Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott teachers oppose policy changes

Teachers with the Prescott School District voiced their opposition to proposed policy changes.

This was done at the March 16 meeting of the Prescott School Board, which was moved to the lobby of Prescott High School to handle the crowd of about 100 people. Donna Smith, a science teacher at PHS, spoke for the Personnel Policy Committee (PPC).

The proposed policy, she said, was presented to certified employees, who apparently didn't like the idea.

The staff, she said, voted 77-2 against the proposed changes and preferred to keep the current policies in place. The staff's concern, she said, was about five unpaid days per year, the loss of personal days and fewer sick days each year, along with the loss of retirement benefits the district currently provides and the elimination of the existing bereavement policy.

"We recommend the board rescind this policy," she said, "keep the current manual with state mandates and table the salary schedule until the masters decide of it meets court standards."

Under the proposed changes, Smith said, some of the teachers would be making less money per day and this isn't right.

Kay Hendrix, board president, said the PPC needs to give Prescott Superintendent Hyacinth Deon specific information to be brought before the board at its April meeting.

On Thursday, March 18, Deon explained why the changes were suggested in the first place. To begin with, the district has lost more than $500,000 in revenue in the last two years and is in danger of being in fiscal distress.

Budget cuts were made for the 2003-2004 academic year, and the district has avoided purchasing large items, along with dropping the dental coverage. In addition, staff has been reassigned to avoid having to hire new instructors who resign or retire.

Part of the reason for the fiscal distress, Deon said, is because of the $3,000 raise the state required after it was promised by Gov. Mike Huckabee, but never funded. This meant school districts had to funnel money from their operating budget to cover the salary increases.

The priority, she said, is to meet the new mandated salary requirements, keep as many current staff members as possible and avoid fiscal distress for the district.

Under the new mandated salary schedule, there are 15 step increases for teachers with bachelor and master degrees. A teacher with no experience and a BA degree must be paid $27,500, while a person with a master's and no experience will receive $31,625.

At the end of the 15th year, the teacher with the BA will be earning $34,250, while the one with the MA would be making $39,125. These salaries are based on a 190 day contract.

Prescott's existing policy for sick days is to give each employee 12 per year, or one a month. The Arkansas School Board Association (ASBA) model suggests reducing this to nine, and cutting the number of personal days to two. Prescott currently offers three. The ASBA policy eliminates grieving days, the sick leave bank and accumulation of the 35 percent of the daily rate times accumulated sick days.

Under the new salary schedule, Deon said, all teachers from Kindergarten through the sixth grade are to receive $500 for classroom supplies.

The portion of teacher's retirement paid by the district is currently 12 percent. However, under the new mandate, it rose to 13 percent for the current year and will be 14 percent for the 2004-2005 school year. In addition, the school districts have been mandated to fund the T-drop program for retired teachers at 1 percent a year until it reaches 14 percent.

Another added unfunded expense mandated by the state during the recent special session was to restrict teachers on non-instructional duty, such as monitoring children during recess. Each teacher is to have no more than 60 minutes of non-instructional duty per week. This, Deon said, means the district will have to hire extra people to do what amounts to babysitting the students.

On top of this, she said, the district's operating fund has been cut by 14 percent.

Pearl Bailey, president of the Prescott District Educational Association (PDEA), lauded the efforts of the Read Across America program recently held. She said the PDEA would like to have a Read Across America parade next year to get the program kicked off.

"Reading is the major concern in the classroom," Bailey said.

This was Bailey's last meeting as the PDEA's president, as officer elections will be held in April and she is stepping down from the post.

Deon said it's time for the district to do some asbestos planning, as it has no district representative. The board approved naming Roy Hodges, maintenance supervisor, as the district's asbestos representative. While on the topic, it was pointed out asbestos was found in the floor of the old field house, which is to be razed for a new building.

The asbestos must be removed by certified personnel, and Deon recommended hiring ASIS of Malvern to do the job. The asbestos removal and razing of the field house has been scheduled to be done during Spring Break.

The audit report, Deon said, came out well, with only one discrepancy, which has been corrected.

According to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee's report, there were unauthorized disbursements with the McRae Middle School's activity account. The report stated travel reimbursements for July 1, 2002 through Oct. 17, 2003, totaling $1,401 were made to former MMS Principal James Gober, who was also the account custodian. These disbursements, the report states, did not have documented approval from the superintendent as required by the board for approved travel.

The report stated Gober also received $384 for July 1-19, 2003 on duplicated invoices, and reportedly submitted falsified invoices for expense reimbursements in the amount of $297.

Gober, though, did reimburse the district $20082 on Dec. 17, 2003, for all unauthorized disbursements.

The committee found the district has inadequate control over cash transactions.