A lack of increased instructional time resulted in two Mehlville Board of Education members voting against a memorandum of understanding with district teachers and the 2012-2013 academic calendar.

Both items were approved in 5-2 votes last week with board President Venki Palamand and board member Ron Fedorchak opposed.

The 2012-2013 academic calendar presented by Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Vicki VanLaere begins Aug. 16, 2012, ends May 20, 2013, and includes eight early release days.

Palamand told the Call he voted “no” because reinstating early release days, which Mehlville did not have for the current school year, makes the district less “customer friendly.”

“While I understand the importance of professional development for teachers, I think the return of those eight monthly, early release days will be a huge inconvenience to many of our parents,” he said.

Before voting on the calendar, Fedorchak made a motion to approve a calendar with 180 instructional days, which he said would require an additional $408,960 to be budgeted. Fedorchak’s proposed calendar had the school year beginning Aug. 13 and ending May 23, 2013. No one seconded the motion.

Fedorchak told the Call presenting an alternate calendar was his “last attempt to get the additional learning days.”

“I want additional classroom days. I want to have the days for the teachers outside of the classroom where we’re not cutting two hours out of the day,” he said. “That’s where you lose two and a half days, where you go back to that old schedule. So, I’m disappointed we didn’t get it done.”

However, Fedorchak said he “kind of expected” his motion to not be seconded because of the additional cost.

“I based the additional cost on hiring 710 substitute teachers for six days at the $96 rate, so it’s $400,000. I don’t think anybody’s willing to spend that,” he said. “I would have rather gave it to the teachers, and maybe that was one of the misconceptions during the negotiations, is that we were trying to get additional days without additional compensation.”

Though Palamand voted against the calendar presented by VanLaere, he told the Call he did not second Fedorchak’s motion because with the memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the Mehlville National Education Association approved, he believed the district’s calendar “was pretty much a done deal.”

“(Seconding the motion) wouldn’t have carried any effect, even if we had by some chance approved a 180-day calendar,” he said. “At that point, the board had already approved the agreement with the (Mehlville) NEA, so essentially the calendar was already set.”

Superintendent Eric Knost told the Call he understands why Fedorchak proposed the 180-day calendar and that it is connected to his vote against the agreement.

“He really feels strongly that we need a longer calendar year, and I’m not sure there’s many people that disagree with a willingness to have a longer calendar year, including our teachers,” Knost said. “There’s no disagreement there. The terms to get there were what were tricky.”

Memorandum of understanding

The MOU, which was negotiated by a discussion team comprised of board, teacher and administration representatives, calls for teachers to receive a 5-percent pay increase over a two-year period.

MNEA members ratified the pact May 9 with 93-percent approval.

The salary increase is, on average, a 2.5-percent raise per year as “teachers will be given one step on the schedule for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 contract years,” according to the MOU. In addition, the agreement states, “Teachers will be granted channel changes they have earned for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 contract years,”

In the certified salary schedule, channels denote a teacher’s level of education. Each channel also includes steps that represent each year a teacher has worked. For the current school year, teachers remained on the same salary schedule step as they were on during 2010-2011, but the amount of that step increased by $950.

Besides eight early release days for professional development, the MOU states a committee will be developed to research the compensation program for teachers.

“The study committee will research performance pay and various strategies and components relevant to the Mehlville School District. This study will include, but is not limited to a review of current literature, development of a program and a feasibility study,” the MOU states.

A final report and recommendation for the 2014-2015 school year is due no later than March 1, 2014.

Fedorchak told the board last week he would vote “no” on the MOU because he believes students lose with the agreement.

“One, we didn’t get 180 days (of instructional time) to get to the national average,” he said, “and then, secondly, we lost two and a half days going back to the old early release.”

However, board Vice President Elaine Powers said she disagreed with Fedorchak that students lose.

“I think there’s a lot of things in (the MOU) that benefit students,” she said. “When we invest in professional development for our teachers in a meaningful way that makes it possible for them to get the kind of development they need, that’s investing in our kids …”

Palamand said he could not support an agreement that gave a 5-percent raise over two years while decreasing teacher-student instructional time by two and a half days.

“At a time when the Mehlville School District is in good shape financially, it’s unfortunate that the board and the NEA negotiating team could not find a mutually acceptable path to increasing student-teacher instructional time,” Palamand told the Call. “I was surprised that some board members, who last year fought so vociferously against a 1-percent raise for our bus drivers, secretaries and custodial staff, have now given a $2 million raise for our certified staff. What a difference a year makes.”

Regardless, Fedorchak told the board the agreement is historic. Board members Powers, Larry Felton, and Kathleen Eardley supported an increase in steps without any conditions, Fedorchak told the Call, while Palamand and he supported increased instructional time. Board members Mark Stoner and Rich Franz supported a merit-based compensation plan for teachers.

“They didn’t get a merit plan, but they got a commitment to develop it, and they exchanged that for two step increases over the next two years,” Fedorchak said.

The approved MOU also states:

• A study group will review the district’s leave policy.

• A committee will be formed to promote the district to attract new teachers to Mehlville.