Tell Your Story

Hello Members:

The HEA Bargaining Team is gearing up for a new season. This year we will be bargaining our salary matrices: the teacher Steps and Lanes matrix, the teacher PCAP matrix, and the Para Educator matrix.

We will be using an Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) method for this season. What that means is that we identify the issue(s), on both labor and management sides, and then we look for solutions to those issues. Obviously, we will be bargaining for an increase in all of our matrices.

How can you help? Tell your story! What do we mean by that? Explain your reasons for feeling that you need an increase to your salary this year. Your story may look very different from someone else's story. For example, if you are a first year teacher, your story may have details of having to balance a student loan payment with a high Helena apartment rent, or a car payment. If you are a para educator, your story may include the duties that you have been expected to take on in the last few years for no compensation. If you are a senior teacher, your story might talk about the lack of increases we have seen in the past few years.

Please share your story to all of the members of the bargaining team. (If you would prefer to remain anonymous to the team, send your story to Jane Shawn only, and she will distribute it to the rest of the team with your name excluded.)

It's extremely powerful to share several personal stories with the administration when it comes to bargaining salaries. When we can say, "We have a brand new teacher at CR Anderson who is living with three roommates and still finds it hard to pay the rent each month;" or "We have a para educator who can make more money at Target and not be expected to take on the many new tasks they have not been trained to do;" or "We have a senior teacher at Helena High school, at the top of the scale, who has not seen a salary increase for four years, yet has had health insurance costs increase resulting in a net decrease in take home pay. Remember--the bargaining team will never reveal your name to administration!

Thank you for everything you do everyday! We are stronger together!

Bargaining Team: Jane Shawn, Anna Alger, Adam Clinch, Joanne Didriksen, Kelly Elder, Bob Korizek, Erika McMillin, Paul Phillips, Jonna Schwartz, and Jake Warner