Board grants compensation to teacher after heated debate

Bute requested compensation for time on active

duty with Guard

NEW ULM -- After an emotional debate, the District 88 Board of Education agreed to compensate social studies teacher Rob Bute for his financial loss during military service, by granting him 15 days of pay for 2004.

The move will cost the school district $3,508.

Bute, an officer in the National Guard, was called to active duty from August 2003 to March 2004.

He asked the school district to consider two compensation options. One was to follow a new state law that requires school districts to pay an active duty reservist the difference between the school salary and the military salary, minus the cost of a substitute. Bute's alternative request was for 15 days pay and the payment of employee and employer contributions to a teachers' retirement account for his time of activation.

School officials priced these requests at, respectively, $10,699 and $6,222.

School administrators cited an opinion by the state Attorney General's office which shows that the new state law is not retroactive and applies only to reservists called to active duty after July 1, 2004. The law does not prevent a school district from paying a reservist activated before it took effect, officials said. The law has no funding attached to it and applies only to reservists working in schools.

A split board voted down two motions before approving the final compromise on a 5-2 vote. First, it voted down, 4-3, a motion to pay Bute according to the new law, minus a housing and separation allowance (a cost of $4,686 to the district). Next, on a 5-2 vote, it voted down a motion to deny the request altogether.

Some board members argued forcefully against granting the compensation request.

While reiterating their sympathy and respect for Bute, Susan Nierengarten and Steve Wachter, the two dissenters in the final vote, stressed, to quote Nierengarten, that the school board "has a duty to use school funds for educational purposes, not to provide backdoor funding for the military."

Acknowledging that Bute deserves compensation, Nierengarten and Wachter said the source should be the federal government, rather than local tax payers.

Granting the request would take money away from other school programs, Nierengarten noted.

"Mr. Bute wasn't working for us at the time -- and I am sorry that he wasn't," she said at another point. The board has no "legal or contractual" obligation to grant the requested compensation.

Both Nierengarten and Wachter said their opinion disagrees with their feelings.

"Some of us have agonized over how to handle this properly. We are not doing this lightly. I certainly hope it will not be seen as a slap in the face," Nierengarten said.

"It is a tough emotional decision to make -- but we don't make decisions based on emotion, we make decisions based on intelligence," said Wachter.

Both expressed a willingness to contribute personal funds, should there be a fund-raiser for Bute.

Speaking in favor of Bute's request, board member Brian Wieland emphasized the broader ethical implications of the decision. Bute has performed a patriotic service, Wieland said. He also stressed the value that Bute's military experience brings to his teaching.

"Think of what type of education the kids are getting from him," Wieland said.

Reiterating words such as "arbitrary," "troublesome," "frustrating," "unfair" and "mind-boggling," school board members on both sides of the issue expressed their discomfort with the state law in question. They noted that the law does not ask other units of government (state, city or county), or private businesses, to compensate reservists. They also noted that some reservists are entitled to compensation and others aren't, based purely on when they were called.

Other possibilities for compensation reviewed included: paying the equivalent of 15 days of active duty and the employer share of the retirement account contribution ($4,865); paying the employer share of the retirement account contribution, or both employer and employee shares ($1,356 or $2,713); or paying the difference between what Bute's salary would have been during the active duty days, minus the cost of the substitute for the year ($782).

According to school administrators, at least three school districts have chosen to compensate reservists in some way before being legally required to do so. Some compensated the retirement account portion of missed salary, some guaranteed health insurance paid, and some paid the difference in salary experienced by active duty.

More than a dozen co-workers were in the audience to show support for Bute.