Teachers file lawsuit against DeKalb County School Board
- 4/19/11
- Categorized in: DeKalb News, Education
Two teachers have filed a lawsuit against the DeKalb County School Board alleging that the board owes them and thousands of other teachers money that has been withheld from a tax sheltered annuity fund since 2009.
Plaintiffs Elaine Gold and Amy Shaye, both teachers in the DeKalb County School System, filed the complaint on March 16.
According to the lawsuit, Gold has been teaching in the system for 18 years and is currently a teacher at Evansdale Elementary. Shaye has been employed for more than two decades and is a school psychologist serving several schools in the area.
The plaintiffs filed the suit on behalf of “themselves and all others similarly situated,” which means that for the complaint to move forward the court has to decide whether it meets the requirements of the class certification law.
Attorney John Salter said the school board broke its promise when it decided to “freeze” their contributions to the Tax Sheltered Annuity Plan (TSA Plan) in 2009 without giving two-year notice.
“This case is about the board making promises as early as 1979…to attract and keep quality instructors in the classrooms,” Salter said. “Having made those promises and having people like Elaine, Amy and thousands of others, devote their professional lives to DeKalb County Schools…these are promises that are not trivial, they are promises that need to be kept.”
In 1979, the DeKalb County School Board began seeking alternatives to Social Security, and, according to the lawsuit, passed a resolution authorizing an alternative plan and also requiring that “the board of education shall give a two-year notice to employees before reducing the funding provisions of the Alternative Plan to Social Security.”
However, in 2009 the school board, facing budget cuts and financial strain, voted to freeze contributions to the TSA Plan.
The lawsuit also alleges that the board realized the mistake and tried to “paper over” it by waiving the policy that required two-year notification.
According to the lawsuit:
“On May 10, 2010, the Board realized its error. During a meeting the Board was informed that its termination of the funding for the plan constituted a violation of the Board’s own policies, including the two-year notice requirement…the Board decided to ‘waive’ the Board policy that required it to give a two-year notice to its employees.”
This suit comes on the heels of another lengthy lawsuit the board is involved in against the construction firm Heery/Mitchell.
“I think all the taxpayers and all the teachers wish this could be resolved without lawyers [but] the fact of the matter is that sometimes people make promises and then try to break them and that’s what a court is for,” Salter said.
School board members and DeKalb County School officials did not return repeated phone calls or e-mails from The Champion concerning the lawsuit.
In my job ( law enforcement), I regularly worked extra hours off the books, because the job simply could not be done in 40 hours. Many, many hours had to be spent after hours including nights and weekends to make necessary contacts. I worked my way through law school and a master's degree (no student loans for me) and after 34 years, hardly could be said to make a lot of money. Yet I was thankful to have a regular job, with benefits and job security.
Quit whining ! If you wish to make more money as an assistant manager for a store at the mall, then do so--you will not have the perks you enjoy as a teacher.
I'm not sure what YOU do for a living but for 23 years I've been teaching the students of Dekalb County a minimum of 50 hours per week. I'm paid for 40 hours, just so you know, so that's a GIFT of about 10 hours a week free of charge! That's time and money taken from MY CHILDREN for the sake of YOUR CHILDREN!
This, of course, does NOT include the 2-3 weeks of work I do EVERY SUMMER in preparation or the fall which is also UNPAID TIME.
I've earned 2 Master's degrees that took me over 10 years to pay off my student loans for and why? For the honor and priveledge of being paid less than my best friend's 19 year old daughter who works as an assistant manager in a store at a mall!
What exactly do YOU do and how long did YOU go to school to earn the necessary credentials to do that job? How many hours/weeks do YOU DONATE every year?
How much $$$ do YOU come OUT OF POCKET every year in order to do your job? I pay between $1000-$1500 easily for supplies that are supposed to be supplied by the county but in reality are not.
You know what a "bonus" is to a teacher? Paper towels, tissues and hand sanitizer for the KIDS to use that he/she doesn't have to pay for him/herself!
Last year, at age 51, I took another job WAITING TABLES just so I could put my oldest through college. I now work 7 days per week. My pay was frozen 5 years ago, my pension payments frozen that were supposed to be in place of Social Security, and I'm furloughed to boot!
Yeah, we teachers are really living the life, boy.
What an ignorant waste of space you are. I hope for the sake of my fellow colleagues that your kids are in private school. I'll bet you're a hoot in a parent conference and I'm sure the apples have NOT fallen far from the tree.
I'll pray for their teachers.