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Schools, teachers settle on pay raises
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
INVERNESS -- After the School Board set more money on the table, teachers reached a tentative contract agreement Wednesday that includes pay raises of at least $1,200 and the gradual elimination of a salary inequity that affects some veteran teachers. The settlement came after teams from the teachers' union and school administration spent several hours Wednesday morning with a mediator. They had spent a day with the same mediator last week. The union is known as the Citrus County Education Association. Its chief negotiator, Pat Allen, said she hoped teachers would vote on the contract the week of April 28. That would allow the board to consider the contract during its next regular meeting May 13. The union has argued that the school district has padded its budget and could find additional dollars for teachers. Teachers declared an impasse in January when they insisted the School Board find more money to help veteran teachers penalized by a five-year experience cap that limits, for salary purposes, the amount of experience teachers can claim for work they did outside Citrus County. The contract package that the union accepted will cost the district $1.9-million including benefits, compared with the $1.7-million package previously offered. Allen said her team was happy to see the additional dollars set on the table by the board. "They (board members) knew that we knew where the money was," Allen said. "I think that really made the difference." The proposal gives across-the-board pay raises of $1,200 retroactive to July 1. For teachers who have already topped out on the 16th step of the pay scale, the pay raise would be $2,000. That would bring the starting salary for a beginning teacher to $27,600. For teachers who were hired while the five-year-cap on experience was in place, the union agreed to the administration's plan to "buy back" three years retroactive to Jan. 1. Then, during the school year that begins July 1, the district will add a line item to the budget buying back three more years. Whatever years might still remain for some teachers would then be bought back in 2004-05. In other words, a teacher with extensive experience who was hired under the cap would gain up to three years on the salary scale immediately and up to six years by July 1. Allen said that arrangement should satisfy the "cappers," as they have called themselves. They have been very vocal about getting their pay raised to what other teachers with the same experience earn. Several dozen even appeared before the School Board last week to plead their case. "We worked very hard for them," Allen said. "We think that everybody is going to be pleased with this." She credited the mediator, Conrad Bowling, for helping her team decide what issues were most critical, bringing the stalemate to a close. Ed Murphy, chief administration negotiator, agreed that the mediator helped bring the talks to a close. He said his team was pleased with the result. "We were given a little bit more (money) by the board and everyone is appreciative of that," Murphy said. "It certainly meets the board's intentions of doing what was needed." In addition to agreeing on salary and a fix for the five-year cap, the tentative pact also includes a plan to add $30 per month to the amount provided by the school district toward health insurance premiums beginning July 1. That is equal to the amount of the premium increase for coverage on a single person this current year. Murphy said the negotiations had come to a good end. "I was watching Moonstruck last night and there was a full moon," he quipped. "It all fell into place." The Teamsters contract is also slated to come to the board for ratification May 13, provided the school system's blue-collar workers approve it. The third union for school workers under the CCEA, which includes teacher aides and clerks, still has not settled a contract. Talks continue next week. -- Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com
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