Reprinted with the permission of the Toledo Journal

A ‘For the Teachers’ levy may come soon

BY BOB STIEGEL
Journal Staff Writer

Toledo Public Schools is inching toward putting a new operating levy on the election ballot this year, an issue whose slogan more appropriately would be “It’s For the Teachers” rather than “It’s For the Kids.”

Larry Sykes, chairman of the school board’s finance committee, told colleagues last week that he will have “the plan” for a levy with “all the numbers” ready by this month. “It’s time to move forward,” Mr. Sykes said at the board’s Jan. 30 meeting.

TPS Superintendent John Foley told the board the need for a new levy is “clearly present.”

Most of any new property tax revenue would go directly into the wallets of TPS teachers. That’s because of a 2002 memorandum of understanding promising the Toledo Federation of Teachers a retroactive 1.48 percent pay hike as soon as a new levy was passed.

Board member Robert Torres, the second member of the finance committee, said after the meeting that he questions whether voters would support a new tax that would have minimal benefit for students.

“I think that’s a big hurdle,” he said. “That’s a big obstacle and that’s what we need to discuss.”

Mr. Torres and board member Darlene Fisher last year were the “no” votes on a 3-2 board vote on whether to place a 7.99-mill levy on the ballot. It needed four votes to pass and indications are Mr. Torres was recently assigned to the finance committee in an attempt to bring him into the fold with board members Deborah Barnett, Mr. Sykes and Dr. Steve Steel, whose wife is a TPS teacher.

A 7.99-mill levy would generate $25.6 million in new property taxes. Ms. Fisher said administrators have told her the 2002 retroactive pay deal now has TPS on the hook for $15 million.

“And it’s still incrementing,” she said.

An analysis by Steve Flagg, a member of the Urban Coalition, put the number even higher. Using wage base data from TPS’ treasurer’s office, he determined that if a levy is passed this May, the total payable to teachers, union administrators and other union employees would be $16,500,940. If voters approve a levy in November, the total due would be $18,042,031, Mr. Flagg said.

By approving a levy, voters also would automatically increase the wage base by $2,703,669 annually, Mr. Flagg determined. In addition, TPS would see its obligation for employee pensions rise by $378,514 annually, he said.

Terms of the memorandum of understanding dictate that teachers and other employees get their money first, and that the district can spend whatever is left in other areas. Mr. Flagg said his research also uncovered another memorandum of understanding, known as an MOU, that applies to the TFT and the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel (TAAP). That MOU grants retroactive pay equal to .53 percent of salaries, according to information he obtained from the treasurer’s office.

Both Ms. Fisher and Mr. Torres said they’d like to have terms of the MOU negotiated to reduce the financial burden, but Fran Lawrence, the hard-line leader of the TFT, likely would oppose reducing the payback amount.

At the board meeting, Ms. Fisher asked for a legal opinion on the 2002 MOU and any other MOUs. She wanted to know if they are legal if a school board doesn’t vote on them. She did not get an immediate reply.

Ms. Fisher said former superintendent Dr. Eugene Sanders and Ms. Lawrence quietly arranged the deals and that they were never brought to the previous school board for ratification.

“This board needs to understand what MOUs are being signed without our knowledge,” Ms. Fisher said. “They could, administratively, put a lot of MOUs in place and although it’s tied to the budget, it’s incrementally increasing without board approval.”

A 7.99-mill issue would raise enough money to pay off the Sanders-Lawrence deal, Ms. Fisher added, but she said the board would be placed in a difficult position if the teachers’ union begins demanding another pay raise.

“That would require an even bigger levy,” she said.

Ms. Lawrence, as is her custom, refused to speak with The Journal.

The board last week voted 5-0 to agree to extend by one year terms of contracts currently in place for the TFT and the unions representing administrators and service workers. Mr. Torres had previously expressed reservations, questioning whether a vote to extend the TFT contract would be regarded as a sanctioning of the MOU.

He said administrators informed him the Sanders-Lawrence deal has a life of its own.

“The way it’s been explained to us is that’s already in place,” he said. “Whether we would have extended (the contract), it’s (the MOU) already been bargained. So the future’s already been bargained.”

On another matter, the board approved two contracts totaling more than $4 million for installation of technology wiring and gear at seven schools. Doan/Pyramid LLC got one for $3,066,723 and GEM Industrial Inc. got the other for $1,107,081. The contracts are part of TPS’ “Building for Success” construction program.

After asking if administration had determined whether those companies made good-faith efforts to employ minority-owned subcontractors, Mr. Torres was told each bid winner has “engaged” minority companies for big chunks of the jobs.

According to Treasurer Dan Romano, Doan/Pyramid will give Peak Electric Inc. a subcontract of $849,795, or 27.7 percent of the bid. He said GEM will give Coleman Systems Inc. a subcontract of $225,208, or 20.3 percent of the bid.

African American contractors have complained that prime contractors have subverted “Building for Success” – a $641 million project – by initially identifying blacks as subcontractors but then giving the jobs to other white-owned companies.

“We will be holding them accountable,” Mr. Sykes said at the meeting.

Mr. Sykes made a similar vow years ago in persuading voters to approve bonds to finance 23 percent of the construction project. He and Dr. Sanders rolled out the “Community Inclusion Plan” under which minority firms were to get 20 percent of the money and companies owned by women were to get at least 5 percent of the total.

That promise garnered enough voter support in the black community to eke out a narrow victory – 51 to 49 percent of the vote – for the bond issue.
In the four years of “Building for Success,” however, only about a dime of every dollar spent has gone to companies not owned by white males.
Theodis Shelmon, the African American owner of Shelmon Concrete Co. in Toledo, addressed the board last week on the inclusion promise. It was the third time he has addressed the board on the issue and he reminded the board and administration of their promise.

“I hate to say it but I think you guys are deceiving us,” Mr. Shelmon said. “Please, please, do the right thing before time runs out.”
An African American contractors group has retained attorney R. Michael Frank. Mr. Frank has said he hopes the board will unilaterally enforce its own inclusion program but that a lawsuit is not out of the question.

Mr. Foley told board members last week that his administration is working to increase the percentage of construction work going to non-whites.
On another issue, Mr. Foley, who is serving on an interim basis through July, and three others were announced as finalists for permanent superintendent. The others are William Harner, a regional superintendent in Philadelphia, Pa.; Thomas Maher, a project director for the Florida Department of Education; and Creg Williams, a former superintendent for St. Louis, Mo., public schools.

Mr. Williams subsequently took himself out of the running. The remaining three were advanced for further consideration, which will include public forums to be announced later.

Two citizen speakers at last week’s meeting urged the board to end the superintendent search process now by declaring Mr. Foley, a 30-year employee of TPS, the permanent superintendent. Kathy Harrison-Ames of the Point Place Business Association and Pete Culp of the Committee of the Whole, an African American organization, made those suggestions.

“I think it would be a disservice to look outside,” Mr. Culp said. “We have a Toledo mentality that people who live here aren’t very bright, aren’t capable.”

Mr. Culp also said TPS “should get some awards” for its newly constructed school buildings and that the district should step up public relations efforts on behalf of its “dedicated and passionate” employees.

“There are teachers who don’t get enough credit for showing up every day,” he told the board.

Another citizen-speaker, Twila Page, claimed a “culture of racisim permeates” TPS administration and objected to the fact that Dr. Earl Murry, an African American professor at the University of Toledo and candidate for superintendent, was not even allowed to interview for the job.

Ms. Page, secretary for the African American Parents Association, said TPS is good at saying it seeks “qualified” black teachers, construction contractors, superintendents, principals and teacher-leaders, but never does so.

“When the qualified individuals apply, they are unilaterally turned down,” she said. “We’re not asking for anything. We simply want fairness. Not a hand-up or a hand-out. Just a fair and honest process.”

While African Americans might not get many school construction jobs or contracts, they might have a school renamed for a famous black person. Ms. Lawrence told the board she wants Cherry Elementary School renamed Rosa Parks School. She said she wants another newly constructed school to be christened Union City School, apparently in tribute to Toledo’s organized labor.

Ms. Barnett responded by naming Mr. Sykes and Dr. Steel to an ad hoc committee to look into naming places. Mr. Torres said a school should be named for deceased judge Joseph Flores and Mr. Sykes said Edrene Cole, a former teacher who recently died, also deserves to be memorialized. Another suggestion was made to name a building, annex or room for Oscar Bunch, a recently retired United Auto Workers local union president.

Theodis Shelmon returns to his seat in the audience after addressing the school board on the lack of black participation on the school construction project.

Unless circumstances change, school board members will have to try to sell the public on a levy whose revenue would have minimal impact on classroom instruction.