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Two running for Brookline seat

Two people are running for one three-year term on the Hollis/Brookline Cooper from Brookline. They were asked to answer one question: “Does this bad economy change the way a school district negotiates contracts with its employees?”

William Newsham:

Of course it does. To answer no, you’d have to think that the school budget is somehow isolated from any of the effects of a bad economy. As a community we’re all in this together, residents and school professionals alike.

I believe however that our children’s education is the number one priority and preventive measure against future bad economies. It’s necessary to provide a quality education so that kids can compete for quality jobs. Whether you like it or not it’s a global competition that they’re in. It’s those highly sought after jobs that pay the bulk of the taxes and support social programs like Social Security and Medicare. So in fact their careers will help support the retirement of the current work force in addition to helping the students support themselves as well. To do this we need to attract and keep good teachers. And the salaries and benefits to the contracted employees should be based on performance, just like any other job.

If the economy is bad though, you don’t start cutting Math and Sciences and the new Algebra textbooks. You look elsewhere. A well-rounded education is important but we’re not in the business of training the next generation of starving artists. What will get this country back on its feet are students who have ideas and can design and build and manufacture and sell goods.

Fred Hubert:

Absolutely. The current economic state was a major factor in how we negotiated the contracts you will be voting on at the district meeting in a few days. The taxpayers collectively are faced with a reduced capability to pay and are in need of relief – not increases.

Confounding the problem is the fact that two notable items in the total compensation package, N.H. state retirement and health care benefits, each face steep increases whether or not a new contract gets ratified at the district meeting.

I personally participated in negotiating the contract with our professional staff (teachers, etc.). But the economy was only one of the major issues at play – other salient examples include the fact that the professional staff worked without a contract this year, and the fact that the next contract voters approve will fall under the ‘evergreen clause’ (all collective bargaining agreements after Gov. Lynch signed the bill in July, 2008). This means that if voters reject subsequent years of the CBA in future meetings, the prior year’s agreement would be extended a year (cost of living increases would not carry forward).

For me, the looming effects of the ‘evergreen clause’ were of equal importance to the economy.