SWEET HOME SCHOOLS
Sweet Home School Board OKs 3-year teachers pact
The Sweet Home School Board Tuesday night voted, 6-2, to approve a three-year contract with the Sweet Home Teachers Association, setting a new salary schedule and benefits through the 2011-12 school year.
Teachers will receive an annual 2 percent increase in pay over the next three years. Teachers at the top of the schedule will see an annual boost of 2.4 percent. The agreement requires teachers to contribute an additional 10 percent to the total cost of health care premiums or accept a plan with fewer benefits and higher co-pays. The new contribution rate is expected to ease district cost increases by an estimated $590,000.
The new contract also will add an additional 30 minutes of class time to the elementary school day.
Opinions on the contract were mixed.
One School Board member criticized the pay increases as risky, especially given the current economic downturn.
“The importance of teachers is so great to a community, and they deserve any increase we can afford,” said board member Dirk Rabenold. “But with enrollment shrinking and the cuts in state funding, I can’t support a raise.”
In a news release, Superintendent Geoffery Hicks said the agreement represented a fair settlement for teachers in the district.
“Recognizing the difficult economic times we are in,” he said, “the Teachers Association and the district were able to put together an agreement that will help contain the exorbitant rise in health care costs through increasing member contributions to the premiums, while enhancing the education program at the elementary level through increased instruction times.”
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