MEDFORD, Ore. – After nearly a year of contentious contract talks with the local teachers union – and just a few days before a potential teachers’ strike – Medford school leaders are finally waging a public relations campaign to let parents and taxpayers know they’re not the heartless misers the Medford Education Association (MEA) is making them out to be.

MailTribune.com reports that Medford school officials are using newspaper ads to inform residents that they’re offering MEA members a 12 percent raise over the next three years, which would push the average teachers’ annual compensation (salary and benefits) to $105,031.

That’s a handy bit of information for parents and taxpayers to have as they brace for a potential teachers’ strike to begin on Thursday.

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Board member Larry Nicholson admitted to MailTribune.com, “We’ve been really silent on this. We want to get additional information out there so people can make up their own minds.”

Superintendent Phil Long agreed that it was time for the district to provide a counterpoint to the union’s message, which has apparently dominated local media coverage.

Finally.

District leaders are also letting taxpayers know that every 1 percent raise offered to the teachers union costs the district $440,000, which is equivalent to hiring four beginning teachers, the MailTribune.com reports.

The revelations could help sway public opinion against the MEA, although the potential impact would obviously have been greater if school leaders had shared the facts even earlier.

One of the biggest mysteries of public education is why school leaders are so reluctant to share important information with their taxpayers. If officials would let parents and voters know what they were offering the union at the bargaining table, they could leverage public opinion against the union to prevent a teachers’ strike.

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For their part, MEA leaders are downplaying the 14 percent pay raise by arguing the extra money would barely offset the extra work days added to the teachers’ calendar and the increased contributions educators will have to make toward their retirement benefits (from 0 percent to – gasp! – 6 percent).

MEA leaders have also established a “strike headquarters” by leasing office space and renting tables and chairs.

There is a chance the strike will be avoided. MailTribune.com reports the two sides are engaging in “marathon” talks today and possible tomorrow to head off the work stoppage.