Board approves teacher contract

The Sisters School Board gave its approval in principle to the certified contract for the 2012-2013 school year Wednesday night in a 4-0 vote (board chair Christine Jones attended by phone and therefore could not vote).

The contract will be wordsmithed, and then signed by the board chair and the president of the union to make it official.

"I feel very good about the negotiations," said Superintendent Jim Golden. "Chris and I and the attorneys felt that we've cut the best deal of any district in Central Oregon... I want to credit the teachers; they passed it (the contract) 36 to 4. It was a good team effort."

The contract has no cost of living increase (COLA), no insurance cap increase, and step-and-column increases for 2012-2013 deferred indefinitely. The school calendar was reduced by six days, two at the end of the year just completed and four next year, leaving 177 student contact days for all three schools for the school year 2012-2013.

This compares with 174.5 days for Bend-La Pine high schools (only 171 for elementary), 173 days for Crook County, 168 for Jefferson County and 162 days for Redmond (159 for elementary).

The board and the superintendent consistently credit "local option" for keeping Sisters school contact days high and the number of students per teacher low. The local option, a 75-cents-per-$1,000 of valuation property tax, comes up for a renewal in November.

Golden indicated that if the school's funding situation radically improved at the February revenue forecast (major increase in student enrollment, a solution to the PERS funding problem, a significant increase in allocation from the state legislature) the district agreed to sit down and reevaluate the very conservative contract.

"I can't emphasize enough how much we had a spirit of cooperation and reasonableness from leadership of the teachers' association," said board member Glen Lasken.

Jones said, "I think the teachers were very reasonable and understanding of the district's financial position."

Coming to agreement on the number of school days cleared the way to finalize the school calendar for school year 2012-2013.

"This is the cleanest calendar ever," said Golden

Once the number of school days were set, the goals of balanced trimesters, and maximizing the number of full weeks are applied. Competing goals included starting after Labor Day, a one-week spring break, and getting out before the Sisters Rodeo.

For the 2012-2013 calendar year, school will start after Labor Day and at least graduation will be before the rodeo. As it worked out, due to the four days lost, there will be a two-week spring break next year.

The calendar also does away with "finals week." Students will have full days during finals with tests in the morning and regular classes for study in the afternoon. This is expected to make things easier for parents with kids in high school that also have kids in middle or elementary school. It also eliminates one bus route.