Why are we on strike?
That is a very good question. Hopefully this next section will answer this question. I'll try to explain what the teachers want and what the District wants. Before we begin, HCEA stands for the Homer-Center Education Association, which is the association supporting the teachers. Sources for the following are Sandy Trimble - HCEA Spokesperson, Roger Finotti - HCEA President, and George Nadzadi - President of the school board, as reported by 1160 WCCS and The Indiana Gazette.
The Teachers' Side
Health care. The teachers want a choice between the current Blue Cross/Blue Shield indemnity plan (this is their current plan) and SelectBlue, a managed care plan. The media insists on repeating the word indemnity and I doubt that anyone knows what it means. Webster's didn't help much, so I asked a Registered Nurse. She explained that an indemnity plan (the one the teachers want) covers any and every little thing a person goes to the doctor for. A managed care plan (the District's offer) is a plan where the person must get permission from a physician for any and every little thing that the person wants. Sometimes, the physician doesn't approve. Therefore, the managed care plan is cheaper (but may cover less).
According to Trimble, the plan offered by the HCEA negotiators could save the district over $100,000 in the long run.
Early retirement plan, incentive. The teachers want incentive to retire. Teachers that have taught for 20+ years may be staying because the money is good, and there is no incentive to retire. If there was incentive, these teachers might retire. Senior teachers (as I call them) earn about as much as TWO new teachers would. Therefore, if a senior teacher retired, two more teachers could be hired or one new teacher could be hired with lots of money saved.
Salary increases. The teachers have been very vague about how much of an increase in salary they want. They want an agreement that is fair and equitable and competitive with other school districts in the area. If Homer-Center salaries do not remain competitive, explains one faculty member, Homer-Center may start to lose very talented teachers to other districts, where salaries are higher.
The District's Side
The District offered to settle at the November 18 meeting. The agreement included a $1,900 raise each year for three years ($5,700 total).
The agreement called for a change from the current indemnity plan to a managed care plan. School Board President George Nadzadi stated that the managed care plan would offer "similar or enhanced coverage to teachers, and at the same time save a substantial amount of money for the taxpayers of the district."
The agreement offered a $10,000 retirement incentive if the teacher was between 53 and 55 years old and had at least 25 years of teaching experience, at least 15 in the Homer-Center School District. The $10,000 could be taken as a lump sum or spread out over time. This is similar to the current plan.
The District says that the HCEA wants a retirement incentive that would pay for 100% of meidcal coverage until the person is 65 or until Medicare kicked in, whichever comes first.
Within minutes of the District's offer on the 18th, HCEA produced a typewritten letter giving the District the required 48-hour notice of the strike. This led George Nadzadi to believe that the teachers were prepared to strike no matter what and they had made up their minds beforehand. (I think if the District would have presented an agreement that was "acceptable", the teachers might have accepted.
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