Are we really doing this?! Seriously?
State law says that teacher salaries have to be uniform once education and experience are taken into account, but a union can nonetheless negotiate an agreement that departs from this in part. The Trona Unified School District negotiated a deal that paid all its teachers $2000/year extra if the teacher had a master's degree. The deal was also retroactive; teachers were paid the extra amounts for the two years prior to the finalization of the deal.
Fair enough. No problem.
But the school district refused to pay six particular teachers with master's degrees who had quit by the time the deal was ratified. They sued, saying that this violated state law, since they were then paid less than equally qualified and experienced teachers who taught during those same years.
What's at stake? "If applied to the Former Teachers retroactively, the CBA would have resulted in additional pay for each of the Former Teachers in amounts ranging from about $5,000 to $9,000."
Six total teachers. Roughly seven grand each. So you're looking at $40,000 or so total.
But no. Rather than pay the teachers for the good work they did, the District (1) defends the lawsuit (and prevails), and then (2) defends the appeal -- and loses.
Which undoubtedly resulted in spending far more on lawyers then the teachers were ever asking for the in the first place.
Now, I'm a lawyer. I love it when lawyers get paid more than teachers. I think that society would be much better off if virtually all of the money paid to teachers was instead paid to lawyers tasked with making sure that teachers got paid as little as humanly possible.
(Sarcasm alert)
Just pay the six teachers the seven grand or so. Why, why, why waste the money on a lawsuit? Even if you're right -- and, here, you're actually wrong -- it's still not a beneficial allocation of resources.
To the six former teachers at Trona who prevailed and learned today that they'll get the extra money -- Michael Lane, Valerie Gennrich, Yesenia Goins, Tyson LoPresti, Cindy Winks, and Joseph Wolfe -- here's what I have to say:
Kudos to you. Thanks for all the great work you've done on behalf of the kids in the district. Enjoy the extra couple of bucks. You deserve it.
