Teachers, board still debating contract
Contract discussions between the Clintonville Education Association (CEA) and the Clintonville Public School District Board of Education resumed June 10.
At the center of the debate is a disagreement over whether or not teachers should be required to teach an additional class during the eight-hour school day. Currently, teachers are required to teach during five of the eight hours. One hour is set aside for prep time, another is for assigned duty such as study hall or in-school suspension, and another is for tutoring students who are in need of extra help.
The Board of Education is seeking contractual language that would require teachers to teach during six of the eight periods, as opposed to the current five. The administration argues that this would be a similar workload to school districts of similar size, and is employing an 'equal work for equal pay' strategy.
Teachers contend that adding an additional hour will be detrimental to the quality of education students receive.
"In the high school especially, it's not so much about preparing as it is about the amount of work generated by students," said CEA Negotiations Team member Kevin Godfrey. "Students create work that we need to evaluate. We feel that if the number of students we instruct during the day increases by 20 percent, something has to give. It could be something like student writing-if the quality and quantity of student writing assignments decreases, then the quality of education diminishes."
Superintendent Tom O'Toole countered by saying that for districts across the state, five teaching hours is usually the bare minimum, with some schools requiring teachers to teach seven or even eight hours.
"I'm surprised they want to bring that issue to the public," O'Toole stated. "They currently teach five 46-minute periods in the day. Anybody doing the math can tell there's lots of other time during their eight hour day.
"I don't want to say our teachers don't work hard, but it's far less comparable to other districts. We're just trying to make things equal with other comparable districts in terms of workload and pay," O'Toole continued.
"Basically, (O'Toole) is pointing to other places that teach six classes," Godfrey stated. "We teach students, not classes. They key, then, is the number of students. If the teachers had some control over the number of students in those proposed six classes, perhaps we could compromise. We can point to smaller districts that teach six classes but still don't teach as many students as we do with just five classes. In places like Tigerton and Bonduel, some teachers teach six classes but only see about 120 kids. In Clintonville, some teachers are already teaching over 120 kids during their five periods each day."
"Anyone can twist and turn data," O'Toole countered. "Tigerton is not comparable in terms of size."
Godfrey said teaching more classes will eventually lead to teachers assigning less work to students in order to be able to keep up with the volume of assignments generated by students.
"If teachers have less and less time to evaluate students' work, they will have to assign less work," Godfrey continued. "Students may then get less practice on necessary skills. Much of their education is skill based, which requires lots of repetition to improve their skills. Fewer assignments means less repetition and decreased quality of education."
O'Toole replied by saying that achievement expectations need to remain high for students.
"I wouldn't like the teachers to lessen their expectations," he commented. "I hope they will hold a high standard regardless of the perceived workload. Even here in Clintonville, some teachers have taught six classes in the past-across various disciplines-and they have never verbalized that they shortchanged the kids."
With arbitration looming, both sides said they are optimistic that a compromise can be reached.
"Even if we do reach a compromise, there will probably still be some staff cut," Godfrey said. "To be perfectly honest, that's quite likely."
"I think there is some middle ground," said O'Toole. "We would love to have a reasonable compromise and get some real ideas on the table. We all want to do what is best for the students. Classes are reducing in size, and we know that there will be staff reductions due to the reducing number of students."
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