On November 5, 2013, Columbus voters will consider an additional levy of 9.01 mills to fund Columbus City Schools. For the Columbus taxpayer, this levy will add around $315 in new tax burden for every $100,000 of residential property value. This tax increase is in addition to the half percent income tax increase implemented in 2009. About 11 percent of the levy, or $8.5 million, will go to charter schools, and a large majority of the $76.6 million a year raised will go to the Columbus City School District.

We previously looked into personnel spending-related provisions of the Columbus Education Association’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the district. Below, we address several other provisions of the CBA. This list is far from an exhaustive representation of the overall agreement or its provisions, but it provides a starting point for those interested in diving deeper. The CBA reveals very generous benefits for school teachers including bonuses, some of which may have been influenced by the data manipulation scandal, and three weeks of sick days per year, which can be rolled over without limit for large cash payments at retirement.

Gainsharing Bonuses
During the enrollment scandal, one of the more controversial provisions in the CBA involved a practice known as “gainsharing” (see pg. 8 of the agreement). Gainsharing is a form of performance bonus awarded to “particular buildings within the district” and administrators that show “achievement of adequate yearly progress.” A six-member panel split between representatives of the teachers union and representatives of the Superintendent decide the bonuses on the basis of “measurable objective goals including, but not limited to, graduation rates, student attendance, achievement test scores, standardized test scores and reduction of disturbances to education.” The same criteria for buildings apply to administrators. These criteria, focused on student attendance and student achievement scores, potentially gave Columbus school officials further incentive to “scrub” low performance and low attendance students from the enrollment figures in order to achieve a score necessary to secure a bonus. Indeed, the Columbus Dispatch reported in August of last year that many of the schools and administrators caught manipulating their enrollment data received gainsharing bonuses.

Sick Leave
Provisions related to sick leave create expenses when teachers retire. Under the CBA, teachers are given 15 sick days (pg. 61) and 2 personal days (pg. 74) every year. Both sick and personal days can carry over year after year without limit. When teachers retire, they can convert the accumulated sick and personal days into severance pay (pg. 89). The severance payment consists of 50% of unused personal days and 20-45% of unused sick days, depending on the number of days accumulated and the timing of the retirement (pg. 90). The amount of severance pay is calculated “on the eligible member’s rate of pay at the time of separation” (pg. 90, emphasis added). In other words, it is calculated at the teacher’s highest rate of pay. For example, the severance payment to a teacher with a Master’s degree who retires after 30 years of service in 2012 would be calculated based on a salary of $84,331. How many Columbus taxpayers get that kind of a retirement payout from their employers?

Union Benefits
The teachers union itself is also given a number of benefits under the CBA. The union receives a pool of 215 paid sick leave days per year that can be distributed to teacher representatives for conducting union business or for the purpose of attending “meetings, conferences or conventions” (pg. 75). The union is also allowed bulletin space near the teacher mailboxes to post materials about “Association activities,” the only caveat being that the posted materials “shall not include campaign materials or endorsements for candidates in local, state or national public elections” (pg. 8). The CBA also allows for the transaction of union business on school property and the use of school office equipment and audio-visual equipment, free of charge, with the principal’s permission (pgs. 8-9). Any teacher choosing not to be a member of the union must pay an “agency fee” the equivalent of membership dues (pg. 13).

These provisions add another layer to some of the questions we have previously posed. To reiterate: 1) What systemic reforms, such as preventing potential “gainsharing” abuses and modifying overly generous leave payouts, should the district make to ensure mutually-beneficial conduct is incentivized while also ensuring sustainable budgets? 2) Given the poor academic outcomes achieved despite spending over $14,600 per pupil in Columbus, is additional spending likely to achieve better academic outcomes? 3) Are there issues outside of revenue that must be addressed before adding more levy funds to a system that has already promised to use some of the new money to increase compensation for already generously paid employees? Columbus taxpayers need to think through these questions as they contemplate the proposed levy.