ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / September 25, 2000

RESERVE – After nearly six months of negotiation, the St. John theBaptist Parish School Board and the St. John Association ofEducators have finally reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract. The new contract was unanimously ratified by the schoolboard Thursday.

Felix Boughton, executive director of Business and Finance, and a school board negotiator informed the board the agreement was reached Tuesday night. He also asked that the board ratify theagreement.

Annette Houston, president of the SJAE, told the board, “It was a difficult negotiation, but not intense, and we also ask the board to ratify the contract.”The new labor contract is for three years and expires at 11:59 p.m. June 30, 2003.Most of the contract remain unchanged from the former agreement.

However, there is one major change, that is that all members of the SJAE will get a 3 percent raise.

For teachers this means that a beginning teacher with a bachelor of arts degree and no experience will start out at $25,206.16, anincrease of $734 per year.

However, not all school system employees were happy with the contract.

Wendy Boldizar, a social worker who appraises student performance for the school system, tried to address the board over what she considered inequities with workers like her. She was rebuffed byboard president Gerald Keller, who told her she could only talk about whether the contract should or should not be ratified.

Keller told Boldizar that being a member of the SJAE she was not considered part of the public and could not air her objections.

Boldizar later said that like all the rest of the SJAE employees, she and other social workers were getting a 3 percent raise.

However, she said the contract covered everybody and extended the contract to people with 30 or more years of service, except for the pupil appraisal workers.

“There is no incentive in the contract for us to keep working in the system,” said Boldizar.

A 17-year veteran with the St. John School System, Boldizar feels employees with her qualifications and degrees should get more reason to stay for 30 years.

“We are the ones with the advanced degrees and the experience,” said Boldizar.

Another group that did not feel they were represented fairly were the school nurses.

Pam Porcieau, a registered nurse at East St. John High School,felt the SJAE had not represented the school nurses fairly.

Even though the nurses got an 8 percent raise, Porcieau sid it is not what they asked for.

“Don’t get us wrong, we appreciate the raise,” said Porcieau, “but we feel we deserve teachers’ pay.”According to Porcieau, even with the 8 percent raise the school nurses will still be making 20 to 30 percent less than what teachers make in St. John Parish.”We are licensed and certified like teachers,” Porcieau said, “and we have to get recertified every year, unlike the teachers, so I think we should get paid the same.”Plus, she said nurses are also teaching and instructing other teachers and students on how to do certain medical procedures.

“We have more and more students with special needs,” argued Porcieau, “and we are the only ones that can provide these services.”She said there are students who are diabetic and need special inhalation therapy and other procedures that only nurses can provide.

“People need to know what we do before they negotiate for us,” said Porcieau. “Forty-eight other parishes pay their nurses ateacher salary, and we are asking for what 48 other parishes give their school nurses.”The school nurses are so upset over the contract that Porcieau said they do not want to be represented by the SJAE. Some timethis week the nurses will file a grievance with the school board stating that they were not represented fairly in the contract negotiations.

Porcieau said Superintendent Chris Donaldson has agreed to listen to a presentation by the nurses that will show exactly what a school nurse does every day.

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