Sisters teachers get raise

Sisters teachers will get a pay raise starting this school year.

Representatives for the Sisters teachers and the school board agreed in a Friday, August 22, bargaining session, to raise salaries 6 percent over two years.

However, teachers will get the raise in small increments over two years, which administrators believe will make the increase affordable for the district.

"It allows us, with a tight cash year, to get on our feet without cuts or reductions," said superintendent Steve Swisher.

Kirk Albertson, spokesman for the teachers, said "I am pleased and happy that we could come up with something everyone felt good about. I'm pleasantly surprised."

Albertson had noted during negotiations that Sisters teachers earned less than other Central Oregon teachers. Even after the salary increase, he believes Sisters teachers will only be "treading water." But, he added, "getting an increase is a positive situation considering where we started."

The teachers will receive a 1-1/2 percent increase during 1997-98. The school board may tap its $100,000 contingency fund about $30,000 to fund the salary increases.

According to school board chairman Bill Reed, 2 percent translates into about $30,000 "when you include total costs, district-wide."

Total costs include identical raises for the certified, or non-teaching, employees of the district, as well as all the costs that accompany a salary increase, such as additional social security and workers compensation contributions.

During negotiations Reed said that, "This basically leaves us with no reserves and having to use half our contingency. We are tapped out, but we are trying to get you, over the course of two years, to where you want to be."

But Swisher explained later that the contingency will be tapped only as a last resort, and that there ultimately may be other methods of funding the additional costs.

During negotiations Reed told teachers, "the board does recognize your hard work and wants to figure out whether there is a win-win situation so the board is not forced to cut people or programs."

During 1998-99, teachers will receive a 4-1/2 percent total increase. The board is better able to cope with a higher raise at this time because the state's biennium funding formula allocates more money in the 1998-99 budget.

Though the teachers' contracts were to have expired next year, the parties have agreed to extend the contracts an additional year, through 1998-99. The contracts will be based on the present salary agreement.

A change in the wording of the contracts, proposed by the teachers, allows school administrators to apply written reprimands, reductions in rank or salary and suspensions without pay only for "just cause." Dismissals, non-renewal of contracts and oral reprimands will not be subject to the new just cause provision.

School superintendent Steve Swisher pointed out that this would allow a teacher subject to one of these forms of discipline to arbitrate the issue; this could cost the district roughly an additional $1,200 per arbitration.

Though the teachers wanted the administration to raise its cap of about $415 per month for medical, dental, vision and life insurance premiums, they agreed to accept the present amount.

Teacher and administration representatives will form a committee to examine issues such as insurance carrier options that might save money.

Ultimately, the teachers still may choose their insurance carrier, as long as they stay within the premium cap imposed by the board.

Superintendent Swisher lauded the effort of the local teachers, saying that he believes the final agreement "was the end product of the local teachers looking at the data, and looking for a way to compromise."

"Steve Swisher was an instrumental part in making this work," Albertson said. "He was the real potent ingredient in the mix - his influence carried the day."