15-B Insider -- May 2003

The school year is ending, and change might be in store for some of our working peers. For those of you who are ending your careers in public education, please accept our best wishes for your next adventure. The possibility or reality of a layoff might exist for others. If so, we hope that your layoff is of short duration. For most of you school-year employees, it’s time for a break! This has certainly been a tumultuous year to remember. For the twelve-month employees who work the afternoon shift, this summer break means that you are actually going to have an opportunity to sit on your deck and watch the sun go down on a weeknight. This is the last issue of the INSIDER until September. Have a nice break - or a nice new adventure! Relax, slow down – take the road less traveled. You never know when you’re making a memory!

That’s right! If approved by one-half of the voters voting, ISD’s can levy up to three mills of operational millage for up to 20 years. This is operational money with no strings attached. Each local district would get the same amount of money per child, with the ISD getting nothing. To accomplish this, local school boards (representing more than half of the ISD students) must pass resolutions to have a millage vote. For example, Manton, Pine River and Cadillac School Boards could pass such resolutions, providing their total enrollment represented more than 50% of the ISD students. If they didn’t meet the percentage, perhaps a fourth district would be added. So should the State fail to meet its $6700 per full-time student commitment, local voters can assist, if willing. Generally, a mill raises about $200 per full-time student.

Bargaining 2002-03:  Evart ESP and Transportation settled

Excuse me, but I’m having difficulty with their paradigm. Why don't I have paid sick days when others in this district do? Why don't I have insurance coverage for myself or for my family when others do? "Excuse me, you knew that when you took the job! After all, you are only part-time!" – or "I would never have hired you for the position if I had known that you would ask for this." - or "It takes a special type of person to fill a two-hour per day position." I have had the opportunity to hear it many ways, and to me it comes down to a lack of respect. From my perspective, this is elitism or rankism at its worst, and I believe we ought to challenge those who try to use it.

An example of this behavior is a district in 15-B that allows some of its part-time employees to make up their work if they want to be paid for a sick day, a vacation, or a paid holiday. (In other words, they don't get paid for the time unless they make it up.) We also have a district in 15-B that allows part-time employees to do other work for the district as long as the employee agrees to not sign up for overtime work; and, of course, with the understanding that the hours worked in this capacity do not count for insurance purposes. Do we accept injustice, or do we speak out and work to convince our employers that employees working part-time are real human beings that would appreciate better treatment and an opportunity to earn employer-paid insurance as well as some paid time when they are off work? Wouldn’t it be nice if districts hired fewer people, worked each of them more hours, paid them a good wage, and provided a good insurance package for them and their families? Wow! These districts could use a lesson in where public relations begin. The people at the top appear to be forgetting that part-timers are people too.

Some of our contracts in 15-B contain insurance caps, which are a double whammy to ESP employees who pay a percentage of their insurance premium. These individuals, often referred to as "part-time", could find their portion of the insurance bill going up much more than the announced insurance rate hike. For example: Say the 2002-03 insurance rate is $900/month, and your Employer pays 80% of the premium. You have agreed to an 8% cap. Let us say the rates for 2003-04 go up 18%. Your Employer (at 80%) currently pays $720/month, and you currently pay 20% or $180/month. Should there be an 18% rate increase in 2003-04, this would figure out to $1062/month ($900 x 1.18). The 8% cap means a $972 maximum ($900 x 1.08) for the Employer if they pay 100%. An 80% Employer contribution would be $777.60/month ($972 x 80). The Employer pays an additional $57.60/month, and will pay 73.2% instead of 80% of the premium in 2003-04. You will pay $284.40/month ($1062 - $777.60), which is an additional $104.40/month. Your cost just went from 20% of the premium to 26.8% of the premium. This example is just for one year, and it gets even worse if rates exceed the cap. The Manton and Wexford-Missaukee support staffs are currently under caps, and their part-time employees with health insurance could get hit hard again this year. The two Cadillac support staff unions recently got rid of their caps. The McBain EA and ESP have a different type of cap. They pay a fixed percentage of the total bill. The EA is 5%, and the ESP bus driver who needs full family coverage pays 32%. So if rates go up 18%, the members’ contribution goes up 18%. Caps don’t negatively affect just support staff. Cadillac and Manton teachers are also well acquainted with the loss of spendable income due to insurance caps:

However, the real bottom line is how much of a dent an 18% increase puts in the district’s total expenditures. As an example, in Cadillac from 1995–2001 the non-mandatory insurance expenditures (employee insurance is here) went from 7.76% to 9.49% of the total revenue. Compare this with the mandatory expenditures (FICA and MPSERS) which have gone from a combined total of 13.14% to 11.65% of total revenue over the same period of time. Therefore, when the "bean counters" whine about MESSA or BCBS rates going up, let’s hope they also tell the "rest of the story" - that other expenditures have gone down. This combined phenomenon is almost a wash. The bottom line here is: If you have a cap, get rid of it; and if you don’t have a cap, don’t agree to one.

Please note that beginning June 9^th, our summer hours will be 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.

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