Wages Won't Go Down for Nicolet Teachers Next Year

Regardless of what happens with the state budget, the Nicolet School Board Monday took steps to ensure that teachers will not see a cut in pay next school year.

However, that doesn't mean they can expect to see a hike in their salaries, either.

The School Board held a special meeting to make adjustments to the 2011-2012 teaching contracts before sending them out to staff on Tuesday. Every Nicolet teacher, except for one replacement teacher, will receive a contract.

The board voted unanimously to approve changes in the contract, which include guaranteeing that teacher wages will be no less than what they received this school year. However, the board also eliminated  step and lane salary increases, a process that allows teachers to receive guaranteed raises based on seniority and education attainment.

The changes in the contracts come in response to the state's budget repair bill, which was passed by the Legislature on Thursday and signed into law on Friday. That bill eliminates collective bargaining for most public employees.

"What happened Thursday, the way it was handled and just what's happened the last few weeks, has been very difficult on the staff," David Quam, president of the Nicolet teachers union said. "It's a very stressful thing and somehow we've become the bad guy in public life."

Quam also is concerned about the prospect of teachers not getting raises next year.

"It's not so bad for me because I'm at the top. I was only going to get one or two percent anyway," Quam said. "But if you're in the middle, you could be in line to stay at that level for a long time without steps and lanes."

The Nicolet administration last month signed a with the teachers to avoid issuing mass layoff notices. That memo language has also been added to the revised teacher contracts, which means if layoffs are necessary, Nicolet will still have the ability to issue them.

"Essentially, not knowing what the world is going to look like after July 1, it really tells everybody for next year that they're going to at least make what they made this year," explained Jeff Dellutri, director of business services.

"We don't know what will happen after July 1," he added. "We will see where things go with lawsuits and recalls, and does the law change back. But the most that the board could do is guarantee people that they're going to make at least what they made this year."

"The governor's bill says that there's a cost of living increase, we don't know how we're going to implement that essentially," Dellutri said.

"It's one of those things where you don't feel like you can do much about it other than go protest," Quam said. "You don't feel like the people that you've elected really want to listen to you. Hopefully, they'll listen to the 100,000 people down there, but they don't seem interested in that.

"We live in interesting times, as they say," he added. "Not interesting in the way I like. It was more interesting when the Packers were playing. That was more fun."