District workers complain

PROVO — As promised, employees of Provo School District thronged the Board of Education meeting Tuesday night and demanded better pay and post-retirement benefits.

About 150 teachers and classified employees filed into the meeting after union leaders told them at a meeting Monday night that there is safety in numbers. They filled the meeting room to capacity and many stood in the halls.

Teachers complained that morale is down and they no longer trust the school board and administration.

"We could do much to solve the discouragement and frustration that currently pervades in our district," said Lynda Westover, president of the Provo Education Association. She is part of the team representing employees at the negotiations for a contract for next school year.

The lively comment period lasted about an hour. Each employee was limited to three minutes, and at times, the superintendent and board members responded. Once a board member tapped with the gavel to quiet the employees.

Superintendent Randy Merrill empathized with the employees who lost their post-retirement supplementary insurance for Medicare. He too became ineligible for Medigap last year when the district and unions agreed to limit Medigap eligibility to those reaching age 55 by Jan. 1, 2005 and having at least 20 years in the district.

Employee Annette O'Bryant complained about benefits and pay over the past three years. In the 2002-2003 school year, employees were not given a pay raise because all the money from the Legislature went to health insurance. In 2003-2004, employees agreed to cut insurance. Last year they received a small 1 percent pay raise.

"In order to have that little, tiny raise, we had to cut our health insurance to the bone," she said.

The employees' health insurance is going up by 28 percent in the coming year. The school district needs to consider health insurance, premiums for Medigap and an additional $1.5 million to $2 million that needs to go into a separate fund to ensure Medigap for the future. The additional money is a new requirement to prevent retirement problems similar to those of Americans who worked for companies that had accounting scandals in the past five years.

"We're in a really hard situation, but it's not for lack of caring that we have these problems," school board member Sandy Packard said.

Teachers should not have to live with insecurity of not knowing whether they'll be able to keep benefits and pay, Steven Greene said.

"I'm particularly discouraged by the fact that as I approach the end of my teaching career in Provo that there's this cloud that takes away from the good things that have happened in this district," he said.

Merrill said that if employees want a significant pay increase, they will have to accept a decrease in benefits, and vice versa. He also asked them to remember the 1,200 of the 7,200 employees who do not get benefits. "Do not ask people to make sacrifices (while) at the same time promoting programs that will cost millions of dollars at their expense," said parent Angelo Rodriguez, who is critical of the district's plans for dual (bilingual) immersion and reading programs.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com