Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Teachers ratify new pay contract

Agreement would reduce salaries for future employees

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By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Blaine County teachers overwhelmingly approved a new contract Monday with the Blaine County School District that would provide a 2 percent pay increase for the 2012-13 school year. Teachers are shown here voting at the Community Campus in Hailey. Photo by Willy Cook

Teachers voted 122-3 Monday to ratify a new contract forged last week between the Blaine County Education Association and the Blaine County School District.

The proposed agreement, still subject to approval by the district board of trustees, provides for a 2 percent teacher pay raise for the 2012-13 school year. One percent would be a permanent salary increase while the other 1 percent would be in the form of a one-time Christmas bonus.

It remained unclear Tuesday whether the pay increase would be extended to all district employees, as has previously been the case when the teachers union negotiated pay raises. District Superintendent Lonnie Barber is quoted in minutes from a negotiating session on May 4 as saying that the decision is up to the school board.

Barber is further quoted as saying, "We still believe what's good for one is good for the other. If the board makes the decision of what's good for one is good for all, then we support that."

If applied to all district employees, the 1 percent salary increase and 1 percent Christmas bonus would cost the district about $600,000.

The school board has not announced when it will consider the proposed new contract.

Funding for the pay increases would come from a reserve that the district has saved from a permanent "stabilization" levy that allows it to collect about $30 million annually from property owners for operating expenses.

According to minutes from a negotiating session on May 7, the reserve currently stands at about $14 million. However, district officials have said in the past that the reserve would be eroded within the next few years if pay increases continue and a program called "steps and ladders" remains in effect. Steps and ladders allows teachers to increase their pay rate through years of experience or by furthering their education.

In order to offset erosion of the reserve, the Education Association and district officials agreed on May 7 that a new salary structure for teachers would be implemented effective Oct. 15 that would reduce the pay for teachers hired after then by 12.3 percent.

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The new salary structure would have no effect on teachers currently employed, but would reduce the starting pay for a new teacher with only a bachelor's degree and no teaching experience from $39,913 to $35,000. At the high end of the pay scale, a new teacher with a master's degree and nine years of teaching experience would be paid an annual salary of $73,766, instead of $84,121.

The salary structure for new teachers was discussed at length during the May 7 bargaining session with negotiators justifying lower pay for new teachers because of lower living costs during the past few years in the Wood River Valley. However, negotiators further acknowledged that the new pay scale "could be risky" for drawing new teachers to the valley.

Another provision of the negotiated agreement is a 2.7 percent increase in district health benefit payments for teachers. The increase would cost the district $102,000 annually if applied to all district employees.

Negotiators further agreed to leave the steps and ladders program intact for the 2012-13 school year and to allow unused sick leave days to be converted into personal leave days.

Ratification

Ratification of the proposed contract was conducted at the Community Campus in Hailey for teachers in the Wood River Valley and at Carey School for teachers there.

Union representatives met with teachers in private for about an hour to discuss the new contract before a vote was taken.

As required by new Idaho law, the vote and the counting of votes was conducted in public.

Education Association President Tryntje Van Slyke said the teachers union currently has 204 members.

The proposed 2 percent pay increase for the 2012-13 school year follows another 2 percent pay increase approved by the school board last year and applied to all district employees.

Last year's increase followed two years when the teachers union agreed to freeze wages. However, in both those years some teachers still received salary increases through the steps and ladders program.

Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com

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