Veteran UCS Teachers Tired of Defending their Salaries

UTICA, Mich., March 6, 2020 – Senior Utica Education Association (UEA) teachers are fed up with a Utica Community Schools administration-led information war being shared with parents and ultra-conservative online news services claiming their teachers are the “highest paid in the state.” This information assault comes as the UEA tries to wrestle a fair contract from the district and Superintendent Dr. Christine Johns, which began early last summer. The two sides continue to meet in mediation with little ground being made.

Online conservative sites and Dr. Johns’ own public relations team have, in the midst of the ongoing contract negotiations, ramped up the rhetoric touting UEA teachers as highly paid and undeserving of any restorative steps held back by the District over the past ten years.

UEA President Liza Parkinson, along with other veteran teachers in the district have been regularly targeted online and in print as overpaid for the past couple of years, but the propaganda assault has picked up during negotiations. “Our average salaries reflect the fact that more than 60% of our membership are senior level teachers with advanced degrees who have dedicated their lives to UCS kids. They should be applauded for their service, not maligned.”

Much of the contract negotiation conflict between the UEA and UCS has been over restorative steps. Teachers have sacrificed wages over the past 10 years during difficult economic times. Veteran teachers like theatre instructor Kirstin Carolin, say she feels strongly for the younger teachers and what they’ve lost in steps and earned salary.

“I see the total career earnings they’ve lost and it’s unbelievable to me. It’s money they’ll never get back. I can’t imagine the impact it’s had on their lives and I feel terrible for them,” said Carolin. “My motivation and priority in this contact negotiation has been to help these younger teachers get their steps back.”

A divorced single mother, Carolin has been teaching for 23 years, has a Master’s degree and makes $90,000 a year, counting the 4% stipend she receives from the theatre department. She raises money for productions throughout the year from the community because her program is not funded by the district. Earlier in her career while “learning the ropes” of her job, she worked more than 75 hours a week. “I deserve what I earn. I’m a highly educated person. It takes a lot to do my job and I have worked countless hours to get to the point where I now ‘only’ work 50 hours a week,” she said. “I have talked my own daughter out of going into teaching. It breaks my heart to say that. My parents were teachers, but I feel in today’s environment she’d be better off doing something else.”

The UEA’s Parkinson is especially distressed by the fact that a more than financially comfortable superintendent is calling out her teachers for their pay. Many senior teachers are taking home less in 2020 than they did 10 years ago.

Veteran teachers in UCS have also seen a marked change in how they’ve been treated in the 12 years Dr. Johns has run the District. “When I started there was a strong sense of community and our leadership knew us by name and they spent a lot of time in the schools. You were made to feel special just being part of the district. All that changed when our current superintendent came to UCS. We never see her,” said Art teacher Matthias Krenzer. “Those younger teachers are the ones I’m fighting for. These young teachers have massive student loans and are not making a salary that is competitive with their college peers,” he added.

Steve Shaina, a 23-year high school science teacher says the claims about veteran salaries are insulting because “we are highly educated people.” He said “we don’t get bonuses like engineers, who don’t have to apologize for getting financial appreciation for their work. I’m supposed to apologize because I make $90,000 with a Master’s degree and more than two decades of teaching? It’s crazy.” Shaina said a former student of his came to his house at the beginning of his career to do an efficiency test for his home with a local energy company and “thought it was pretty funny that he made the same amount of money as his teacher.”

But for Shaina and many of the UCS teachers, it’s the parental connection to his work that keeps him going. “I’ve had some families where I’ve taught all of their kids and it means a lot to them.” But going forward, he’s tried to steer his own children to different professions. “I talked my own daughter out of teaching. It breaks my heart to say that. My parents were teachers but because of the way things are now, I told her she’d better off doing something else.”

The bottom line for theatre teacher Carolin is the kids. She says it’s why she and her veteran teacher colleagues have put up with the negativity from the UCS administration. “I’m their person. When they’re struggling, I’m their person. When their home life is crumbling, I’m their person. I love my students.”