What’s up, AEA.

After two official negotiations meetings and despite the Appleton Education Association’s willingness to continue bargaining, the Appleton Area School District has declared an impasse. Administration has stated its intention to impose the AASD’s final offer. Your AEA bargaining team is dissatisfied and disappointed by the AASD’s decision, and we are asking for your help. 

Tell the Board of Education that Appleton’s professional educators deserve better! Please use your personal email address when contacting the Board.* 

Their Offer

Typically, after the AASD and AEA reach a tentative agreement on base wage negotiations, the membership must ratify and the Board of Education must approve the deal. However, this year, the AASD declared an impasse, which effectively ended negotiations. If the Board of Education votes to impose the AASD offer, your 2023-24 salary would be determined without a formal agreement between the AEA and AASD. 

Before declaring impasse, the AASD offered professional educators a 3.0% base wage increase. While we agreed to advance each educator one step, the AEA declined the AASD’s latest offer for the following reasons. 

• You’re not actually getting a 3.0% raise. The AASD method for base wage calculation means a much lower increase on your actual salary.
• The AASD base wage calculation is based upon the lowest professional educator salary, which is currently $45,200. The district uses an emergency base wage rule that expired back in 2012. 
• The AASD multiplies the total number of educators by $45,200 and then multiplies this amount by the percentage increase. The resulting amount of money is then distributed among professional educators, which results in lower percentage increases on actual wages.
• For example, the CPI increase was 4.7% last year. After applying the AASD base wage formula and distributing the money equally across the framework, educators received a 3.63% increase on actual wages. 
• The 3.0% AASD base wage increase would amount to a 2.26% increase on actual wages. 
• The district has the financial resources to enhance its offer.
• The 2023-25 state biennial budget increased the low-revenue floor to $11,000, which means AASD will soon see a historic $744 increase per pupil. This is three times the previous largest increase. 
• Governor Evers’ line-item veto increases each Wisconsin school district’s revenue limit by $325 per pupil for the next 400 years, which ensures predictable and sustainable funding for the foreseeable future. 
• The AASD general fund stands at nearly $60 million dollars. Basically, the district has an extraordinary amount of money in its savings account. 
• Permanent increases effectively attract and retain quality staff to serve our schools and students.
• The district offer pushes professional educators further behind the cost of living. 
• Act 10 limits base wage increases to the consumer price index, which measures inflation on day-to-day expenses. 
• Last year, the CPI was 4.7% and Appleton professional educators received a 3.63% increase on actual wages. 
• Their 3.0% base wage offer already falls far short of the 8% consumer price index, but the AASD calculation means its employees fall even further behind.
• While we agree on level movement, it’s important to remember not everyone would get a step. Educators at the top of the salary schedule would not get the extra bump, decreasing their increase in pay.

Our Goals

The Appleton Education Association (AEA) is the exclusive collective bargaining representative for professional educator and paraprofessional bargaining units in the Appleton Area School District (AASD). The AEA is proud and prepared to exercise the right to collectively bargain 2023-24 base wage increases with the school district. With the understanding that negotiations are legally limited by the Consumer Price Index (8% for 2023-24), the AEA argues for comparable, competitive, equitable, transparent, predictable, and fair base wage increases for our district’s professional educators and paraprofessionals. Once the dust settled in Madison, and the Wisconsin State biennial budget came into focus, both sides agreed to start official negotiations in June. The AEA approached formal negotiations with three main goals:

1. Maximize lifetime earnings for professional educators. 
2. Advance all professional educators at least one step on the AASD Compensation Framework. 
3. Define “base wage” as each professional educator’s actual salary. 

Appleton professional educators and paraprofessionals face unprecedented challenges inside the classroom and out. Many have chosen or have been forced to leave education for various, diverse reasons, including economic considerations. The AEA will work to reach an agreement with terms and conditions that effectively attract and retain quality staff. The AEA also intends to continue and expand discussions regarding evolving aspects that impact our schools, students, and staff that are not legally permissible items of bargaining and therefore not germane to negotiations over base wage compensation. The AEA values the opportunity for upward mobility in the district’s compensation framework, and it proposes forward level movement and increases to each cell. 

If you believe we deserve a better offer, please email the AASD Board of Education (AASDBoard@aasd.k12.wi.us) and urge them to invest in their professional educators so we can attract and retain the best teachers in Appleton!

If you are not currently a member of the AEA and want to join our fight for fair pay, please join here.

In Solidarity,

Corey Otis

President, Appleton Education Association

corey.w.otis@gmail.com

*Please remember that any email sent to the Board of Education could be subject to an open records request and made public; therefore, please be sure your message conveys a professional tone.