As the CCEA and CCS District continue to fail to reach a settlement, Karen Taff, CCEA representative and U.S. History teacher speaks out against the treatment teachers receive in the district.

“We want to work with the administration. It’s better for our town, schools and community, yet we continue to be dealt with with disrespect,” Taff said.

Taff cited a fact-finding argument made by the board that increasing pay for teachers in a recession does not make economic sense. Specifically, the fact-finder noted that only 1 percent of teachers leave for another district that may pay higher salaries.

Although only this extremely small percentage of teachers leave to teach at other schools, this does not necessarily mean that implies that the market does not require teachers to be paid less than in other districts, which might have less desirable teaching conditions for a multitude of reasons. Taff pointed out that by this logic the professors at Harvard should be the lowest paid teachers in the nation.

So far, the district has offered to use $1.3 million to increase salaries (about 2 percent) after cutting $1.5 million from the budget.

Already, the total cost for teachers’ salaries is $325,000 more than in other districts, pointed out by the fact-finder. Instead, the CCEA proposes almost a $2.9 million increase in pay.