RPS, teachers' union to resume talks following complaints over payroll changes

Rochester Public Schools says it will work with the teachers’ union to retool a previously-announced change to its employee pay schedule after the initial plan was met with backlash from educators. Here is the latest.

How we got here

On Feb. 16, the district informed staff that teachers and mental health practitioners would move from a monthly to semi-monthly pay schedule beginning in March. In making the change, the district cited feedback from staff about the shortfalls of only receiving one paycheck per month.

“We have heard consistently from our hourly employees that it’s challenging to be paid once per month,” wrote John Carlson, executive director of finance for the district. “We have also heard of instances where our district's jobs have been turned down once the prospective employee learns they will only get paid once a month.”

In implementing the payroll changes, Carlson said, teachers would also transition from an August-to-July pay schedule to a September-to-August schedule; that’s the same payroll cycle already being used by paraprofessionals and student nutrition service employees.

To adjust for the extra month this year, the district said it would be reducing teachers’ total monthly pay by 20 percent from March through August.

Doing so, Carlson explained, would allow teachers to stay on a consistent semi-monthly pay schedule through the next school year. It would also mean the district would not be prepaying teachers for the next academic year in August as it had been doing using the existing model.

“In the old way, we'd give 16 days of pay for 3 days of contracted time on August 31,” Carlson wrote in the email to teachers. “In the new way, we'll pay 8 contract days starting September 15, 2022, and 8 contract days on each paycheck all the way through August 31, 2023.

“Unfortunately, this makes things uncomfortable for the rest of this school year while we transition but it is a one-time bridge that we need to cross.”

Teachers raise concerns

Almost immediately after Carlson’s note went out, we began to hear from RPS teachers who said the short-term effects of the new pay schedule could lead to financial hardship for them and others.

They stressed that even while their overall salaries would not be affected, the sudden shift toward a 20 percent monthly reduction in pay would make it challenging for many educators to make their monthly bills.

The financial challenges, the teachers told us, would be particularly problematic for families with two employees in the district.

“The district's early response was that this was going to be ‘an inconvenience,’ but with so many teachers who are living paycheck to paycheck, I'm not sure how we are going to get through this,” one teacher told us. “This will indeed be a black mark on RPS.”

Teachers we spoke with also took issue with what they described as a lack of transparency from district administration.

While district leaders have said the decision to implement the new payroll cycle was made after conversations with the teachers’ union, many educators — including some of those involved in the discussions — said they were caught off-guard by the reduced pay formula.

In one email circulating among teachers, a member of the union’s board said the new pay model had only been discussed as a potential option and that no decision or vote had been made to move forward with it.

“We also were not directed to share that information yet and bring it to members,” reads the email. “We were waiting on the district to give us the ‘go-ahead’ to do that... But that never came and this email we all received about the changes and how it will impact all of us took us by surprise.”

Talks to continue

In a message late Friday, Carlson offered a different account of the district’s discussions with the union board. He said the district had presented the union with several options and that teachers at the negotiating table left knowing how the transition was going to mathematically work out.

Carlson said other options presented included continuing to pay teachers at the same rate, then having them go without a paycheck for August.

“The teachers on the negotiating team picked the [20 percent monthly reduction] option as they thought teachers would probably be OK with it once it was explained to them,” said Carlson. “Well, it didn't go over so well once we firmed up all the details and put the communication out.

“So, now we are going to meet together with the teachers on the negotiating team again on Tuesday morning so we can work out an alternative plan that is more palatable in the short run.”

The debate over the pay schedule is one piece of the ongoing negotiations between the district and the teachers’ union, known as the Rochester Education Association. According to the district, there is currently a new tentative agreement in place between the RPS Board and the REA.

Med City Beat reached out to REA Board President Dan Kuhlman for this story, but did not receive a response back.

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.