School district negotiates teacher contracts

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and bargaining team for the teachers and support staff unions have reached a tentative contract agreement.
Contract negotiations have been ongoing since the beginning of last year, and this contract, if it passes, will be retroactively applied over 2009 and expire in June 2012. Union representatives will hold meetings in Homer, Seward and the central Kenai Peninsula in upcoming weeks to present the terms of the agreement and answer questions about it, and union membership will have an opportunity to vote on it. The contract also must be ratified by the KPBSD Board of Education. If union membership or the school board fails to ratify the contract, it’s back to the negotiating table.
The district and negotiating team have been operating under the Interest-Based Bargaining system, where both sides rate how long they expect each contract issue to take to resolve, and they proceed from the issues both sides expect to be quick, to those that are expected to take more time. According to an update posted under the Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association section of the unions’ Web site, in February, 80 percent of the contract issues had been agreed upon. Since then, negotiations have hinged on the remaining 20 percent of the contract issues — those related to salary and benefits.
Negotiations were put on hold over spring and summer breaks, and reconvened this fall. By September, health care was the remaining stumbling block, followed by determining the duration of the contract, which is traditionally the last thing to be decided. According to an update posted under the KPESA section Oct. 20, the district and unions came close to going to arbitration over health care issues in September, but went back to the table in October and hammered out a consensus.
Under the rules of Interest-Based Bargaining, decisions to issue press releases or comment to the media are to be made by both sides jointly. Kenai Peninsula Education Association President LaDawn Druce and KPBSD Human Resources Director Tim Peterson said Monday that they did not wish to comment until the contract has been voted on.
The unions have posted summaries of changes to the contracts on their Web site, http://kpea-kpesa.org.

KPEA contract changes
• An increase of $3,000 is added to every salary cell in 2009-2010, an increase of 2 percent added in 2010-11 and 2011-12, with an additional 2 percent for longevity in 2011-12.
• Extracurricular pay (for coaching sports, etc.) will be tied to the base salary schedule. So instead of coaches getting a flat amount, their extracurricular compensation will be related to their salary, which increases with their years of experience and qualifications.
• Heath care contributions for union members are increasing. In 2009-2010, the district will pay $950, and the employee $175 a month. In 2010-11 and 2011-12, that increases to a district contribution of $975 and an employee contribution of $200. In the third year of the contract, if an employee wants to cover a spouse or children, their contribution increases by $10 for a spouse, $5 for each child up to four, or $30 for family coverage.
• The number of unused leave days able to be cashed in at the end of the school year increases from three to four.
• A committee shall be formed, with KPEA representation, during the 2009-10 school year to research the feasibility of implementing an automated system for finding substitutes.
• Members will now be allowed to donate sick leave and receive donations of sick leave from eligible members with a cap of 20 days.

KPESA contract changes
• Salary increase of 4 percent in 2009-10 and 2 percent in 2010-11, with an added “initial” pay level category in 2010-11. The following year, the number of salary level steps will be condensed, with the net effect being support staff personnel will move through the levels to higher pay categories faster than they do now. On average, that will result in a 2 percent pay increase that year.
• Employees leaving without giving two weeks notice will not be eligible to be rehired.
• All support employees, regardless of how many hours they work, will be able to cash in up to three days unused personal leave at the end of the year, increased from two days.
• Same changes to health care contributions as the KPEA contract.

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