by Garden City's four property owners' associations last night at the high school, residents protested the proposed school budget's cutting of high school JV-B teams and criticized the Garden City Board of Education and district superintendent Dr. Robert Feirsen for not finding innovative ways to save programs.

"Unfortunately what we're not doing is we're not doing things differently. We're doing the same things year in and year out," resident Bob Bolebruch said. "All the school board says is, 'We can't do it.'"

The budget vote will take place May 18 in the Garden City High School gymnasium from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Walter McKenna, president of the Eastern Property Owners' Association, said that the school should have found money in places other than cutting programs.

"To cut [some of these programs] for such a minimal gain didn't seem to make sense to me. In [a budget of] $98 million, we found $55,000 here," he said.

There has been a communication breakdown between residents and those working on the budget. At every budget meeting dating back to January, residents have said that they are unhappy with giving contractually obligated raises to teachers while losing programs for students.

The board and superintendent have responded by saying that they cannot discuss salaries while they are in negotiations, making much of the arguments between the two sides moot.

Colleen Foley, president of the board of education, said the district is working hard to save programs.

"We're a very labor intensive organization. It's hard to come up with a cut that doesn't touch a child in some form," Foley said. "Our intention was to put up a responsible budget… and we're here tonight trying to be as transparent as possible."

In order to change the budget process, residents would have to wait for the end of the negotiating process and then initiate a meeting to discuss the results of the negotiations.

As of now, the district is contractually obligated to provide certain benefits to teachers. These include the rise of district pension contributions from 6.19 percent this year to an estimated 8.8 percent in 2010-11, and a rise in family health insurance costs of nearly $1,000 from this year to next year.

District pension contributions have risen from a low of .43 percent in 2000-01 to an estimated high of 8.8 percent in 2010-11.

"There's always been a limit to the resources that have been provided ... This year, it has been even more of a challenge," Dr. Feirsen said.