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di 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, January 30, 1990 A MESSAGE TO SEPARATE SCHOOL RATEPAYERS WHY WE WON'T PLAY THE PARITY GAME Our secondary school teachers are on strike over the issue of parity. For them, parity means getting paid the same as teachers at some other board. But for us, parity is a game -- a game we can't afford to play. Here's why. First, there's the question of: "WHAT'S WRONG WITH PARITY?" It's easy to explain parity as simply catching up with what some other school board is paying its teachers. After all, that sounds fair. But there's a catch in catching up. With over 125 other school boards in Ontario, you're always trying to catch up to somebody. So each year, school boards have to ante up more and more taxpayers' dollars just to stay in the game. And the "winner" gets to pay its teachers the highest salaries in the province. We don't think this is the kind of game we should be playing, especially since wed be playing it with your money. We haven't forgotten that last year we had to raise your educational taxes 14%. Then there's the question of: "PARITY WITH WHOM?" Our secondary teachers began negotia- tions saying they wanted parity with Metro Toronto separate school teachers. Now, they say they want parity with Durham Region public, elementary school teachers. The problem is, both these boards, like many other Toronto- " « @) NS; >% area school boards, have more people paying more school taxes than we do. They may be able to afford to play the parity game. We cannot. So now, the question is: "WHAT'S THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM?" We believe the answer to this issue is parity within our own schools. Put simply, that means all of our class- room teachers who have the same qualifications and the same experience should earn the same salary. That's why we've offered to raise our teachers' salary scale -- or "Grid" as it is called - by 12.2% over two years. This increase boosts the salary scale of teachers with a university degree from a minimum of $28,202 to a maximum of $59,344. We're proud of our teachers. They do a good job and deserve a competitive wage and benefits package. Our ratepayers also work hard, and deserve a tax bill they can afford. We believe our 12.2% offer is fair to our teachers and to our ratepayers. Three of our teachers' unions agree. They've already accepted it. Only the teachers in our English secondary schools have turned it down. There's no sure way of finding the balance between what our teachers want and what we believe you can afford, but one thing is for certain -- we won't find it by playing the parity game. THE TRUSTEES OF THE DURHAM REGION / ROMAN CATHOLIC SEPARATE SCHOOL BOARD