{"id":25631,"date":"2015-05-21T09:23:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T13:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=25631"},"modified":"2015-05-21T09:23:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T13:23:11","slug":"letter-knauss-gets-it-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=25631","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Knauss gets it wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

To The Editor,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Letters1\"<\/a>Once again, Keith Knauss gets it wrong.<\/p>\n

At the May 18 School Board meeting, Mr. Knauss stated that the Teachers’ Association is proposing an 4.6% increase in “payroll” each year, as compared to the 2.1% being offered by the Board.<\/p>\n

Check it out yourself on the Board Video, at time marker\u00a01:35:35. \u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/Vh4-P1hNDEs<\/a><\/p>\n

The documents given to me by the Board negotiating team clearly state that the\u00a04.6%\u00a0includes\u00a0increases in salaries\u00a0PLUS\u00a0other things the Board calls “compensation.”\u00a0\u00a0Will Mr. Knauss retract his statement publicly in this forum as well as to his constituents?\u00a0 We hope so.\u00a0 But the damage is done.<\/p>\n

What damage?<\/p>\n

The inaccuracies and missteps damage Mr. Knauss’s reputation.<\/p>\n

The inaccuracies and missteps damage the transparency the board claims to value.<\/p>\n

The inaccuracies and missteps damage labor relations and our progress toward a contract settlement.<\/p>\n

The inaccuracies and missteps damage teacher morale.<\/p>\n

The inaccuracies and missteps damage the community’s understanding of the situation, and therefore its ability to guide the Board in its wishes.<\/p>\n

UCFEA has asked the Board\u00a0repeatedly\u00a0to speak in terms of salary and not “total compensation” to avoid just this kind of confusion.\u00a0 Mr. Knauss’s misstatement is the ultimate proof that this concept leads to miscommunication.\u00a0 As chair of the Board’s finance committee, as a “numbers guy”, as a bargaining team member, even Mr. Knauss got it wrong — in public — with his notes in front of him — when he knew he was going on record.\u00a0 How often is this same mistake being perpetuated?\u00a0 How much misinformation is out there due to this confusion over “total compensation”?\u00a0 How many community members are trusting these numbers?\u00a0 How many Board members are getting a skewed sampling of their constituents’ wishes?<\/p>\n

So, what ARE the teachers asking for?<\/p>\n

Using the Board’s method of projecting costs, the Association’s proposal asks for a\u00a02.4%\u00a0salary increase next year.\u00a0 The Board is offering\u00a00.02%\u00a0in salaries.\u00a0 Let’s stick to straight talk.<\/p>\n

Anita L. Quinn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief Negotiator,\u00a0Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Association<\/strong><\/p>\n

Proud Educator of 25 years,\u00a0without a raise since 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To The Editor,\u00a0 Once again, Keith Knauss gets it wrong. At the May 18 School Board meeting, Mr. Knauss stated that the Teachers’ Association is proposing an 4.6% increase in “payroll” each year, as compared to the 2.1% being offered by the Board. Check it out yourself on the Board Video, at time marker\u00a01:35:35. \u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/Vh4-P1hNDEs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[485,3394,377],"class_list":["post-25631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-board-of-education","tag-teacher-negotiations","tag-unionville-chadds-ford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}