Posted on 08/11/2015 9:41:40 AM PDT by MichCapCon
One schoolteacher who gets paid $87,349 annually, and another who gets $80,472, were highlighted in a recent Oakland Press article complaining that teachers had to get second jobs “to make ends meet.”
The article was written by a third teacher, Julia Satterthwaite, who works at the Rochester Community Schools district and is described as a "summer intern” for the newspaper.
The article featured one of the author’s colleagues, Karen Malsbury, who has been teaching for 14 years. Malsbury was quoted as saying, “There is little or no room for professional growth, little opportunity to increase your personal income, no step increases, no bonuses, no inflation pay rises, rising health care costs and more requirements to take college level classes to get up-to-date endorsements.”
Except, that’s not accurate. Rochester Community Schools teachers did experience a freeze in their automatic, seniority-based “step-increase” raises in 2013-14, but the raises continued in 2014-15, with additional step increases scheduled in each of the remaining four years of the current union contract.
While the story didn’t mention how much the teachers who were featured get paid, these figures are a matter of public record. Malsbury was paid $87,349 in 2014-15. Satterthwaite herself collected $65,987 from the school district. Under the district’s union contract these compensation levels were for 184.5 work days.
The Rochester contract has 20 annual “steps” in its pay scale, so teachers have some idea of approximately how much more they will earn for each year they remain on the payroll. Some of these seniority-based raises are as high as 5.5 percent, but in most cases they run between 3 percent and 4 percent. Teachers with more than 20 years on the job received bonuses ranging from $450 to $550.
Rochester Community Schools confirmed in an email that the provisions in the teachers’ contract as posted online were accurate.
Malsbury didn’t respond to questions sent to her work email.
The story also featured another Rochester teacher, Erin Slomka, who was quoted as saying it’s sad that teachers aren’t able to survive on one income. Slomka collected $61,741 in 2014-15.
Hudsonville teacher Lori Humphrey was quoted in the story as saying she knew several teachers selling skin care products on the side to make up for pay freezes.
But according to her district’s union contract, Humphrey didn’t have to endure pay freezes. She was paid $80,472 in 2014-15. The three-year contract specified 183 work days, and also included step raises for each year. An example provided in the contract text spells out how step increases work, so that eligible teachers will get a 7.7 percent salary increase in the 2016-17 school year.
The teachers' salaries reported in this story were provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request sent to the state of Michigan, which included a database of public school employees that are a part of the Michigan Public School Employees' Retirement System (MPSERS). The figures cited here do not include health insurance and retirement benefits also given to school employees.
Break it down BY CONTRCT HOUR...
The wife makes just a tad over $70.
That’ll shut these people up pretty quick.
So do some of us already working full time jobs for a LOT less. And since we can’t call it quitters by 3:30 in the afternoon or so nor do we get summers and long holidays off, there is no way we can work second jobs and keep our day job.
Then leave school.
They got to live within their means.
Stop giving money to liberal causes.
Are the pension and health benefits considered in that figure or is it just the salary. My guess the latter. IOW, they are pulling down about 100K when non taxable earnings are considered. Not bad.
I don’t have a problem with teachers working a second job. My high school math teacher ran a detasseling crew during the summer.
I am all for this. It is industrious.
And yet, the minimum wage still isn’t $15/hr....even for 2000 hours a year (if a fry slinger could get that many hours with that new wage) that’s just $30,000.... how can they live on that? How can they find the time to advance themselves? How can they see a step increase without a corresponding decrease in hours? How can they even hope to get a full-boat (with medical) retirement?
Where is the EQUITY? Teachers working 9 months a year making $80,000 a year and the poor hash slingers we hope don’t spit in our burgers only getting something way less than $30K? No medical, no summer baycation, no professional enrichment, Where is the effing EQUITY?
I guess that’s why we probably don’t see teachers at the local fast food place during lunchtime.
My heart really bleeds for these teachers.
Contact hour?
So maybe they should just stop watching TV?
I did detasseling in high school to pay for my school clothes because the government’s pay for military personnel stunk!
How is it that $80,000 isn’t enough for working so few days?
Well, good for them. My high school biology teacher was inspired to start what is now a highly successful health products company by doing something similar.
FWIW, in those days ALMOST ALL teachers worked during the summer or after hours to supplement their nine months per year income. And, for the most part, we had better and more qualified teachers. The duds found other professions where they could work less and pay more.
Sadly, so did some of the superior ones like my high school biology teacher. But even he is serving society in a far better way now. And I'll bet his compensation reflects it.
I meant Contract Hour. Damn Ipad...
None of your business. So shut up & gimme yer paycheck.
It isn't enough because it is less than they want. Liberal logic.
$87,000 for 37 weeks work, or approx $109,000 for 50 weeks.
Shannon Williams had a “2nd job” and was arrested because of it.
http://archive.dailycal.org/article.php?id=12403
Unfortunately Shannon passed away from a brain tumor this year. She was 48 years old. She was arrested for prostitution in 2003. She lived in house in the Oakland hills area and she rented a studio apartment on the Oakland Rose Garden area with other women and they used it for prostitution.
My grandfather worked at summer camps, and then gave golf lessons when he was older.
Benefits are not figured in for sure.
For example, I just had my 6 month teeth cleaning/checkup this am. However, because I had a crown put in about 4 months back, I was told that my insurance coverage for this year had been maxed out for the year. Therefore, I would need to pay the dentist the $149.00 out of pocket.
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