Detailed Analysis of Garden City's Teacher Contract

The following is a detailed analysis of the current Garden City Area Public Schools union contract that covers teachers as well as a few other employee groups. The district employs about 400 teachers and enrolls 5,000 students. Of its $49 million operating budget, about 77 percent goes toward paying employees working under this contract.

Salary Schedule

• Base salaries are determined strictly by "steps," which use a matrix of years experience and graduate credit hours and degrees.
• There are 11 "steps" on the schedule, meaning teachers get automatic 3 to 8 percent pay raises for their first 9 years in the district.
• The district is currently in a schedule freeze since 2008.
• 55 percent of teachers have graduate degrees and 80 percent have more than 5 years experience, meaning the vast majority of teachers' base salary is between $60,777 and $80,759.
• The Michigan Department of Education reported the average teacher salary in Traverse City in 2008-09 was $74,271.

Fringe Benefits

• Garden City uses a self-insured plan. The determined cost per covered family was $18,427 in 2009. Teachers do not contribute to the cost of this coverage.
• This plan includes no annual deductibles, a $10 office co-pay and a $10/$20 RX plan ($5/$10 for mail-in prescriptions).
• The average family premium for a health plan in Michigan cost $13,160 in 2009, with employees contributing 21 percent ($2,800) of those costs.
• Each teacher who does not enroll in a medical insurance plan gets $100 per month.
• The district also provides at no cost to teachers dental, vision, life ($100,000), dependent & spouse life ($10,000 each), long-term disability insurance and legal insurance.

Pension and Retirement Benefits

• Every teacher participates in the state-run Michigan Public School Employee Retirement System, a defined-benefit lifetime pension system
• Pension calculation: highest 3-year average compensation X 1.5 percent X years of service
• After 55, subsidized medical, dental and vision insurance for life (employees never contribute more than 18 percent of premiums)
• Annual pension based on 30 years experience in Garden City with base salary of $80,759 (final M.A. step): $36,341 (for most retirees, this amount increases by 3 percent every year).

• Retirement benefits:
  • Redemption of sick days: substitute daily rate per each day
  • $250 for every year beyond 10 years in the district
    • Will receive only one of the above benefits, whichever is greater
• Retired teachers who wish to come back and substitute teach will be reimbursed by district for required background check for substitutes.
  •  
    • Must work at least 45 days to be reimbursed

Bonus Pay for Additional Duties or Certification

• Teachers get $32.05/hour for the following duties:
  • Any extra duties (non-instruction) performed during normal workday
  • Teaching summer school
  • Teaching an extra class period
• Class cancelled compensation: 50% preparation pay per semester
• Teaching 6 instead of 5 periods at the high school: 1/6 of salary ($12,378 based on average salary)
• Reserve members (up to 20):
  • Paid $100 per day with full benefits
  • Assigned to substitute, tutor or other duties on a day-to-day basis
• District provides funds for selected professional conferences.

Work Schedule/Environment

• Contractual year: 182 days
  • 179 student instruction days
• Work day: 7 hours, 20 minutes
• Total work year: 1,335 hours
• National average for all occupations: 1,792 hours

• Teaching an extra period: 1 hour of compensatory time
  • May accumulate 6 and use to take a compensatory day
• Teaching Loads:
  • Secondary (semester):
    • 25 weekly teaching periods
    • 5 weekly prep periods
  • Secondary (trimester):
    • 20 weekly teaching periods
    • 5 weekly prep periods
  • Elementary:
    • 25 hours and 50 minutes of teaching weekly
    • 5 prep periods a week
• Parent teacher conferences: 4 half days annually
  • Kindergarten conferences only if teacher deems conference necessary
• Maximum class size: 24-30 students, depending on grade level and type of class
• Union meetings to discuss cleanliness of building: Minimum 1 per semester
• Duty free lunch: 30 minutes
• Teachers are not to perform medical tasks (except life threatening emergencies).
• Performance of union duties during day will not result in loss of pay for teacher.
• Teachers seeking treatment for alcohol and drugs will be able to remain teaching as long as they are in treatment.
  • If second incident occurs then teacher will need to attend inpatient care to be able to return from work.
• All schools must have vending machines for teacher use.
• Teachers may not be required to grade any standardized tests.
• Non-teaching union members may not have a longer work day than teachers.
• Supervision of student teachers must be voluntary.

Leave Time/Sick Days

• Leave days: 13 days per year
  • Unlimited accumulation
  • 3 leave days may be used for personal business.
• Union gets 40 leave days to use for teachers.
• Union president gets 4 hours of release time daily without loss of pay.       
• The "PR&R Chairperson" is released for 1 hour each day without loss of pay.
• Sabbatical leave: 1 year
  • Half of pay compensation.
• Unpaid leave:
  • Child care (one year)
  • Military leave
  • Public office (one year)
  • Peace Corps (two years)
  • Serving as MEA or NEA representative (one year)
  • Voluntary leave (one year)

Extra Curricular Activities Compensation (depends on years of experience)