Amazingly, in just one session, RCEA and the RCBOE agree on terms for a differentiated pay plan for the 2008-2009 school year. Planning for this began in January and the two sides agreed to terms in less than two hours. The state of Tennessee requires that each local school system implements a differentiated pay plan by the 2008-2009 school year. Despite the requirement to implement this plan, funding was not provided.

RCEA is extremely pleased with the conditions of the plan agreed upon for Robertson County.  As outlined in the attached proposal, there are two major aspects to the Memorandum of Agreement signed by RCEA and the RCBOE. The first is teacher compensation for required staff development above the mandatory 30 hours of each school year.  The second is tuition assistance for teachers who agree to add a teaching endorsement in a “hard to fill” content areas.

RCEA is especially excited about the first aspect of this Memorandum.  Several members have mentioned they are required to complete several staff development hours above the required 30 every school year. (This could include school improvement plans, suicide prevention training, and a host of other things.) This is usually required after teachers have donated parts of their summer participating in staff development. By implementing this Memorandum of Agreement into the contract, teachers who are required to complete these hours, will be compensated for the extra time. Teachers will be compensated at their hourly rate of pay.

Understand, this Memorandum still needs to the approval of the Board of Education. Once that is done, it will be presented to the RCEA members for ratification. This negotiation session does not replace the yearly negotiation sessions that will begin at a later date.

If you have any questions or comments about differentiated pay, please contact your RCEA representative in your building or RCEA President Justin C. Grimes.

View differentiated pay memo  (link updated April 21st).

On January 28^th Governor Phil Bredesen outlined his state budget to the joint session of the General Assembly.  In the $28 billion proposal, the Governor set aside approximately $240 million for pre-K-12 improvements. The BEP salary component was increased by 3.3%. This should amount to a 2% per teacher raise from the state for the 2008-2009 school year. When this is combined with the 1% local raise which will be added to any state raise, this could mean a 3% raise for county teachers. In addition, TEA is planning to lobby the State Legislature in hopes of increasing the state funding to include a 3% raise per teacher. This would equal a 4% raise for certified personnel in Robertson County.  In order for this to happen, you need to act now!  Please email Diane Black (member of the Senate Finance, Ways, and Means, Committee) This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and Robert Bibb This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Encourage them to not only support the Governor’s proposed budget but also to increase the BEP salary component in order to provide state teachers a 3% state increase instead of a 2% state increase. View sample emails to make this a very easy process in Word and PDF .