TRAVERSE CITY -- Lagging contract negotiations between Traverse City Area Public Schools and its teaching staff took a contentious turn after details of the contract proposals were posted by the school district on the Internet.
TCAPS officials issued a release Friday that a summary of contract proposals from the district and the Traverse City Education Association is available on the district's Web site, after months of statements from school administrators that the district wouldn't negotiate in public.
TCEA president John Scrudato said teachers in the district "are absolutely appalled" that the proposals were made public, and that union representatives filed an unfair labor practice charge over the move. Teachers worked the recently concluded school year without a contract, and the two sides are working on a new three-year deal. The union represents around 640 teachers.
"I thought it was deplorable," Scrudato said Saturday. "This was done to make the teachers look like greedy, foolish people."
TCAPS Superintendent James Feil defended the district's action. He said it was done to clear up "inaccurate" information on the contract proposals that's circulating in the community, and so teachers were clear on the school's bargaining position.
"Unfortunately, sometimes information is getting out to the public that's inaccurate information," Feil said. "This is a matter of everybody dealing with the same information, and that the information is accurate."
School officials last week sent a memorandum to district staff preceding the online posting of the contract details. The memo said the district is facing an $8 to $12 million shortfall for the 2010-2011 school year. It said a 2 percent salary increase proposed by the district, along with salary step increases, is consistent with other employee contracts in the district.
According to the school's Web site, teachers are seeking a 3 percent annual salary increase over three years with step increases. The district also wants teachers to split health insurance benefit increases of up to 10 percent starting in 2010/11, while the union wants the school to absorb those increases.
The two sides also differ on several other items, including class sizes, preparation time, other benefit issues and extracurricular compensation, according to the school's posting.
But Scrudato challenged the district's information. In a memo issued by the union Friday to its membership, officials said the school's 2 percent raise offer includes rollbacks in other areas, and other "erroneous" information.
"There were some errors in what they put out," Scrudato said.
The union memo also urged members to picket the TCAPS Board meeting on June 22.
