Letter: Make teachers’ contract info public

I just finished reading the article “Will Tri-City teachers get raises.....”

Having worked on negotiating teacher contracts for a number of years, I would like to make the following suggestion:

1. Make public teachers’ present salaries and the number of contract days they work.

2. List of all benefits (insurance, district contributions to retirement, paid leave days, number of sick leave days with pay, personal leave days, etc. and their cost for each teacher.

Transparency is very important for both parties, and for the public:

a. For the teachers to justify their request.

b. For the district to justify its offer.

c. For the public to have a clear overall picture of the issue, thus knowing how to direct their support.