Welcome to the jungle

Here in the patch, we've known plenty of people who have gotten laid off from a job, including us at one time. It's never a pleasant experience, especially when you don't see it coming and have bills to pay or a family to keep.

Countless others among our neighbors have spent many years not knowing if their job would be there tomorrow, or next month or next year. For most of Fayette County, permanent job security is about as elusive as a 16-point buck on opening day.

So it was with a certain amount of "What's the big deal?" that we read the June 9 comments from Carl Bezjak, superintendent of the Albert Gallatin Area School District, concerning the fact that 100 AG teachers had been notified of possible furloughs.

That doesn't mean 100 teachers -- or approximately one-third of AG's teaching force -- is in imminent danger of being laid off. That is very unlikely to happen, but it makes for a nice scare tactic. The teachers' union contract requires that such a letter be sent now, lest the school district be unable to lay anyone off down the road.

“But the letter alone raises anxiety and it’s unfair to people,” Bezjak said in the Herald-Standard. “It’s unfair to all the districts to have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best because you are dealing with human beings here. I find it extremely heart-wrenching to have notify my staff of this. I hired these people. I shook their hands and smiled. And now I have to retract it through this ugly process.”

Bezjak sounds like Dr. Gregory House delivering a grim medical prognosis on the hit FOX medical drama "House," just because extraordinarily bad economic times mean that a group of his employees MIGHT get get furloughed.

We don't doubt that it's a tough thing to stare employees in the face and inform them that their services might no longer be needed. But what makes, or should make, school district employees immune from feeling the same anxiety that many coal miners, mill workers, laborers and social service workers have felt during their working lives?

We are not trying to be anti-school district here. We are just saying that this particular sector of the employment spectrum has had it so good, for so long, that they think the world is coming to an end when the status quo can't be maintained.

In their defense, it is patently unfair that school districts are required by law to pass a budget sometimes without exactly what their state subsidy will be. But that's not the end of the world, even in Albert Gallatin's case. If you are requried by the teachers' contract to send out potential furlough letters by a certain date, you do it. If you are required to actually lay off some teachers because you don't have the money, you do it. And when the state funding comes through, you call some or all of them back as financial conditions allow.

That might be a novel concept to school districts, but it happens in the private sector all the time.

Maybe we missed it, but we don't recall reading where Albert Gallatin teachers agreed to accept a one-year pay freeze, as teachers in some other districts in the state have done, in order to help out with the budget crisis. And we don't recall reading where Bezjak has agreed to lead by example and take that step, as administrators in some other districts have done.

While we would never want to cite Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, as a source for a doctoral thesis, we did find these facts listed there regarding the Albert Gallatin Area School District.

Although some of the information listed here is a few years old, it does gives some indication of where the district stands, relative to its peers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Gallatin_Area_School_District

Budget
The district's administrative costs per pupil, in 2008, were $730 per pupil. The lowest administrative cost per pupil in Pennsylvania was $398 in 2008.[46]

In 2009, the district reported employing over 300 teachers with a salary range of $31,400 to $100,000 for 184 days.[47] Teachers receive a benefits package that includes: health insurance, life insurance, reimbursement for college courses, paid personal days, sick days, paid bereavement leave, and a defined benefits pension.[48] Additional compensation is paid for after school activities, training time, and required meetings.

In 2007, the district employed 252 teachers. The average teacher salary in the district was $48,979 for 180 days worked.[49] As of 2007, Pennsylvania ranked in the top 10 states in average teacher salaries. When adjusted for cost of living Pennsylvania ranked fourth in the nation for teacher compensation.[50] Additionally, the teachers receive a defined benefit pension, health insurance, professional development reimbursement, personal days, sick days, and other benefits.[51]

In 2008, the district reported spending $12,139 per pupil which ranked 257th in the state.[52]