Schools

Centennial School Board To Once Again Discuss Teachers' Contracts

After being tabled for further discussion at the last meeting, Centennial School District's teachers contracts are the top item on the board of school director's meeting agenda for this evening.

The Centennial School Board is scheduled to vote on a contract for the district's teachers this evening.

But several board members are wary of the implications of the and are encouraging members of the public to come out to tonight's meeting and ask for more details before the contract is put to a vote.

"The direction the board gave at '," said Board Member Mark Miller. "But we haven't had the time to fully evaluate the implications [of this contract]."

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He said if the proposed contract is adopted this evening, budget projections have the district in almost $35 million dollars of debt by 2016.

According to Miller the members of the school board are scheduled to review the proposed contract in total at an executive session meeting at 5:30 p.m. this evening, and then are expected to vote on the measure at the 7 p.m. board meeting.

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Miller said the board needs to investigate how much this contract will cost and how will the district fund it. He said he is unsure why this is rolling forward so quickly, especially when the level of funding that the district will receive from the state is still unknown.

"We need to stop this moving forward like a freight train," he said.

One of the areas that raised particular concern is what the proposed contract will require teachers to contribute towards their health insurance premiums.

Miller said based on claims experience the indication right now is that the projected premium increase for the health insurance plans for teachers will be roughly 12% a year.

However, sources said the proposed contract only asks teachers to pay a flat fee – roughly an additional $60 per year per member over the life of the contract.

"I think the public only wants something fair," said Miller. "And for everyone to be paying more for health care and for the education association to be paying less is just not equitable."

Board Member Cyndi Mueller agrees with Miller.

"We asked for a percentage contribution (for health care) from support staff, why not from the teachers?" she said. "How is it fair that a bus driver, who makes considerably less than a teacher in the district, is asked to pay expodentially more for their health insurance?"

Mueller said Centennial isn't like other districts, in that the teachers have several additional benefits already built into their contract, such as tuition reimbursement.

 "," said Mueller.

She said what most people don't realize is that the way teacher's contracts are structured a "step raise" is given for each year of service, regardless of whether or not a raise is given across the matrix.

“I don’t think the general public understands what the 'matrix' means," said Mueller. "A teacher can just show up in September and even if there is a zero increase they are still moving up a step in the scale and will therefore be receiving a raise."

Both Miller and Mueller encourage members of the public to come out to tonight's meeting and make their thoughts on the proposed contract known to the board.

Members of the Centennial Education Association, the barganing unit representing the professional staff of the Centennial School District, could not be reached for comment.

The Centennial School Board meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the board room of the district's administration building, 433 Centennial Road, Warminster.

See attached pdf document for a partial copy of the current agreement between Centennial School District and the Centennial Education Association.


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