The SDRC spokesperson has made numerous claims. The claims include "Saving money, raising salaries, reducing administrative costs", and more, all without foundation or substance. Here are some counters for school district employees to consider.
THIS PROPOSAL IS UNLIKELY TO REDUCE ADMINISTRATIVE COST
Some Commission members claim that this proposal will reduce administrative waste. While there may be a small savings within a unified district, there is no guarantee that administrative costs will be reduced. Even if there is one superintendent for the new unified school district, one can be assured there will be a number of associate superintendents that will continue to fill administrative roles. In addition, if the school districts that are joined together due to the unification are forced to fire their current superintendent, there will be a large initial cost to buy-out the superintendent’s contract. This proposal will most likely increase administrative costs in the short-term in order to manage a number of transitional issues from the merging of a new IT system to managing personnel issues.
TEACHERS SALARIES ARE NOT PROTECTED BEYOND THE FIRST YEAR
The newly created school board of a unified district will set the salary schedule. The only protection for teacher’s salaries is that for the first year of operation of the new unified district, a teacher’s base compensation cannot be lower than that earned in the prior year in the previously existing school district. There is no protection that a teacher will receive this amount in year two, three, four, etc. In fact, state law permits the new school board “to implement a reduction in force (RIF) or to scale back salaries of certified teachers, administrators or noncertificated employees for reasons of economy or to improve the efficient conduct of schools within the district” (A.R.S. 15-458).
TEACHERS ARE UNLIKELY TO SEE A PAY INCREASE
The biggest rumor used to try and persuade teachers that this is a good move for education is the claim that elementary school teachers’ salaries will be increased to meet that of their high school counterparts. This is highly unlikely because the legislation that created this proposal contains no money for this purpose. In fact, the only funding available to a newly unified school district is for technical items such as changing a district’s signs and letterhead. The State Legislature appropriated no additional funds to address issues like equalizing the salary schedules within the newly unified district. This will create a bureaucratic nightmare for the new school board; having many different salary schedules and no additional funding to address the disparities between each. Do you really think that with our state and national economic woes there will be money appropriated to equalize salaries?
A POTENTIAL JOB LOSS FOR EDUCATION SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS
If administrative positions are not drastically reduced, and teachers salaries are required to remain the same in the first year, who will be the first to lose their job when budget cuts need to be made? It will be the hard working education support professionals. The first reduction in staff that the new school board will likely enact are the important roles of para-professionals / teacher aides, custodians, librarians, computer technicians, security guards, etc. We've seen this type of budgetary response before. We cannot see it again!