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Schools

CB School District, Teachers Close to an Accord

"Groundbreaking" contract settlement would fundamentally change the way teachers are compensated

After nearly 18 months of negotiations, the Central Bucks School Board and its teachers union appear to be on the brink of a groundbreaking contract agreement. 

At the heart of the proposed contract, hammered out last month with the help of a mediator, is a new streamlined salary matrix designed to slow salary growth; a one-year “hard” pay freeze; and increased teacher contributions for healthcare benefits.

Overall, the deal would give teachers net pay increases of 1.8% per year while increasing the district’s payroll by only about a quarter-percent per year. 

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“If you value teachers, it’s hard not to say this is a good contract for the district and a fair contract for the teachers,” said district labor attorney Fred D’Angelo. 

D’Angelo outlined details of the four-year deal for the school board and the public Tuesday night. Central Bucks Education Association President Keith Sinn presented it to his membership Tuesday afternoon but declined to say whether a vote had been taken.

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The school board is scheduled to vote on the deal at its June 28 meeting; Sinn said only that he would announce the membership’s decision before then. 

“The [financial] challenges facing the district are real,” he said. “We looked at these negotiations as an opportunity to help solve the collective problem.”

Earlier, D'Angelo said the union was voting Tuesday, and he expected a positive outcome.

"They're voting right now," he said, adding "I have no reason to believe it won't be ratified."

Contract Holds the Line on District Costs

If the deal is approved, D’Angelo said the district’s salary costs for its 1,283 teachers will drop from $97 million in 2009-2010 to $93 million in 2010-2011 because of the salary freeze and retirements.

The costs will go up to $93.8 million in 2011-2012, to $97.6 million in 2012-13 and $99.7 million in 2013-2014. The net increase from 2009-2010 until the end of the contract is projected to be $2.7 million or 2.8 percent, an average of .7 percent per year.

Projections for the final two years of the deal are based on the district's teaching staff remaining unchanged. The reality, said D'Angelo, is that costs will probably be lower because of retirements, when highly-paid veteran teachers are replaced by younger, lower-paid teachers.

Most public school teachers, including those in Central Bucks, are paid according to a salary matrix that takes into consideration years of experience as well as education levels. A new teacher just out of college, for example, earns about $44,000, while a teacher with a Master's degree and many years of experience earns from $95,000 to $101,000.

In Central Bucks, many teachers are at or near the top of the salary scale, D'Angelo said.

The current CB matrix includes 15 steps for experience, and six columns for education levels - Bachelors degree, Bachelors degree plus 12 credits, Bachelors plus 24 credits, Masters degree, Masters plus 15 credits and Masters plus 30 credits.

The proposed contract would trim the matrix to four columns - Bachelors, Bachelors plus 24 credits, Masters, and Masters plus 30 credits. It also would eliminate the bumps in pay for years of experience after the sixth year in the two bachelors columns. To get pay raises after that, teachers would have to earn a Master's degree.

"Our goal was that all of the teachers in Central Bucks achieve their Master's degree," D'Angelo said.

It would also impose restrictions on the types of courses teachers can take to earn educational credits that would bump them up the pay scale. Though some online credits will be allowed, most will have to be earned "the old-fashioned way" - by sitting in a classroom, D'Angelo said.

D'Angelo said reconfiguring the salary matrix was a major objective of the school board.

Also, for the first time, bad teachers will be penalized by having pay raises withheld. Teachers' performances are reviewed annually and rated either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, D'Angelo said.

"We don't have many teachers who are rated unsatisfactory," D'Angelo said. "These are quality people But it does happen occasionally, and this is the first time pay will be tied to it."

He added, "Two 'unsatisfactories' and you won't be teaching here any more."

Teachers Will Pay More for Healthcare

The contract also calls for significant changes to the teachers' healthcare benefits, which will produce a savings the district will use to offset some of the salary increases.

CB teachers would see their share of health insurance premiums go up one percent per year, from 12.5 percent currently to 13.5 percent next year, 14.5 percent in 2012-13 and 15.5 percent in 2013-14. With the average annual cost of a family benefit plan at about $24,000, teachers would be paying from $250 per month in the first year to $310 per month in the last year. 

D’Angelo said the increased premium contributions, along with some changes to deductibles and co-pays, will save the district the equivalent of a half-percent of the salary increases. In 2011-2012, the savings will be $450,000; in 2012-2013 it will be $575,000, and in 2013-2014 it will be $625,000. 

For example, the deductible for visiting a hospital Emergency Room will increase from $35 to $100. Teachers will also pay a $75 per day deductible for the first five days of hospitalization and a $50 deductible ($100 per family) deductible for prescriptions. The co-pay for formulary drugs will increase by $5 to $25 and for non-formulary drugs by $10 to $45.

Here’s a year-by-year breakdown of the proposed contract:

2010-2011 (current year). Under what D’Angelo called “a hard freeze” teachers will not receive any increases for either step or column movement. 

2011-2012. Again, there will be no increases for step and column movement. However, the salary matrix will be reconfigured to smooth out uneven step movements. Teachers at the top and bottom of the matrix will not receive any pay increases, but those in between will see raises averaging 3.1 percent. 

2012-2013. For the first time since 2009-2010, teachers will be able to move a step and into a new column, if their degree/credits have changed. On July 1, 2012, the district will increase the overall salary matrix by one percent. It will be the first pay increase since July 2009 for teachers at the top of the scale  (about 30 percent of the staff). Overall, the pay increases will average 3.9 percent.

In July 2012, the Bachelor +12 column will be eliminated and the Bachelor and Bachelor +24 columns will stop at Step 6.

On June 30, 2013, the Masters + 15 column will be eliminated. No teachers will be able to move into that column, but those already there will continue to receive step increases.

2013-2014. Teachers will have to wait until January 1, 2014 for their step and column movement pay increases. At that time, the salary matrix will be increased by one percent. Overall, salaries will increase by 1.9 percent. 

Board members thanked the negotiating teams on both sides for conducting the talks in a professional, respectful manner. 

“At no time was there ever any sabre rattling,” said D’Angelo.

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