Connellsville school board to vote on teachers’ contract
CONNELLSVILLE — The Connellsville Area School Board is set to vote Wednesday on a new contract for district teachers that could span seven years.
A collective bargaining agreement between the district and the teachers’ union, the Connellsville Area Education Association (CAEA), is on the table after teachers have gone without one for 16 months.
The previous three-year contract expired July 1, 2016. The new contract, if approved, would be retroactive to that date, said district Superintendent Phil Martell.
School officials have remained tight-lipped on the specifics of the contract. They will be released Wednesday, Martell said.
In addition to the CAEA, district administrators could receive a new contract Wednesday if the board approves an administrative compensation plan for a period of five years.
The agreement applies to district principals and administrative assistants in the district’s central office. Martell said administrators will take a pay freeze during a portion of the five-year contract.
School directors will vote on two additional items Wednesday that will impact the majority of district employees.
The board is slated to vote on two resolutions that, if passed, will change the district’s health care participation from the Intermediate Unit 1 Health Insurance Consortium to the Allegheny County School Health Insurance Consortium (ACSHIC) at the start of 2018.
The resolutions cite the district’s efforts to reduce costs and to maximize employee benefits as the impetus for the switch.
Martell said joining the ACSHIC would result in “significant savings” to the district, which spends about $9 million a year on health care costs.
According to one resolution, participation in the plan will save the district $700,000.
The ACSHIC represents over 18,000 school district employees and retirees at 41 school districts, four vocational schools and one Intermediate Unit in southwestern Pennsylvania, according to the consortium’s website. It receives health care coverage through Highmark BlueCross BlueShield.
If school directors vote in favor of the change, they would also need to approve Wednesday memorandums of understanding for district clerical and custodial workers to extend health care coverage to those employees, said Martell.
The board will also vote to approve a flexible fringe benefits plan for district employees through American Fidelity to kick in Jan. 1.