An agreement was announced Friday that may pave the way for teachers to each receive $625 originally proposed by County Executive David Craig as a one-time employee bonus. Randy Cerveny, president of the Harford County Education Association representing teachers, sent a message to members Friday saying that the Harford County Board of Education had agreed to enter into negotiations over the bonus funds beginning on Feburary 1, and that he was hopeful the matter would be quickly resolved. Cerveny later declined to speculate as to the outcome of the negotiations.
Teri Kranefeld, manager of communications for Haford County Public Schools confirmed the agreement, saying that the union had accepted the school board’s offer extended in November to negotiate the funds. Asked whether the negotiations could determine whether the money would be considered a one-time bonus or part of teachers’ base pay, Kranefeld wrote in an email, “The Board understands that HCEA has agreed to negotiate the disbursement of the one-time funds. “ Kranefeld also said that any agreement reached between the school board and the union was dependent upon the approval of Harford County Executive David Craig and the County Council.
After proposing a one-time bonus for all county employees in October, County Executive David Craig later vetoed the funding for the teacher bonuses in reaction to a plan by the union to ask the Maryland Public Labor Relations Board to consider the bonus money as a potential source of increases to teachers’ base pay in pending labor renegotiations. As a result of Craig’s veto, the bonus was not paid to the 3,200 school employees represented by the teachers union but was paid in December to other school staff and to all other county employees.
Cerveny said Friday that the new agreement to negotiate the one-time bonus money was separate from the union’s case still pending before the Labor Board, which involves the teachers’ contract for the 2-11-12 school year.
Below is the message Cerveny sent to HCEA members on Friday, January 27, 2012:
“HCEA Victory
HCPS has agreed to negotiate the one-time payment from the County Council without jeopardizing our position with the Labor Board. HCEA and the school system plan to enter into negotiations on February 1, 2012 and hope to settle the matter quickly. I am glad that the school system is willing to uphold the collective bargaining law and work to do what’s right for our teachers.
Negotiating this funding is an important part of doing what’s right for our county by investing in our schools and children’s future. We must ensure that Harford County is competitive with neighboring school systems so that we can recruit and retain the outstanding educators that our children deserve.”
HCEA Victory???????
LOLOL….. what a clown!!
Teachers want a pay increase, steps that have been ignored, as well as longevity increases that employees have earned. We are already hearing that the budget numbers are dismal and no increases are planned. This school system needs to make cuts in the Central Office. We have become very top heavy. Time to eliminate Instructional Facilitators on all levels, elementary and secondary. This position is just a means of support for principals. This county did fine without this position, earning 92,500 per year. And then review the list of “Teacher specialists”. It it time to trim down and still meet the needs of students. If no increase is given, the teachers will need to work their duty day and no more. The county found the money to give speech pathologists I-Pads….money came from?????
Oh, shut up! HCEA victory, indeed. Thank you, Mr. Craig, for thinking of us. Our fearless union “leader” is more interested in getting credit for something than having us receive a cash mini-windfall.
Throughout this process two things have been clear:
1. HCEA is led by bumbling fools.
2. The union cares more about the wellbeing of the union than the wellbeing of teachers.
I anxiously await the email from HCEA after we receive our bonus claiming victory… The “victory” being that we receive the exact same thing that we should have had before Christmas had it not been for the ineptitude of the union.
Dismayed….might you suggest what central office positions you would cut? That suggestion is always thrown around, but it is never followed up with where those cuts would take place.
We could start with the county curriculum specialists. Remember LCW? It was the brainchild of the head of social studies for the county. The head of English for the county changes her mind on what’s “important” in the curriculum every other year (in 2005, reading was paramount. She downplayed the role of writing and grammar instruction. Three years later, it was all about writing, and she ordered hundreds of new books that nobody uses). The “curriculum specialists” don’t do anything that couldn’t be better accomplished by the department chairs. In fairness, some of these specialists (special education is the first that comes to mind) serve a valuable purpose.
As for other jobs that can be removed from central admin, it’s more about streamlining responsibilities. HCPS has far too many 6-figure salary employees with absurdly narrow job descriptions. What they do is important, but it shouldn’t be the ONLY thing they do. Merge some of these positions (the teachers are routinely asked to do more for less, while the central admin keeps getting more in exchange for less work).
Don’t stop there–Take the purge to the school level. As a previous poster said, get rid of Instructional Facilitators. They do nothing that can’t be done by the principal. While we’re at it, get rid of the remaining “Mentor Teachers.” Mentoring young teachers is a job for the chair and veteran members of each department (and this is how mentoring works in practice. The official “mentors” don’t really do much). Finally, be practical about the number of administrators needed in each building. A school like Joppatowne or Fallston (based on factors such as size of the school, discipline issues to be addressed, etc) might need a principal and three AP’s, but a school like North Harford? Havre de Grace? Do they really need FOUR administrators?
There are literally millions of dollars wasted for no other reason than to make every school seem like it gets the same. Spend the money intelligently, and you’d be surprised how much you can do WITHOUT increasing the money going into the system.
I’ve gotta say…I’m extremely disappointed at the low number of responses to this one. I came here for my Saturday evening entertainment and was expecting hellfire and brimstone on this one.
I think its quite simple really, the HCEA Union Leader tried to politicize this as some sort of contractual package. This was a one time bonus from a surplus that taxpayers as a whole paid into. The Union Leader tried to taken an inch a mile and got burned. I would thank your lucky stars the county and Executive Craig, despite the shenanigans, was willing to be open about it again.
As I said this was the Union Leader trying to pull this fast one, not saying all teachers were in the same boat, but when you have a union make this move it speaks for all of its members. So no there’s no excitement on my part because I think it was just a game of chicken where HCEA went off into a ditch and the Executive and County was nice enough to bring a tow truck afterwards.
Be patient. Usually a little more chum in the water will entice the sharks to bite. It is often very entertaining although somewhat disturbing.
I think since the story broke on the weekend we are missing out. When it breaks at during the week all the private sector folks visit on their many breaks at work.
That’s right, Cdev, those lazy private sector workers are what’s really driving this economy into the ground. Sheesh!
I never said lazy…..you did!
Oh, OK, so should I interpret “on their many breaks at work” to mean “differently motivated” or “well-rested”?
Victory? HCEA sees the handwriting on the wall and caves. To bad in the process the union leadership destroys all relationships with the local government and creditbility with it’s own members.
Central positions???
That office has more than tripled in 7 years… When they were at the little tiny building on main street everything seemed to be running just fine but in 7 years they have a building the size of a city block and at least a hundred employees. Quit wasting money on things like whiteboards (glorified over head projectors) surround sound in each room, Instructional facilitators, teacher mentors (complete joke of a job), 3 new assistant supers who this joker Tombak hired (100k a piece) and that is just the tip of the iceberg… SO much could be saved Bob Frisch found 12 million in waist in last years budget on his own I’m sure much more could be found if we just thought logically. Central office is more like the federal government every day with spend spend spend and no trimming except for employee pay.
To be fair the building did not increase the employees. Many of the employees where already there simply located atmultiple facilities and now they are centerally located in one place.
Furthermore the jobs you cited did not come around in the last 7 years……they had been there long before.
Just because the new building is larger than the old does not mean the number of employees has tripled. The building on Courtland St brought together several departments that were spaced out all over downtown Bel Air. Most of the academic offices operated inside storefronts on main street, as well as human resources. Having all those departments under one roof was a no brainer. So to say the staff has tripled over the last 7 years is inaccurate.
Sorry CDEV, I was typing my response while your’s was posting 🙂
Is that the same Bob Frisch that wanted to add 3 1/2 positions to middle schools to start foreign language programs last budget? And then when he was voted down, he said “IF NOT… WHEN”…. and then he repeated …. several times. Don’t say it did not happen. I was there !!!
There is a difference in spending money on positions that actually serve an educational purpose (middle school foreign language teachers) and spending money on more bloated central administration positions. Particularly once you consider that you could basically add a middle school foreign language department for just about the same money that is being wasted on ONE of these new asst. supers.
You are absolutely correct and my position on this matter has not changed. I believe in equality of opportunity for all children attending Harford County middle schools. Where you live should not mean you are deprived of programs offered to others. You should also recall that the additional 3 1/2 foreign language teacher positions I proposed was virtually budget neutral after my successful amendment to eliminate almost $250,000 in certain AP test expenses proposed by the administration.
Interesting that Baltimore County has managed to maintain the integrity of their contracts through all this while we have not… As for the wasted positions, no one can argue the number of non-educational positions that are hogging salary in this county. The ratio of employee to students in our county is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-1 while the number of students in many classes is 30.
Why not propose a 10% cut in all departments to be equitable? That would be a good place to start and see how HCPS can meet the needs of the students with this reduction in upper management.
The county definitely needs to get rid of IF’s. Making almost 100,000 each for what a principal and assistant principal should be doing is a joke. The county could save money by getting rid of IF’s and mentors. Each grade level(elementary) could have their team leader be the mentor. Pay each grade level leader an extra 1,000 or 2,000 a year for the extra work. They are the ones who are there every single day with the same kids. Not even going to begin with the “specialist” in central office!
One to two thousand is not enough of a pay adjustment for the increase in workload you are suggesting. When you want classroom teachers to be team leaders and mentors and replace the duties of the IF, then when are they supposed to teach? When would they do their own planning and grading and duties?
I had the same thought. One of ideas of Tomback is to have the department chairs take on some of the responsibilities of the IFs and complete observations on the teachers in their department. Well, when are the department chairs going to teach their own classes, grade papers, plan?
Do we really NEED team leaders, “mentors” and IF’s? I started 15 years ago when the curriculum was basically one page long total, and no one was there to “mentor” me other than the members of my department and the administration. I survived and thrived without any of this “support.” I would be hard pressed to explain to you how any of the newly created “positions” are helping me now. Most of us at my school sincerely wonder what they DO. I am sure there are examples of how they help, but I haven’t heard any.
What about the expense of a trip to China- the COST of reorganizing the department chairs which functioned just fine at my school for the last 15 years as they were. What about the cost of Performance Matters and exhausting and over-done county tests? Benchmarks?
There is a lot that could be cut without actually affecting the morale or the quality of the teachers in the classroom- a lot that could be cut that would keep HCPS competitive with surrounding counties and able to recruit the best and brightest- How many assistant super-intendents do we need??? And what are they doing that supports ME- the classroom teacher- and my students!!!!!!!!????? I can tell you- from my perspective-honestly, not much.
It will be a shame for the students of HCPS if the morale continues to decline, or if teachers choose work to rule and give up all the extras they do now. It will be a real shame to see these sacrifices especially when the upper-eshelon continue to profit and make poor decisions- all to the detriment of our kids.
That’s just it–In many (most) of the schools, it’s the department veterans (not always just the chair) who do these things anyways. I WAS mentored–not by the “mentor teacher” and not in any formal, artificial way–but I was definitely mentored when I started my career. After a few years, I was one of the ones mentoring the first year teachers in my department.
The mentor teachers, Instructional Facilitators, County Content Specialists and on and on have titles, but they aren’t needed. The things called for in their job descriptions are and always have been accomplished within each department.
As for Tomback’s plan to pattern HCPS’ department chairs after Baltimore County, that’s one of the very few things I’ve actually agreed with him on. Basically, Department Chairs would teach a half load (it might be a 2/3rds load–I don’t remember which), and they spend the extra periods observing their department and playing the role of a department-level IF. When I taught in HCPS, I wasn’t observed by someone in my content area ONCE in the half-decade I was there. What kind of feedback can a Music teacher offer an Math teacher (or vice-versa)?
Team leaders in the elementary school wouldn’t do the jobs of the IF’s…that’s the principal’s job…or the “specialists” in the county can do professional developments. As a teacher, my mentor did nothing for me. Mentors might only be in a school one day a week…team leaders are there every day with the new teachers. For a couple extra thousand…heck even 3-4 thousand I would do it!!
Interesting that HCEA’s email never mentions the County Executive. Whether or not you like him or like the bonus proposal, the whole thing was his idea.
Where’s Burbey? Licking his wounds?
Spend wisely that was spot on! No one knows what those positions do because for at least half the day they are in their office on the phone or emailing or shopping online… Nevermind the six figure salaries at central…
OUTSTANDING!!! It only took 5 comments before this conversation went COMPLETELY off topic from what the original post was about. Gotta love this site for pure entertainment value!!
Randy Cerveny all my his little self manages to stop Harford County teachers from getting a bonus a few months ago and now when it looks like they are going to get it anyway because of the huge backlash against him professionally and personally he claims “HCEA VICTORY”??? That is so hilarious that I can’t find words to describe it. If any teacher votes to keep this guy or the HCEA they deserve whatever they get which will be some variation of absolutely nothing. In fact, thanks to the current governor, a guy that many of the teachers and absolutely the HCEA supports, is now going to give them a royal thumping by transferring the financial obligation for pensions formerly funded by the state to the school board. So, teachers, would you rather have a raise or have the local school board fund their new pension obligation? O’Malley only loves you when its time for your union to fund his campaign and urge you to vote for him. And he definitely won’t respect you in the morning. Why would he? You guys are so easy.