Split Decision: Ferguson-Florissant Board Approves Salary Freeze

Although the Ferguson-Florissant Board of Education unanimously approved the teacher and employee contracts for the 2013-2014 school year, but the approval wasn’t a full consensus on both sides.

Lori Sammelmann and Heike Janis, who served as the co-chairs for the negotiation committee, each spoke about their concerns for the salary freeze, which is the third one in 10 years, and future negotiations.

Janis said that although members of the Ferguson-Florissant National Education Association (FFNEA) ratified the agreement, only 63.2 percent voted in favor of it. That’s the least amount since the 1980s, whereas in most recent years, members have approved contracts with a more than 90 percent vote. Last year, the members voted with 94 percent approval.

The measure's approval comes as the district faces a shortfall up to $10 million in the next school year.

Janis and Sammelmann, who also serves as the current FFNEA president, said that in this year’s contracts there was no financial compensation or contingency for teachers in the long term.

That means that teachers and staff – as the FFNEA serves wall to wall, which means all staff except cafeteria workers in the district – will be making less next year, Sammelmann said. If more isn’t changed next year, Janis said she believes the vote will be against the contracts and morale will be affected.

In the long term, the freezes could hurt teachers and staff earnings and even their retirement as the money becomes skewed for the rest of their careers, Sammelmann said.

For next year, Sammelmann and Janis agree that they will look toward having the “step” reinstated in the contracts. The "step" affects how you move up on the salary scale by years of experience, they said. They will also look at ways to make other cuts and get revenue back in the district.

 “Our board is committed to finding solutions,” Sammelmann said. “We cut $7 million in a two-month period. I think we have a good chance of staying on sound financial ground.”