Impasse called over pay for Burlingame teachers

“We feel the district does have the money and needs to spend it on teachers. The ones that have done the lion’s share of work to reopen schools and educate students” Brian McManus, president of the Burlingame Education Association, said.

In a recorded message to the school community, Superintendent Chris Mount-Benites contended otherwise, noting that the district is grappling with a structural deficit which requires close management.

“We believe in raises for teachers. We believe in the high competitive salary schedule that we already have. And we are trying to preserve that. But we don’t believe in taking away from the other people to continue to increase it when we can’t afford to do it,” he said.

Regarding the district’s limited budget, board members approved $1.3 million in cuts comprised mostly of eliminating vacant positions to keep the budget reductions away from the classroom in March.

What’s more, Mount-Benites said he believes the district faces a $2 million deficit in two future fiscal years, which officials must address without cutting critical supplemental services like art or physical education programs.

“We don’t want to lose the programs which make us special,” he said. “We don’t want to cannibalize our own program to give what’s left more. It would just not provide the quality of education that our community has come to expect.”

McManus, a veteran on the district’s bargaining team, disagreed with that position. After more than a decade of negotiating contracts, McManus said he is all too familiar with claims of a looming budget deficit that never comes to fruition.

“The superintendent has masterfully primed the pump to create the fear that three years out, we will be in dire straits,” he said.

Additionally, McManus pointed to the district’s reserve fund worth almost $8 million, which he said could be drawn from to pay teachers.

For his part, McManus said teachers are seeking a three-year deal with a 5% raise in the first year and two, subsequent 4% raises. The district countered with a one-year deal featuring a 1% raise layered onto the naturally occurring salary scale escalations, which range from 2% to 4%. The district is also offering each teacher a one-time bonus worth $2,000, drawn from the money paid by the state because campuses were reopened amid the pandemic.

Because teachers did not accept the last and final offer from the district, an impasse was declared and a third-party mediator will be called in to try finding some compromise.

Looking ahead, Mount-Benites anticipated that the mediation initiative will play out over the coming several months and the two sides will reconvene after the work concludes.

A stranger to the mediation process, McManus said he has never experienced such pushback when crafting a new deal.

“It is a completely different vibe and tactic. And we attribute that to the new superintendent,” he said about Mount-Benites, who was hired last year to replace former superintendent Maggie MacIsaac, who helmed the district for the previous nine years.

Meanwhile Mount-Benites called for faith in the procedure that exists to resolve contract negotiating strife.

“Everybody step back from it. Let the process work its way, that’s what a process is for,” he said. “And we’ll see where we end up.”

austin@smdailyjournal.com