Ask these Questions & Consider this Information before You Vote on the 2024-2025 Calendar

[Christine Engelbrecht]

Dear LAPS Board Members,

I am reaching out about your upcoming vote on the 2024-2025 LAPS calendar from the perspective of an LAPS employee of 10 years. For full disclosure, I am a union member, a union representative for LAHS, former negotiations team member, and former union officer, though I do not speak to those roles in this email. 

Below, I share objective, public information that is available to all staff members and ask objective questions that I would like you to consider when you approve a 2024-2025 LAPS calendar at the Tuesday, April 9th school board meeting. I am speaking to the number of staff contract days as opposed to the way that the school year is structured.

Information and questions for the board to consider:

1. The first time that the LAPS staff was surveyed about 2024-2025 calendar options AND told that a calendar correlating with fewer contract days would result in less pay for certified staff members was in an email from Superintendent Guy on Tues 4/2/24, three days before potential calendars needed to be included in the outgoing board packet on Fri 4/5/24 and one week before the board was scheduled to make its decision regarding the 2024-2025 calendar at the Tues 4/9/24 board meeting. In Superintendent Guy's Thurs 4/4/24 email, she said that 316 LAPS staff members responded to the survey.

Question: How many staff members currently work at LAPS?

Question: What percentage of LAPS staff members were able to respond to the survey in the approximate 24 hours before Superintendent Guy met with union representatives on Wed 4/3/24 to discuss the proposed calendar?

Question: What percentage of LAPS staff members were able to respond to the survey in the approximate 48 hours before Superintendent Guy emailed the survey results to the staff on Thurs 4/4/24?

Question: A decrease in contract days would affect LAPS staff members who only work during the school year, excluding staff members who work 217, 249, and 260 day contracts; how many of those staff members who only work during the school year were able to respond to the survey when Superintendent Guy posted the results on Thurs 4/4/24?

Question: Was the data mentioned above collected in the survey, and if not, can we be sure that the voices of staff members who only work during the school year were heard?

2. When Superintendent Guy emailed the LAPS staff on Tues 4/2/24 with a survey about 2024-2025 calendar options, NMPSIA's impending 15.5% insurance increase, discussed publicly in a Thurs 3/21/24 LAPS Budget meeting, was not mentioned; therefore, staff who were unaware of the insurance increase did not consider its impact when they completed Superintendent Guys' survey. Superintendent Guy reported that "61% of the staff who responded [to the survey] prefer to work fewer days." Superintendent Guy acknowledged NMPSIA's insurance increase in an email to staff on Thurs 4/4, after the results of the survey were tallied and reported to staff. 

Question: Would the results from Superintendent Guy's LAPS staff survey shared on Tues 4/2/24 be different if all of the staff members voting were aware of this insurance increase? 

3. While the 3% raise from the NM Legislature ensures that employees will not make less in base pay in the 2024-2025 school year than they did in the 2023-2024 school year if their contract days are reduced by 5 days, some employees who have NMPSIA insurance will experience a loss in net pay when the NMPSIA insurance premium rates increase in Fall 2024. 

Question: How many LAPS employees currently use NMPSIA's family plan, experiencing the largest impact from NMPSIA's 15.5% premium increase this coming fall, and would end up with a net loss in income if their contract were reduced from 195 to 190 contract days?

4. With an expected cost of living adjustment for 2024 of 3.2%, the NM Legislature's 3% raise does not quite cover the cost of living increases that LAPS staff members will encounter. If LAPS certified staff members lose 5 contract days worth of pay, their 3% raise is mostly cancelled out, meaning that their LAPS income will not increase comparably with the cost of living. Factor in NMPSIA's insurance increases and staff members who use NMPSIA insurance will see very little to no benefit of that 3% raise, leaving them  less able to afford increasing rent, food, utility, and insurance costs on an LAPS salary.

Question: How will the morale and retention employees that rely on LAPS as their family's main source of income be affected if the board cuts their contract amount by five days?

Question: Would it be more beneficial for LAPS staff members to shorten the school year, in turn reducing the staff's contract days, in a smaller increment than 5 days, creating less of an impact to their pay?

Question: Would it be more beneficial for LAPS staff members to shorten the school year, in turn reducing the staff's contract days, in a future year when the legislature's raise is more substantial, leaving the staff members with a larger net income increase despite losing pay from each cut contract day?

5. According to the recipient email address listed in Superintendent Guy's 4/2/24 email, her survey was sent to all staff members, not just the bargaining unit, a group that includes all certified and classified staff members working 195, 217, 249, and 260 day contracts at LAPS. The bargaining unit excludes administrators, contractors, substitute teachers, and coaches; the union specifically represents the bargaining unit at LAPS. In Superintendent Guy's Thurs 4/4/24 email, she mentioned that she worked with the union representatives on Wed 4/3/24 to discuss the calendar, but at that time, staff members had only approximately 24 hours to respond to Superintendent Guy's Tues 4/2/24 survey. The LAHS staff handbook, which should be comparable to the staff handbooks for other LAPS sites, says that staff members should "Respond to emails in a timely manner (1-2 business days)."

Question: Since the union representatives specifically speak on behalf of the bargaining unit, how many people are currently in the bargaining unit at LAPS and what percentage of the bargaining unit, not all staff members, weighed in on this survey by Wed 4/3 when the union representatives collaborated with Superintendent Guy on the proposed 190 day calendar?
Question: Since the bargaining unit members did not have the allowable 48 hours to respond to Superintendent Guy's survey before she met with the union representatives, were they given an adequate opportunity to weigh in on this matter before the data was assessed?

Question: Can the union representatives adequately represent the interests of the bargaining unit when they must contribute to the discussion using data that, due to the short turnaround time on the survey, was incomplete on Wed 4/3?

I respectfully ask you to ask these questions of the LAPS administration during the Tuesday, April 9th school board meeting when discussing Superintendent Guy's presentation slides on pages 48-51 of the board packet so that the answers will be public. Please consider this information when you make the complex decision of choosing a 2024-2025 calendar.

Thank you for your consideration,

Christine Engelbrecht

Christine Engelbrecht, M.Ed., NBCT