| DILLER EDUCATION | | | CASE NO. 569 |
| ASSOCIATION, | | | |
| An Unincorporated Association, | | | |
| | | ||
| Petitioner, | | | |
| | | ||
| v. | | | FINDINGS AND ORDER |
| | | ||
| SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER | | | |
| 103, JEFFERSON COUNTY, | | | |
| NEBRASKA, also known as | | | |
| DILLER PUBLIC SCHOOLS, | | | |
| a Political Subdivision, | | | |
| | | ||
| Respondent. | | |
Appearances:
For the Petitioner: Mark D. McGuire
Crosby, Guenzel, Davis,
Kessner & Kuester
400 Lincoln Benefit Building
Lincoln, Nebraska
For the Respondent: Rex Robert Schultze
Perry, Perry, Witthoff, Guthery,
Haase, & Gessford, P.C.
1400 First National Bank Building
Lincoln, Nebraska
Before: Judges Orr, Ashford, and Gradwohl
ORR, J:
This matter came on for a determination of wages and other conditions of employment for School District No. 103 (Diller Community School) teachers for the 1984-1985 contract year pursuant to Section 48-818. School District No. 103, hereafter referred to as Diller, is a Class III school district employing 18 teachers and had a student enrollment for the 1983-1984 school year of 156 students.
The issues for resolution by the Commission are base salary, total extra duty/extra curricular pay, and the method by which this extra duty pay should be paid to the teachers. At the beginning of the hearing, a stipulation was entered into by both parties, and accepted by the Commission, which eliminated sick leave pay as an issue for resolution,. The parties agreed that Diller teachers shall have eight days of annual sick leave and that sick leave can be accumulated to a total of 40 days.
The Commission has jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject matter of this action.
1. Statute
The controlling statute is Section 48-818, which states, in part:
The findings and order or orders may establish or alter the scale of wages, hours of labor, or conditions of employment, or any one or more of the same. In making such findings and order or orders, the Commission of Industrial Relations shall establish rates of pay and conditions of employment which are comparable to the prevalent wage rates paid and conditions of employment maintained for the same or similar work of workers exhibiting like or similar skills under the same or similar working conditions. In establishing wage rates the commission shall take into consideration the overall compensation presently received by the employees, having regard not only to wages for time actually worked but also to wages for time not worked, including vacations, holidays, and other excused time, and all benefits received, including insurance and pensions, and the continuity and stability of employment enjoyed by the employees.
2. Comparable School Districts.
The arrays presented by the Association and the District for comparison with Diller have five school districts in common: Adams, Filley, Odell, Sterling and Table Rock. The Association's array also includes the school districts of Chester-Hubbell-Byron, Dawson-Verdon, Elmwood, Johnson-Brock, Meridian, and Wilber-Clatonia. The District's array also included the School District of Douglas. The District also gave the Commission information on the Murdock School District in the event the Commission was inclined to use an array composed of schools that make up the eastern division of the Homesteader Conference. It is clear from the testimony put in evidence by the Respondent, as well as from the Joint Stipulation introduced as Exhibit 27 at trial, that the District is not including Murdock in its proposed array. The Commission, therefore, will not consider the Murdock School District in formulating an appropriate array for comparison with Diller. Prior to the commencement of the hearing, both parties orally stipulated that the work skills and working conditions of the teachers employed by Diller and the teachers employed by each of the twelve districts presented for comparison by the parties are similar and satisfy the standards set forth in Section 48-818.
The parties offered evidence comparing student enrollment (rank and number), county, proximity in miles to Diller, athletic conferences, and community of interest as demonstrated by athletic, academic and administrative contacts with Diller. Table 1 sets forth the statistical portion of those comparisons.
In selecting employments for the purpose of comparison in arriving at comparable and prevalent wage rates and conditions of employment, the question is whether, as a matter of fact, the employments selected for comparison are sufficiently similar and have enough like characteristics or qualities to make comparison appropriate in that situation. Fraternal Order of Police v. County of Adams , 205 Neb. 682, 685, 289 N.W.2d 535, 537 (1980); Omaha Assn. of Firefighters v. City of Omaha , 194 Neb. 436, 441, 231N.W.2d 710, 713 (1975); Crete Education Assn. v. School Dist. of Crete , 193 Neb. 245, 255, 226 N.W.2d 752, 758 (1975).
In selecting an array of school districts for the purpose of comparison in arriving at comparable and prevalent wage rates and conditions of employment, the Commission has considered, among other factors, the following: student enrollment, geographic proximity, athletic conference membership, and community of interest demonstrated by athletic, scholastic and administrative contacts. See Broken Bow Education Association v. School District of Broken Bow , 6 CIR 60, 63 (1982).
On enrollment comparisons, we have frequently held that districts used for comparison should generally range from one-half as large to twice as large as the district in question. See District 15 Education Association v. School District Number 15 of Adams County, Nebraska , 5 CIR 347, 351 (1982); Coleridge Teachers Association v. School District of Coleridge , 5 CIR 416, 420 (1982); Alliance Education Association v. School District of Alliance , 5 CIR 113, 121 (1981). While there are often instances when this standard cannot be strictly applied, such as cases involving very small or very large districts, in this case there are a sufficient number of schools which fall within this criterion and, therefore, this standard can be applied. We therefore eliminate Wilber-Clatonia, which is over three times the size of Diller.
Each of the proposed districts is relatively proximate to the District. Elmwood is the most distant at 79 miles but we do not eliminate any of the proposed school districts as being too distant.
The Petitioner has included school districts from both the eastern and western divisions of the Homesteader Conference as well as the South Central and Southern Conferences in its array. Diller belongs to the western division of the Homesteader Conference. The Respondent argues that only schools which belong to the western division of the Homesteader Conference should be considered as comparable, with the addition of the eastern division school of Table Rock which they say has more contact with Diller than the other eastern division school districts. The evidence indicates that Diller's contacts with the eastern division schools of Dawson-Verdon, Elmwood, and Johnson-Brock are very limited and we, therefore, eliminate those schools. Chester-Hubbel-Byron, which is in the South Central Conference, has games scheduled with Diller for the 1984-85 season in girls, boys, and junior varsity basketball. Meridian, also in the South Central Conference, has many contacts with Diller as well, such as scheduled games in volleyball, boys and girls basketball, and contacts in vocal and instrumental activities through the Mudecas Conference. The Mudecas Conference, according to the testimony of Mr. Richard Halama, is a loose association of schools that participate in volleyball and basketball tournaments, music and speech. Four of the five agreed upon schools, Adams, Filley, Odell, and Sterling, belong to the Mudecas Conference, as does Diller.
After considering the evidence, we determine that a suitable array for the purposes of Section 48-818 consists of the following school districts: Adams, Chester-Hubbell-Byron, Douglas, Filley, Meridian, Odell, Sterling, and Table Rock. It is not necessary to determine whether in other circumstances different schools could be included in an array to resolve another industrial dispute. Crete Education Association v. School District of Crete , 193 Neb. 245, 255, 226 N.W.2d 752, 758 (1975).
2. Base Salary.
One of the issues in this dispute is base salary. The parties have stipulated to the figures which the Commission is to use in determining base salary. These figures are shown below in Table 2.
Applying the statutory criteria of Section 48-818 to the evidence in this case, we find that at the beginning of the 1984-85 school contract year the base salary amount for Diller teachers should be $ll,940.00. This represents a standard salary schedule of $263,670.42 (base salary amount of $ll,940.00 multiplied by a staff index factor of 22.08295) plus fringe benefits of $34,082.64 which makes the total teacher compensation for the purpose of these calculations: $297,753.06.
4. Total Extra Duty/Extra Curricular Pay.
Another issue for resolution is the amount of total extra duty pay. The figures which the Commission is to use in calculating this amount have been stipulated to on Exhibit 27 and are shown below in Table 3.
Based on these figures we determine that total extra duty/extra curricular compensation pay for the Diller teachers for the 1984-85 contract year should be $11,476.00.
5. Method of Distributing Extra Duty/Extra Curricular Pay
The last issue for resolution is how the total amount of extra duty/extra curricular compensation determined above should be distributed among those teachers with extra duty assignments. The District contends that the total amount of extra duty pay should be distributed as it is now, i.e., a given dollar amount per unit with so many units paid for each extra duty job. The Petitioner's position is that it should be distributed based on a percentage of base salary. In Diller Education Assn. v. School Dist. No. 103 , 7 CIR 196 (1984), hereafter referred to as Diller I, the Commission established a lump sum amount to be paid for extra duty assignments and instructed the School District to distribute this amount among each extra duty position in the same proportion as that position received from the 1982-83 extra duty pay schedule. The facts in this case are the same as were presented in Diller I and, therefore, the Commission sees no reason to rule differently. In line with past decisions, we decline to change the structure of payment schedules, choosing to leave that for collective bargaining because of the varying effect that the different schedules can have on teachers within the bargaining group. See School District No. 125, Frontier County, Nebraska v. Curtis Education Association , 7 CIR 96, 103 (1983); Millard Education Association v. School District of Millard , 5 CIR 425, 432 (1982); and West Holt Faculty Association v. School District Number 25 of Holt County, Nebraska 5 CIR 301, 309 (1981).
In Diller I we stated:
There is no evidence before us to determine whether any of these extra jobs are mandatory at some districts and voluntary at others, or whether some are compensated at one district and not at others. For example, Lewiston and Sterling do not provide pay for the senior class sponsor while all of the other districts do. Does this mean they have none or that the senior class sponsor is uncompensated there? We also note that the District pays compensation for several more extra duty jobs than do any of the other districts. It argues that if we determine which jobs are prevalently compensated we must order that several positions now compensated by District should cease to be compensated. This is a prime example of the varying effect the different schedules can have on teachers within the bargaining group.
We are not inclined to change the extra duty/extra curricular compensation schedule to a percentage of base salary on the proof before us in this case. Nor are we convinced that each extra curricular program services (sic) the same function or has the same priority in different communities. Some may prefer to emphasize one program while others might prefer another. On the other hand, the various extra job assignments, when taken as a whole, at each school district, are similar enough to allow a comparison of the total extra duty compensation of the schools....
7 CIR at 202-3.
We hold that the District's overall compensation for extra duty/extra curricular jobs should be that amount calculated previously at $ll,476.00 and that it should be distributed among the positions in the same proportions that each position received from the 1983-84 extra duty/extra curricular pay schedule.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED:
1. That the base salary amount of School District No. 103, Jefferson County, Nebraska, a/k/a Diller Community School, shall be $ll,940.00 effective at the beginning of the 1984-85 school contract year.
2. The overall compensation for extra duty/extra curricular jobs for School District No. 103, Jefferson County, Nebraska, a/k/a Diller Community School, shall be $ll,476.00 effective at the beginning of the 1984-85 school contract year and that amount shall be divided among the extra duty/extra curricular positions set forth on the 1983-84 schedule in the same proportions that each position received from the total extra duty pay for the year 1983-84.
3. That sick leave days be earned annually at the rate of eight days, accumulating to a total of 40 days as stipulated by the parties.
4. That other conditions of employment shall remain unchanged for the 1984-85 school contract year.
This Order shall be effective for wages and conditions of employment with respect to the 1984-85 school contract year. The adjustments resulting from this Order shall be made ratably over the twelve months of the school contract year. The amount due for the portion of the school contract year already elapsed shall be paid as soon as feasible following the entry of this Order. All Judges assigned to the panel in this case join in the entry of this Findings and Order.
Entered February 19, 1985.
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