Dear FSTO Members,

The FSTO Executive Board has been receiving some questions about the way the District calculated the on-schedule salary increase for the coming year, believing that they did not do so correctly. I understand the confusion with the way the contract language is phrased, however I want to assure everyone that the way the District calculated our increase is in line with the intent of our contract negotiations.

When we negotiationed our prior agreement, FSTO agreed to receiving a percentage of the state funded COLA. At that time, neither FSTO nor the District had any idea that the state was planning on adding significant on-going funds to the budget after the COLA was determined. As these additional funds were not part of the COLA, our agreed upon language did not capture those funds in our increase. This is what led the District to adjust the size of the increase of year 2 of the last contract even though they were under no obligation to do so.

Based on this experience, both sides wanted to be sure that should something similar happen again, we were prepared. Unfortunately, the language we crafted was not as clear as we had hoped, leading to some confusion.

The intent of both sides of this past negotiation was that FSTO was to receive 60% of any ongoing funds, typically called COLA. This year, the state broke the COLA into two parts: Statutory and Augmented. The total COLA was 4.31%, 60% of which is the 2.59% we received.

For those that might ask why we only receive 60% of the COLA and not a full 100%, you need to know that COLA increases need to cover more than just our salaries. They also need to cover retirement contributions, health and welfare increases, etc. The projected increase to the District for our Health and Welfare benefits is approximately 1.74% per teacher. Thus, if you combine the 2.59% and this 1.74%, we are actually seeing an increase of 4.33% each, which is actually slightly more than the actual COLA.

Finally, some individuals have suggested that perhaps the additional 2% the District added to our off-schedule payment at the end of the year is an indicator that the District "knew" they were miscalculating the on-schedule percentage. This is NOT correct, it is simply the District examining their finances, realizing that their reserves are quite substantial, and effectively "sharing the wealth".

I hope this helps everyone to understand how the 2.59% on salary schedule as well as the extra 2% we will receive at the end of the year were each individual achieved and to perhaps give a bit of perspective to the entire process.

We have also scheduled a zoom meeting for Thursday, August 20th at 4:00 pm for members that wish to learn more. If you are interested in attending, please click below where it says "zoom link."

FSTO Updates

From the Bargaining Chair

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