Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Belen schools back to its original start date

Brent Ruffner News-Bulletin Staff Writer; bruffner@news-bulletin.com

Belen The Belen Consolidated School District rescinded a letter Monday that told its 180-day employees last week that school would start a week early on Aug. 12.

Instead of starting early this school year, the district will go back to its original start date and teachers and students will report to classes on the previously announced dated of Wednesday, Aug. 19.

"It's a matter of honoring the calendar (that the calendar committee picked)," said Belen School Board President Jamie Goldberg. "We wanted to honor our word."

Goldberg said employees would now be paid on Aug. 21 as part of their regular pay cycle.

"The solution to the problem created hardships with a lot of people," Goldberg said. "I got an email from a lady that had vacation plans with her kids and wanted to know if they were going to be punished for missing the first week of school."

Last Wednesday, Superintendent Patricia Rael announced the district would move up the school year by a week after realizing that about 400 employees would have delayed paychecks.

Employees would have not received their August paychecks until Sept. 4 because of the calendar committee's decision to start their contract year a week later.

That delay prompted Rael to move the date up so employees would get paid on time despite complaints from parents and union representatives. Goldberg said a new letter will be sent out to employees in the next few days.

"(The superintendent) made the move without us amending the calendar," Goldberg said. "She might have been able to get it through, but that would have put pressure on the other board members because I wasn't going to support it."

Over the last two weeks, employees voiced displeasure over the issue at regular board meetings about the possibility of receiving late paychecks. Union representatives wanted to discuss other alternatives such as receiving partial paychecks.

Rael, who sent out a letter to employees last week, wrote that the decision was made after "every possible solution was sought and considered."

But Rael found another solution to pay employees as originally scheduled in starting the pay cycle on time.

"She wanted to get an answer out quickly," Goldberg said. "But she kept exploring other ways to fix the problem."

Santiago Montoya, president of the Belen Federation of Employees, plans to withdraw a grievance he filed against the district stemming from the calendar issue. He said he wants to make sure the district follows the contract language that says employees will be paid every other Friday. He said the district's decision to pay employees their summer paychecks out of that sequence interrupted that schedule.

"I'm happy with it," Montoya said. "There are still some issues I want to go over with the school board so this doesn't happen again."

Montoya said he has received some complaints about the schedule switch, but commended board members that worked to help resolve the issue.

"The board did an outstanding job," Montoya said. "Not everyone is going to be happy. But they did the best they could, and I commend them for that."

Goldberg said the superintendent wanted to resolve the problem to help everyone involved.

"(The superintendent) wanted the kids and teachers to have a good start," Goldberg said.

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