Kellie Brennan

Letter skewed the facts and figures of WNESU teacher contract impasse

As a concerned taxpayer in Rockingham, I am writing in response to “Contract negotiations not about devaluing education” [Letters, March 7], which contained erroneous and biased information surrounding the current Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU) teacher contract difficulties.

To make matters worse, it was signed “WNESU Negotiating Committee, Bellows Falls,” and yet none of the authors was even present for the last meeting of the Negotiating Committee for the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union.

The authors of the letter compared a figure for median income in Windham County from 12 years ago, with the highest teacher salary in the WNESU currently. The figure for median income used in the letter was said to be from 2010, when in reality the figure for median income for 1999 was used. This figure was contrasted with a current figure for the highest-paid teacher - a slanted and misleading comparison.

A more relevant comparison might be the 2011 median income in Windham County, $46,714, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, compared to the 2011 median WNESU teacher's salary, which is $46,636.

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