New agreement holds base salaries at current levels
BY TERRY SMITH
The Blaine County School District Board of Trustees and the district teachers’ union have approved a new contract for the coming school year that provides for no increases in teacher base salaries.
The school board unanimously approved the new agreement at its monthly meeting on May 10, and the teachers’ union, formally known as the Blaine County Education Association, ratified the agreement in a vote taken on Thursday, May 12.
The new agreement was reached after four negotiating sessions that ended on Friday, May 6.
The teachers’ union approved the agreement by a vote of 114-32. The union has 258 members, but the agreement applies to all teachers, whether or not they are members of the union.
Voting took place after school hours at the Community Campus in Hailey, at Hemingway Elementary School in Ketchum and at Carey School. Voting was preceded by closed union meetings, but the vote, as required by state law, was made in public.
The school board vote approving the new contract by 5-0 came near the end of a lengthy board meeting that lasted more than four hours.
“Zero percent on the pay, but we did allow steps and lanes,” district Business Manager Mike Chatterton, one of the district representatives in negotiations, told the school board prior to the vote.
The “steps and lanes” program Chatterton referred to is a salary schedule that allows teachers to increase their base salaries with increased years of service or increased education credits or degrees.
Chatterton said the steps and lanes salary increases will cost the district about $368,000 in Fiscal Year 2017.
The agreement also provided for an increase in district contributions to health insurance premiums, which will go up in FY2017, of $246,000 a year.
Trustee Rob Clayton, who participated in the negotiations, told the board that he was impressed with the way the talks were handled.
“I think that the process was quite fair, well thought out and well managed, and I think that the process was a win-win for all those involved,” Clayton said.
Editor’s note: Weekly Sun staff reporter Jean Jacques Bohl assisted with this report.
