FB Sun: Teachers Federation Discusses Recent Court Fight

Federation makes push for step pay increases and information for members

By DIANE TEZENO
Updated: 07.16.10

The Fort Bend Employee Federation held a recent press conference to announce plans to issue several challenges to the Fort Bend Independent School District.

Among the issues are step pay increases for teachers, access to information used to terminate employees in the recent reduction in force and academic honesty in the classroom related to grading policies.

Top on the list of Federation concerns is step pay increases for teachers in the 2010-2011 school year.

“We are only talking about $400 to $800 per teacher for the year,” FBEF President Karrie Washenfelder said.

“Each district is allowed to determine their step on their own, it is not rendered by the state in any way, but teacher salaries are so compressed there is not a lot of room for advancement on the pay scale, so the step is just a built-in amount to provide for the cost of living,” Washenfelder said.

According to the district, the recent Attorney General Opinion will cause the FBISD budget to increase $3.5 million...

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