Laurel teachers contract detailed
While most teachers in the Laurel Highlands School District will receive annual salary increases in their new three-year contract that begins next week, the salaries at four early levels in the salary scale will remain frozen at their current rates. The school board and teachers union both approved the new contract during meetings earlier this week. Terms of the new deal, which go into effect Aug. 25, were released to the public Thursday.
School director James F. Burns, who served on the negotiation team with school board member Cathy Rice, said the district will save $1.25 million in salaries and benefits in the first year of the contract.
According to the contract, teachers at the first step of the salary scale will receive a $500 increase in 2005-06, $1,000 in 2006-07 and $1,500 in 2007-08. For teachers at the sixth level and higher, they will receive a $600 increase in 2005-06, and $1,500 increases in both the second and third year of the contract.
Teachers who move from step 14 to 15 on the salary scale will receive their scheduled increase, which in 2005-06 will be $14,200. For teachers at the top of the salary scale, their three-year average salary increase is 1.5 percent.
According to information provided by the district, the projected 2005-06 payroll is $11,993,660, a decrease of $826,640 from the payroll for 2004-05.
The district’s average salary increase is 1.1 percent annually over the life of the deal, the information states.
According to the terms of the contract, teachers that retire in the first year of the contract will continue on the district’s group health insurance coverage, with the district paying the premium, until the retiree turns 65. Teachers have to be at least age 50 to qualify for the incentive.
In the two other years of the contract, teachers wishing to take advantage of the incentive must be at least age 55, and the district will pay health insurance premiums for nine years or until the retiree reaches the age of 65, whichever happens first. Retirees can exchange 150 unused sick days for a 10th year of health care coverage paid by the district.
Sheba said the incentive is included, but it’s likely that very few teachers will take advantage of the package for its entire length because of retirement penalties assessed by the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System. He said those penalties can add up to 5.5 percent per year annually until the employee turns 65.
Retiring teachers will be paid $100 per day for all unused sick days, and those who exchange sick days for an additional year of health care coverage will be paid $50 per unused day that remains.
Sheba said the incentive saves the district by keeping teachers in the classroom and preventing them from using sick days. The district would pay more if a teacher used a year or two of sick days while collecting a salary and benefits from the district and then pay salary and benefits for a long-term substitute teacher.
The district will pay for full coverage for all members, though employees will now be required to make $10 co-pays for doctor’s office visits, and pay $10 for generic prescription drugs and $20 for brand name prescription drugs.
“From our standpoint, we didn’t want to go longer than three years because of the health care issues,” Sheba said. “We won’t know what our costs are by then, so that will give us another chance to negotiate.”
For health care, the teachers will now be covered under a mandatory preferred provider organization (PPO), which will save the district $426,751 annually, according to the school district.
Sheba said the union has agreed in principle to meet with retirees and discuss converting their coverage to a PPO, a move that could further reduce district health care costs.
He said teachers agreed to more hours of free time and supported a change in the itinerant grouping at the elementary level.
The new contract eliminates a $10,000 cash incentive for any teacher who decides to retire after it goes into effect.
“For the community, students and parents, I’m happy that both sides were able to come to an agreement,” Sheba said. “Although negotiations were difficult at times for both sides, I’m happy we settled this contract without interruption in the school year.”
Beverly Beal, one of three school board members who voted against the contract, said the deal will result in a tax increase.
“It’s not because I’m against the teachers. Working in the school district all the years I did, I know how valuable our teachers are,” she said. “But in the last contract, which I had no part of, we gave a lot away and we’re hurting now because of that.”
Beal said she has no problem with the length of the contract, but she does not support offering health care coverage for up to 10 years after a teacher retires, nor is she in favor of paying $100 for unused sick days, unless a cap was built into the pact.
“I don’t see how we can give nine years of insurance because we don’t know down the road what that insurance is going to cost us. I don’t know of any other employer that gives that kind of insurance,” she said. “Down the road, not this year and maybe not the next year, but in that third year, we’re going to have to hit the taxpayers again. We just don’t have the money.”
Burns said the contract negotiations required much time, but all parties have accepted the results of that work
“We reached a mutual accord and the votes by both sides show that it was supported,” he said. “The district has a framework it can live with and the teachers have their salary increases.”