This was in the comment section. We might all want to take a look at our paychecks to make sure we're not being cheated by the District.
OK folks, open that check stub and check your hourly rate, you've all gotten a pay cut.
My check says I am being paid for 70 hours, 10 seven-hour days. This is WRONG. Each paycheck represents 7.3 days of pay, or 51.1 hours, this shows up in your hourly rate, mine dropped from $48 per hour to $30.53. And since there are things we are paid for at hourly rate this deception will cost you money. Suddenly it appears that IPS is giving you 19.9 hours of paid vacation per pay period. This is not right, and you will be cheated.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
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The cheating will occur when you do something that is to be paid at your hourly rate, which has dropped by 27%. Your pay check should remain the same, it is only the etra things that are paid at the hourly rate.
ReplyDeleteHowever there is some ulterior motive in everything that the central administration does. Perhaps when the lengthen the school year they will tell you that you are already being paid for 260 days and that you are getting 70 days of paid vacation, they are merely shortening the number of paid vacation days. THERE IS NO PAID VACATION, WE ARE ONLY PAID FOR 190 DAYS.
This is also a public perception problem, how many times have you read comments from people who don't understand our contract mentioning all the vacation, and noting teachers continue to get paid when you are not working. We are paid during the summer, FOR WORK WE DID DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR, IT IS NOT VACATION PAY.
I'm looking at my most recent paycheck. You're correct. My hourly rate is now listed as $35.9714.
ReplyDeleteBefore this new payroll program, my hourly rate was $49.624. This was the dollar amount used to reimburse me for activities that paid my hourly rate.
I see what's happening.
We are contracted for 190 days per year. However, payroll has now lumped us in with all the certified and classified personnel who work 260 days per year.
Take your contracted yearly salary figure, divide that by 190 days, and then divide that by 7 hours. That's our 'true' hourly rate.
Yep, you're right. When it comes time to reimburse us at our hourly rate, we'll receive the new payroll hourly rate, which will indeed cheat us.
So, next question...how do we insure that we're reimbursed at our true hourly rate based upon a 190-day contract?
They already started cheating us last year with this double set of books, I was paid the lower rate, when I complained they pulled out a spread sheet for downtown and showed me what was listed as my hourly rate, I in turn pulled out a pay stub from a previous year when I did homebound which showed my actual hourly rate and I was paid the difference. However if I hadn't caught it and complained it would have stood, and I'm sure that others who weren't aware of their actual hourly rate were cheated.
ReplyDeleteOh, this story takes the cake, for sure.
ReplyDeleteLast year I was working in a school on a corrective action plan calendar. That means there were Intercessions where teachers were paid to work at their 'hourly rates' during the Intercession days.
I worked during one Intercession for only a few days, not the full 10 days.
About two weeks after the Intercession was past, I received this huge check which reflected my working for 10 days. I had not worked for 10 days. I reported the error immediately to the Title I Office which handled Intercession pay.
Just imagine how many folks did NOT report they had been paid for days not worked!
There's a guy who is a Computer Specialist who was assigned to a school that had Intercessions. He is the man who won the Extreme Makeover for his house.
After his house had its Extreme Makeover, he never showed up at school again! He did not resign from his job, he just quit coming to school.
I read in the School Board minutes that this guy, McFarland, had been approved to receive $900+ pay for Intercession. This man was NOT at the school on any day during Intercession. In fact, he was not in school on any day after he received the Extreme Home Makeover, but yet he was approved to receive pay from Title 1 Funds for an Intercession where he did NOT work!
I just wager that McFarland received a nice check for days where he was NOT working.
I was also overpaid once, suddenly I got a spare $800. I called payroll and boy were they rude, I had to get the union involved to get them to take back the money I was overpaid, (I actually volunteered to bring them a check for the extra money the day it was paid) nd even then they ignored my one request, to tell me when they were going to deduct this extra money. It took at least three months. I don't cheat them and I certainly don't want them cheating me.
ReplyDeleteThey also had no interest in investigating why I suddenly got this pay bump, and told me had I not called them I would have continued to get the extra money. Someone changed my paycoding.
Wow- My hourly rate went from $56.79 for summer school to $35.56. Be interesting to hear payroll's explanation for this.
ReplyDeleteThis is Dr. White's answer to cutting the hourly pay of teachers so that he hire more administrators to oversee the repairs to the garage.
ReplyDeleteRe: new paycheck format
ReplyDeleteMy take-home pay is correct and the same as before the new payroll system started.
But, my question pertains to info regarding Leave which is located in the top right corner of the pay stub.
I understand the Leave Code for Sick. I understand the Leave Code for Personal. I do not under stand the Leave Code for Sick - FM.
-
What is 'Sick - FM'? My pay stub states I have 49.00 hours in Sick - FM. What is that?
My Leave Code for 'Sick' is 70.00 hours. Does that mean I add 'Sick' plus 'Sick - FM' for a grand total of 119.00 hours? I'm confused with using hours vs. using days.
I understand the Personal Leave Code of 21.00 hours which equals 3 days, but beyond that I'm confused.
If the IEA lets Eugene White get away with this ripoff then they need to be decertified as the union for teachers and a new union brought in that will fight for us.
ReplyDeleteI resigned from IEA and gave myself a 'raise'. The dues are going up to offset the mishandling of funds discovered by the FBI earlier this year.
ReplyDeleteI become disenchanted with IEA when I witnessed its helping non-union teachers routinely with their petty complaints.
Here's an idea that the School Board should explore.
ReplyDeleteThere are several very large school districts in the US where 'every' administrator is required by contract to substitute teach one day per year.
They must do this substitute teaching day in their area of teacher certification.
Its purpose is threefold: 1) keeps the administrators 'in the know' with the classroom environment, 2) saves the districts money on budgets for substitutes, and 3) makes a great PR statement from administration to students, teachers, parents, and the community.
The administrators in the Ed. Center are afraid of our students...They dont even like to be in the buildins when students are present. Many have not even been in the classroom for 20 to 25 years.
ReplyDeleteI would never resign from the union you never know what crazy thing an administrator will do to you, I know one teacher who was in a dispute with an administrator and that administrator called down town to find out if this person was a member before dealing with the problem. The issue resolved around around the fact that he had not left and she summoned him to the office and he did not come, since it was 2:45, and he was done at 2:30. She wanted to write him up for insubordination, you can't be insubordinate if you are not on the clock. They employ us, they don't own us!
ReplyDeleteDid everyone get this email from Dr. Johnson? I have been away and am just getting around to checking school email. What's up with this bonus stuff? Why not offer a bonus for teaching at other schools?
ReplyDelete_________________________________________________
Dear teachers:
We cannot wait to let you know that we are able to offer bonus to identified master teachers to join the teaching team at John Marshall Community High School.
With Mr. Michael Sullivan as the principal and an excellent adm. team, we are confident that John Marshall will become the school we want it to be. We are putting lots of support structure in place as we speak.
Please review the two attachments and respond accordingly.
Li-Yen
I agree that I would never be without union membership but if IEA is going to let our hourly wages be cut almost in half..then it is time for a new union. I wonder if anyone at IEA reads this and realizes that need to clear this up right away!!!!
ReplyDeleteSomeone can contact Casey Patterson, our UniServ Director.
ReplyDeleteEmail address is:
cpatterson@ista-in.org
Regarding the $5000 bonus, it strikes me as a way to work around the union contract, and the union is suppose to be the sole bargining agent between IPS and the teachers. It also involves an agreement to be evaluated based on student achievement. Evaluation is also negotiated and this bypasses the contractually agreed upon evaluation process.
ReplyDeleteThis is nothing but Bennett trying to earn some stripes in IPS by break the union agreement. I'd really think about this, what are the your rights worth? And do you really want to be a pawn in a political game involving Bennett. Is forty pieces of silver your price?
"""offer bonus to identified master teachers """
ReplyDeleteWhat is the definition of a master teacher? Who decides the criteria? And, who will identify the master teachers?
Too many unanswered questions...too many subjective criteria...too many variables come into play w/achievement, such as student attendance, innate ability of the students, building level support w/discipline, etc.
The letter from Dr.Johnson is really telling us that they can't get anyone to go to Marshall. Now, isn't that a shock? From what I hear the $5,000 isn't enough. They have been calling teachers and begging them to take those positions.
ReplyDeleteI taught at Marshall the past two years. I was moved to another school this year (thank God) and got called this summer and asked if I wanted to go back. This was before the $5k offer. I laughed really hard, and declined. $5k is not nearly enough to voluntarily go back to the front lines.
ReplyDeleteThe email-or was it the article in the paper- stated 16 teachers would be "chosen" based on their previous tests scores,etc. Is someone in Central Office going through each teacher's previous tests scores? How are they qualifying us as " master teachers?"
ReplyDeleteThe district might as well close Marshall. It has a terrible reputation throughout Marion County and surrounding areas from all the negative publicity it has received over the past few years. The scores are terrible; the surrounding neighborhood is a poster for urban blight; the school grounds look bleak and uninviting; the school culture of failure is too deeply ingrained at this point to change it.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame teachers for not wanting to work there. Many teachers in the district view an assignment to Marshall as an administrative punishment or exile. There were over 15 teachers who quit during this past school year. That says more than anything. Subs refuse to work there.
I don't blame parents for not wanting to send their children there either. The school does not even begin to offer the same programs as other high schools. Electives are almost nonexistent. Just Spanish, Art, and Band. The AVID program has been eliminated.
All the Master Teachers in the district and all the bonuses cannot put Marshall back together.
~~~ stated 16 teachers would be "chosen" based on their previous tests scores~~~
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good at first; however, we all know that a teacher can be very successful and have high test scores in one school, yet have poor test scores in another school. The teacher may use the same material, the same strategies, the same methods, the same activities; yet, the scores will be quite different.
There are too many variables that exist between individual schools which will have an impact on a teacher's success or lack of success with the students' levels of achievement.
I feel like Tony Bennett and Eugene White have entered into a pact where the students from one school (JM) and the 'master' teachers will be used as guinea pigs for some grand educational experiment.
Has anyone heard if anybody has signed up to be a Master teacher or been asked to be one?
ReplyDeleteAndy Gamill has posted some comments about this blog on his Indystar blog.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to Gammill's blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.indystar.com/education/
You are probably right, they want to see if throwing $ at a problem will solve it, and then they will use this to justify performance based wages. Money is not the answer. (sure it would be nice, but it is not the answer) The answer is small classes, teachers who aren't afraid of kids or parents, more social workers, a full time truancy officer right in the building. Real dedication to getting kids into the building and then teaching (not disciplining) them into behavior that will facilitate the ability to aquire an education.
ReplyDelete"Has anyone heard if anybody has signed up to be a Master teacher or been asked to be one?"
ReplyDeleteI was asked nicely by district-level adminstration, but they are getting to the point where they are not asking nicely anymore. A "master teacher" I know in another subject was told he had no choice but to go, even though his classroom is set up and ready to go at another school. I know that my subject area is getting to that point as well. They are beginning to force the people they have identified as "good teachers" to go there. What good will it do to have a building full of unhappy people?
ISTA is ready to take action on the pay decrease that Eugene White is trying to institute to screw his teachers. The formula is contract language and his behind will be in a sling...SOON
ReplyDeleteHow do you spell fiasco? the big mucky mucks in payroll need to be let go, they can't figure out anything that will work. Remember the "we're going to deduct 5 days pay scheme" so that everyone would have two weeks between the end of a pay period and the date the check is issued. Well now they have restuctured the entire payroll calander and the first pay period of the new school year begins on August 3rd and ends on Friday August 14th, we begin school on August 10th, and will have only worked 5 days during this pay period. OH NO, they have screwed up again, it is illegal to pay teachers for days they have not yet worked, so the first paycheck (which covers 7.3 days) will be issued in violation of state law..OOPS
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard more about this? I'm working at my "hourly rate" next week and would really would like to know since it's quite a hefty difference.
ReplyDeletere: Sick -FM -- those are your Family Member sick days (now hours). Those are part of your total sick hours. So, 49 hours of your total sick hours can be used for the purpose of a sick family member.
ReplyDeleteYour hourly rate is defined in Article VIII Section 1 of the agreement. It is your annual salary divided by 190 contract days (your daily rate) divided by 6 (teaching hrs. per day). That is your hourly rate that you should be paid for summer school, night school, etc.
ReplyDeleteFunny that the people reading this blog know this information, I did something a few weeks ago and surprise I was paid my new and reduced hourly rate. Gotta love IPS.
ReplyDelete