Indeed, if they were operating under an old compensation plan that included stipends, and they were not paid, then their grievance is legitimate. Good management honors its commitments.
WEST BEND — During the Public Participation portion of the West Bend School Board meeting Monday night, Sally Heuer, a teacher at West Bend West, addressed the Board as a member of the Executive Board of the West Bend Educators Association and, on behalf of the WBEA, asked that the district pay its veteran teachers the stipends they were promised for the 2017-18 school year.
The room was filled with West Bend district teachers that came to show their support of Heuer as she reminded the Board that, as of now, veteran teachers have been refused the pay they earned through the stipend program and, though they were told there would be a new teacher compensation plan, they have not been officially told that the district is no longer honoring what they promised, so they are operating under the previous plan that stated veteran teachers would be given a stipend for completing the tasks on their teacher’s scorecard.
Heuer pointed out that the district is continuing to follow other parts of the compensation plan and asked the Board why the district is choosing to ignore the part that calls for promised compensation.
Color me totally confused, I am not sure there was an old compensation plan that included stipends. To me, it seemed like the scorecard system has always been a work in progress and never really came to fruition. Several former superintendents had a hand in the process, as well as several human resource directors and curriculum and accountability directors. There was also a substantial turnover in board members. And there were the unproven claims by the union that the scorecard system was costing $500,000 to implement.
I think the new Superintendent (Don Kirkegaard) and the interim human resource director (David Hammelman) have the proven ability to bring order to what has certainly been a chaotic situation that has been in development over the last several years. Hopefully they and their staff will be able to focus on the tasks at hand, without the drama that various factions seem to generate.
Some background on the topic that has appeared here in the past:
http://www.bootsandsabers.com/2016/09/13/west-bend-teachers-still-dont-have-grades/
http://www.bootsandsabers.com/2017/01/21/west-bend-school-superintendent-slaps-down-union-propaganda/