ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / November 10, 1999

RESERVE – There was good news and bad news for employees of the St.

John Parish public school system at Monday’s special school board meeting.

On the plus side, the board voted to pay 100 percent of the employees’ health benefits, including for family members, and the employees will be getting a raise. Teachers’ aides, cooks, bus drivers, janitors, secretariesand clerks will get a 2 percent raise, and teachers will get a 3 percent hike.

On the negative side, employees’ co-payments for doctor’s visits and prescription drugs has increased by over 40 percent and the raise is a one- time event.

The special meeting was originally called to deal with the issue of re- negotiating a health insurance package with Southeast Medical Alliance, but Superintendent Chris Donaldson’s proposal for a one-time, across the board 2 percent pay raise for school employees was also included in the agenda.

The school system’s contract with SMA is due to expire at the end of the year, and the insurance committee, headed by board member Dowie Gendron, was asked to look into other insurance plans.

The committee, after reviewing seven insurance plans, recommended the board re-new its contract with SMA even though there will be an increase in premiums and co-payments. Gendron further moved that the schoolboard absorb all the costs of the health benefits, including that for an employee’s family. This would amount to over $1.37 million that theschool board would pay.

The board’s insurance agent, Wayne Francingues, said that even though there will be cost increases this is the first time in four years that SMA has increased premiums.

“At some point in time, we had to raise premiums in order to curb costs,” said Francingues.

He said part of the reason the costs are rising is because so many school employees were not using the doctors in the SMA network and that increased SMA’s cost to the consumer.

“We want the get people to use doctors that are in our network, ” Francingues explained. “We have to pay more for non-network doctors.”With the board mulling over the proposal to absorb the entire cost of health insurance, Donaldson again proposed his one-time 2 percent pay raise and said the health benefits would help out the employees.

Donaldson requested that Felix Boughton, director of Business Operations, explain to the board and a meeting room packed with teachers and other employees why there couldn’t be a recurring salary raise at this time.

With several charts, Boughton showed that with state funding St. Johnschools are operating with a $4 million budget for the school year 1999- 2000. With the increase in the health care benefits, a projected $1 milliondollar decrease in sales tax revenues, plus $400 thousand expenditure in a state-mandated summer remediation program for students who fail the LEAP test, the school system will be left with $1.53 million to start offthe 2000-20001 year.

However, that $1.53 million coupled with the same projected statefunding, lower tax revenues, rising health insurance costs and employee step raises would shrink very fast, and by the end of 2001 the school system would be operating with a $300,000 deficit.

Boughton said that with the school board paying for health insurance, the employees would be getting more of a benefit because their checks would be bigger. With a 2 percent raise and no health insurance premiums beingtaken out of their checks, the final result would equate to a 4 percent increase.

School board member James Madere said he was not happy with the new insurance plan. He felt the 310 employees without families were beingdiscriminated against. “Nobody is picking up the difference for thesepeople, and they are not getting the same benefits,” said Madere. “I cannotvote for this motion.”The motion passed 10-1 with Madere voting against re-newing the SMA contract.

The pay raise was again introduced by Donaldson, and board president Richard DeLong opened the floor to public discussion.

Employees and teachers were not happy with the raise and several of them were very upset because principals and other administrators were given a “salary adjustment” earlier in the year that resulted in a gain of several thousand dollars a year.

Vondell Sylvan, a special education teaching aide at East St. JohnElementary, asked the board, “When do we get our salary adjustment? We are the lowest paid employees in the parish. I only make $800 a month.”Donaldson assured Sylvan the administration is working on a plan to get more money for the teacher’s aides.

A 10-year veteran teacher’s aide Gloria Alexander, who works at the Glade School, told of her suffering under such low pay.

“I am literally on that front line,” she told the board. “I have been cartedoff twice by ambulance after trying to break up fights among students.

When do I get my pay raise?” A teacher who didn’t identify herself and has taught in St. John Parish for28 years, summed up the employees’ feelings when she said, “They expect us to smile when they throw us these small tidbits, yet they expect miracles in the classroom. I’m not surprised by this, just verydisappointed.””I think an injustice has been done here,” said an angry Herman Clayton, president of the St. John Association of Employees. “Employees have bittenthe bullet while others have gotten a pay raise. You can call it anadjustment or whatever you want, but it is a pay raise. The front linefighters should get a substantial raise.”Debra Schum, principal of East St. John High School, defended the salaryadjustment given to the principals.

“Our salary does not reflect the extra amount of days that principals have taken on,” argued Schum. “We now work 12 months a year, not 11, andunlike teachers we do not get raises commensurate with continuing education.”Board member Matthew Ory insisted the system has to get more certified teachers into the schools.

“I agree that the administration is getting raises and not the teachers. Theonly way we can get certified teachers is through more money,” he said.

Ory then made a substitute motion to give employees a 2 percent raise and teachers a 3 percent raise.

However, board member C.J. Watkins took issue with Ory’s assessment ofthe situation.

“We had all certified teachers four years ago, ” Watkins stated, “and our test scores were still low. Certified teachers are not the answer toaccountability.”Watkins suggested the administration and employees have to get together and really promote a new millage election. Watkins said that is the onlyway to solve this problem. He then asked the SJAE what plan it wanted.Clayton responded by saying he would not be put in that position. The SJAEaccepted the superintendent’s plan, not because the employees like it, but because if they didn’t accept it they wouldn’t get anything at all.

“I put the ball back in the board’s court,” said Clayton. “You make thedecision.”Board member Leroy Mitchell thought the original resolution of a 2 percent raise for everybody was a good one.

“I think the proposal is fair,” Mitchell said to the employees. “We arecutting things to the bone here. We are being very liberal with theinsurance, and I will not vote for the substitute motion.”The substitute motion passed 7-3 with Mitchell, Madere and John Crose voting against it.

Madere thinks there is only one way out of this situation.

“People have got to stick together and get a millage passed,” he said.

Return To News Stories