Thanks to Melrose Taxpayers Alliance for setting the record straight! Shame on MelroseOne for their gaslighting scare tactics!
Are Our Teachers Really Paid Less: Letter Comparison of Teacher Pay
By Melrose Taxpayers Alliance, Patch Poster | Feb 14, 2019
We keep hearing that our teachers are paid less than our peer communities. A review of teacher contracts for our peers (the Middlesex League) as defined by our Superintendent shows our salaries are in line with our peers. Let's first look at whether or not the Middlesex League is the correct peer group. Below is a chart of the Middlesex League towns with population and median income. As you notice, five (5) of the twelve (12) towns have median incomes that far exceed Melrose and would not be a meaningful comparison.
Look at article to see EXCELLENT, CLEAR charts:
https://patch.com/massachusetts/melrose/are-our-teachers-really-paid-less
Data taken from Cleargov.com
Of the Middlesex League the following teacher pay scales were available online via teacher contracts. These charts compare teacher's pay levels at the Master's level with five (5) years of experience and Master's level with ten (10) years of service.
*Woburn and Wilmington contracts not available online
What's clear from these charts is that Melrose teacher pay is comparable within a few thousand dollars of any of the peer districts. It should be noted that Winchester whose median income far exceeds Melrose falls below Melrose at both the five (5) year and ten (10) year mark. When we're told a teacher left Melrose to go someplace and make $20,000 more, the question is where did they go?
When total salary is looked at without understanding where teachers fall within the steps and lanes the data is misleading. In order to truly compare salaries, we must understand where each teacher sits within the steps and lanes. If our teachers are less experienced and therefore on the lower steps the result is what appears to be lower salaries.
For example, Melrose has three (3) teachers at Masters step 5 ($62,062 x 3 teachers = $186,186) and Reading has three (3) teachers but they are at Masters step 10 ($76,684 x 3 teachers = $230,052). Taken just in total dollars it appears that Melrose teacher salaries are far below Reading but in actuality that is untrue as it is only because the Reading teachers are further along in the steps.
Lastly, there are other factors that go into teacher salary such as the cost of health insurance. Melrose pays 84% of the total cost of health insurance. As an example of how this works, the Tufts Health Plan Navigator total monthly premium for an individual is $743.44 with Melrose paying $624.49 and employee paying $118.95 (data from City of Melrose FY19 rates found on City webpage). Annually this results in $7,493.88 being paid by Melrose and $1,427.40 paid by the employee. Family coverage total monthly premium is $1,811.88 with Melrose paying $1,521.97 and the employee paying $289.90. The annual cost is Melrose pays $18,263.70 and the employee pays $3,478.80. These are extraordinary numbers. Here are the percentages paid by some of our peers:
Stoneham – 80%
Reading – 71%
Winchester – 75%
Wakefield – 75%/80% depending on plan selected
Lexington – 82%
Burlington – 70%
Belmont – 80%
Watertown – not available
As you can see, all are below Melrose and if we were to look at the average for this group it is 76%. If Melrose were to drop to a 76% contribution, it would result in the individual cost to Melrose dropping from $624.49/month to $565.01/month or from $7,493.88/year to $6,780.17/year, a savings of $713.71 per year per enrolled employee. For family it is a total savings of $1,739.35 per year per employee enrolled. If we assumed 100 employees enrolled in this particular plan with 75 in individual and 25 in family the total savings to Melrose is $97,012 ($713.71 x 75 = $53,528.25 + $1,739.35 x 25 = $43,483.75)!
So what's the answer to are our teachers really paid less? The answer is no!
Melrose Taxpayers' Alliance
https://patch.com/massachusetts/melrose/are-our-teachers-really-paid-less
Override failed and the school ranked higher on testing the following year. Not going to keep beating the dead horse there but is is important. It shows how large the picture is. Pay increases across the country, 2.9%..3%..The override calls for 6% that is unjustified. The teachers have been getting increases from their bargaining agreement but now 6% almost double a national average. That is one hefty amount. Where is the coming from?
Taymore makes $180,000..will she be getting 6%? That is an extremely large amount of money for someone pushing for the bill to go through.
With this override are we going to neglect the police department? I hope not.
Are we neglecting the library?
Are we neglecting the firefighters?
Are we investing any of this money into the police to help with safety of our schools.
Why are there reports indicating we are at a 20-1 ratio but yet we are hearing constant ratio issues? I have not found any data that shows a ratio issue. I found one indicating we were far below the state norm.
Why do articles about the prosperity of the school after failed overrides get deleted of taken off of sites?
I am simply asking because the Mayor and most of the Alderman don't have the answers. Monica Moderos asked for more information but was shut down, I heard it was because it was her Republican background... if that is so then that is pathetic. I want information so the voting is educated.
Yes, the police, fire and library will continue to be neglected. All these wonderful One Melrose proponents will say they can’t afford any more taxes when the Public Safety Buildings comeup for bonding. Ask the family on1st street whose house burned yesterday. How do they feel about the MFD? All the politicians will praise the firefighters but continue to look the other way when asked for leadership or action. One Melrose equals Schools Melrose. Voting NO because Melrose is more than the schools.
Thinking before you speak or do something. It's about knowing that every day, the choices we make can and will affect our lives. It's about being accountable for our choices in life. We have the right to make our decisions every day, and every day is a new day. But will the school committee make good decisions and the superintendent Cyndy Taymore?
And again, another nonsensical post repeated verbatim for the 200th time. Seeing a pattern here?
NO. This website often sheds light on subjects politicians and their sycophants try and hide.
Here we go! The chatter now is that our Superintendent is underpaid compared to other towns 🤦♀️
As a Melrosian who cares about our community, I find the whole override presentation very troubling. It is business as usual for the lifer pols in this town, those who refuse to hold our school administration and school committee accountable for grievous misconduct, those who refuse to hold city officials accountable for egregious mismanagement and actual lies when it comes to the out-of-control water/sewer rates.
Less than a year ago these same pols claimed that the city could not afford a special election for the mayoral position, even though it meant that Melrose would have a mayor for two years who was not chosen by the voters for this role. Less than two years ago the pols and appointed city officials rallied around a corrupt school administration in their demands for many more millions for modular classrooms, claiming that the city could not afford to reopen the Beebe or Ripley schools for the city's own school population, while now they are clamoring to do exactly that.
The investment in those modular classrooms was as foolish as the construction of that "Learning Commons" boondoogle, which is still a barn of wasted space and wasted resources on a stupidly envisioned project that only pretends to improve student outcomes (by putting students in front of more screens instead of teachers, with even fewer books, in a grey wasted space, while basics like decent restrooms and locker rooms remain the disgrace they've been for decades in the same building). Similarly the many millions that went to science classrooms that were obsolete even before they were constructed (and, oops, they "forgot" to put drains in those floors, causing floods and damage when a teacher accidentally set off the sprinklers). The "science kits" that then BOA-prez Brodeur and SC and BOA insisted were necessary as a "science curriculum" (total purposeful misrepresentation/lie) that cost first $50,000 and then an additional $100,000 (oops, discovered that only one subject for one classroom was covered for the initial amount, meaning no equity among schools or classrooms) are sitting on school shelves collecting dust (FYI, many if not most elementary classes in Melrose get zero to almost zero in science instruction now). And it just goes on from there, with the never-ending elementary "specialists" hired to teach the poorly trained and barely qualified teachers or the endless ill-conceived and immediately obsolete major purchases of hardware and software.
Millions upon millions keep getting shunted towards building projects for the schools ("essential" new windows at Hoover, along with expensive office furniture/window treatments because the perky, stylish now-former principal didn't like the drab facilities and was the super's favorite pet, NOT because they were essential). Meanwhile the Police and Fire department buildings do not meet even the most basic standards, and should be condemned!
Now the pols are lining up the naive and well-meaning parents and grandparents to come shill for them for the biggest boondoggle of all, an override proposal by an unelected mayor who is a fanatical supporter of the superintendent and chair of the school committee, a proposal that will give a huge influx of unaccountable dollar to a proven, documented failed school administration, and at the expense of the rest of the city's very real needs. What the public does not know is that the school administration is expecting the voters to be dumb and approve this boondoogle, and then it fully intends to come back shamelessly in another year or two again for more end-runs around Prop 2.5.
Hopefully Melrose citizens are smarter than the cynical pols and school administration believe them to be when it comes to voting for this mess, even though the citizens continue to give a free pass to any accountability of its elected and paid officials. There should not be one new dollar allotted to the school system or city until a full forensic audit gets to the bottom of the many areas of concern--the school legal liabilities (special education and other areas of misconduct where the city has been found to be in violation), the city insurance expenditures (high due to many settlements?), the Enterprise Funds misuse, the mischaracterizations of city expenditures (it's called fraud) in many areas, especially water and sewer line items, for starters.