Wednesday, September 12, 2012
In its first teachers contract post Act 10, the Elmbrook School Distict and teachers agreed to a 1.5 percent wage increase.
- SCHOOLS
- Lisa Sink
-
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Elmbrook School District teachers will receive 1.5 percent pay raises, slightly less than the maximum 1.64 percent allowed by Act 10, under a collective bargaining agreement approved Tuesday by the Elmbrook School Board. The two-page agreement is Elmbrook's first Act 10 restricted most public employee union collective bargaining to one issue: wages with increases capped by inflation. The contract covers the previous school year (2011-12) and staff will be paid in lump sum (over two paychecks) for the 1.5 percent retroactive base wage increase from July 1, 2011 through June 20, 2012. Totaling about $502,000, the increase will be distributed across the board to the district's approximately 519 full-time equivalent positions. Elmbrook …
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
The passage of Wisconsin's Act 10 has created a "free agent" culture for teachers who are no longer dissuaded from leaving a district and surrendering seniority. The result has been a new competition in education to keep the best and brightest teachers.
Every sports fan has felt that bittersweet moment when their favorite athlete leaves the team they love for a new team offering a sweeter deal. For the athlete, it’s a new and more lucrative opportunity to use their unique skills and talents. In a post-Act 10 educational environment in Wisconsin, the dynamic isn’t much different for educators. Teacher seniority and incremental pay scales have gone out the window and have been replaced by performance-based systems of employment. While Act 10 stripped the majority of bargaining rights from teachers, it also caused a major shift in the culture to which teachers have grown accustomed. “Education may become like pro sports and the teacher could become a free agent in a sense. The opportunity is…
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
With wages capped by CPI the only issue to be bargained post Act 10, the Elmbrook School Board and Elmbrook Education Association reached a tentative agreement during its first meeting Tuesday.
- BACK TO SCHOOL
- Lisa Sink
-
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
A 45-minute teachers contract bargain. Welcome to the new world, post Act 10. That was Elmbrook's experience Tuesday in its first foray in the state's new collective bargaining system that limits most public employee negotiations to one issue: wages capped by a maximum increase of CPI. Pewaukee Schools recently had the same outcome: a tentative agreement in just 35 minutes, an Elmbrook School District negotiator said. The Elmbrook Education Association and school district exchanged their initial offers for the 2011-12 school year Tuesday. The Elmbrook School Board's Personnel Committee said it budgeted for a 1.5 percent wage increase for teachers. The EEA sought the maximum CPI increase of 1.64 percent. Union attorney Tim Hawks said the …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Despite all the furor in Madison last year over the rights of public workers, new poll says Democrats are most concerned about jobs as they head to the polls in Tuesday's recall primary election.
When tens of thousands of demonstrators descended on the Wisconsin Capitol in February and March 2011, the protests were all about Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill and how it changed collective bargaining for public employees. In fact, it was the outrage over the passage of that bill — known as Act 10 when it became law — that was the impetus for the effort to recall Walker from office. But with the Democratic primary election less than a week away, and the general recall election slated for June 5, the issue of collective bargaining has pretty much taken a back seat to jobs and other issues, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Marquette University Law School Poll says 46 percent of those who are likely to vote in Tuesday's …
Monday, April 16, 2012
Catch up on Monday's political stories on Patch, including Brookfield Republican Rob Hutton's decision to run for state Assembly District 13, the seat held by Democratic Rep. David Cullen.
Miss Monday's top political stories on Patch? Catch up with these links:
Milwaukee mayor and gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett welcomed another endorsement, from U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, in his campaign to unseat Gov. Scott Walker. In other news, see details on the latest poll on the Democratic primary.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett picked up another endorsement Monday, from U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee), in his push to grab the Democratic nod and unseat Gov. Scott Walker in June's recall election. Voters are a little more than three weeks away from tapping Walker's Democratic challenger, and Barrett was on the campaign trail in Milwaukee touting how his administration would end Wisconsin's political civil war and restore collective bargaining and tax fairness, while fielding the endorsement from Moore. Barrett will square off against former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) and Secretary of State Doug La Follette in a Democratic primary May 8. The winner will take on Walker on June 5. Barrett …
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Crowd is generally well-behaved, with a little strong talk but no jostling between sides in debate of whether to recall Wisconsin governor.
- GOVERNMENT
- Jim Price
-
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
A crowd that eventually grew to about 1,000 descended Tuesday evening on the block where Gov. Scott Walker and his family live in Wauwatosa, kicking off the first day of the statewide recall effort against the first-term executive almost in his own front yard. There, organizers set up tables at the homes of several residents of the block, neighbors of Walker's, who invited people to stop by and sign recall petitions. A handful of counter-protesters showed up as well, and some words were exchanged — not all perfectly polite — but there were no real outbreaks. Recall advocates chanted and brought a small brass band, a few thumped drums and the bottoms of 5-gallon buckets; waved a variety of flags ranging from Old Glory to the raised fist; …
While politicians on both sides craft talking points, Wisconsin residents speak out on the reforms that have passed in Walker's first year in office.
For years, Tom Scheer has stood on the political sidelines, but all that changed this year after Republican Gov. Scott Walker took office and introduced controversial limitations to collective bargaining, a bill allowing the concealed carry of weapons and a voter identification bill. Scheer was one of hundreds of people across the state who signed petitions to recall Walker Tuesday. He said Walker never talked about collective bargaining restrictions in his campaign, which to Scheer is representative of a larger silencing of the voice of people in Wisconsin. "Virtually everything he's done when he's been in office has been something that was not talked about during his campaign, and what the people have wanted since he was elected has been…
Friday, October 28, 2011
The state's 5.5 percent cut to school districts' maximum allowable revenue translates to a 7.2 percent cut in Elmbrook's levy.
The Elmbrook School Board added $300,000 to the $72 million property tax levy before adopting a final 2011-12 school budget this week. But this year, taxing to the maximum allowed under state law means Elmbrook will collect about $5.6 million less — for one of its lowest tax levies in years. Elmbrook had no choice: the state mandated a 5.5 percent cut in the maximum revenue school districts collect. Typically, the state has allowed a 2 percent annual revenue increase. To help ensure that wouldn't result in teacher layoffs and program cuts, the state passed the controversial budget repair bill, which essentially resulted in Elmbrook teachers offsetting that tax cut by paying a portion of their pension and health insurance costs. The state's…
Monday, October 17, 2011
The city filed a petition asking the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to rule that firefighters hired after July 1 must contribute to their pensions even before their union contracts expire.
The City of Brookfield has asked for a ruling on whether newly hired firefighters must contribute to their pensions before collective bargaining agreements expire. Police and firefighters were exempted from the sweeping changes under the Act 10 budget repair bill, including contributing to their pensions. But the state's biennial budget extended the Act 10 rules on police and firefighters hired after July 1. The city hired two firefighters after July 1 and has not paid the employees' portion of their pension contributions, prompting the Brookfield Professional Firefighter Association to file a grievance Sept. 9. Unable to come to an agreement with the union, the city filed a petition Thursday, asking the Wisconsin Employment Relations …
Bryant Divelbiss
6:18 am on Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Comparing to Pro-athletes is not quite correct. The best quarterback is worth a lot but the 100th best quarterback may not be on a team. The same is not true for teachers, engineers, or most normal professions. Act 10 just makes teacher like most salaried professionals. Most likely it means cutting those that just can not do the job or retain most of your good teachers, more so than all schools … more ›