Facing an operating deficit of more than $400,000 and a tax increase referendum looming in the not-to-distant future, the Riverside-Brookfield High School District 208 board went into negotiations for a new teachers’ contract determined to award base salary increases more modest than the 5-percent increases they agreed to three years ago.
They succeeded. The board and the Riverside Brookfield Education Association (RBEA) last week agreed on a new five-year contract that increases base salaries by an average of 2.78 percent increase over the length of the contract.
However with the automatic step increases, salary increases based on seniority that are common in every teachers’ contract, RB teachers will see annual salary increases averaging 5.58 percent over the life of the contract, according to RB Business Manager Chris Whelton.
Some teachers will receive raises of more than 7 percent, while others will receive raises of less than 4 percent, depending on their seniority.
The average full-time teacher’s salary at RB in 2007-08 is $76,737, according to information provided by RB.
Educational and instructional support employees, who are not certified teachers, will get 3.5 percent increases per year. They receive no step increases.
The contract, which expires after the 2012-13 school year, was hammered out during five months of negotiations that both parties called cordial and cooperative.
The contract was approved by the school board by a 5-1 vote on April 8. Karen Bensfield abstained from voting on the contract since her son, Bob, is a teacher at RB.
Laura Hruska cast the only vote against the contract, saying that she could not support it during a period of deficit spending. She added that the combined base and step increases were too much for the community to afford.
“I didn’t think the annual increase [step and base combined] took into account the taxpayers’ situation,” said Hruska.
What kind of annual increase would she have supported?
“Somewhere in the threes,” said Hruska.
But the other board members supported the contract.
“I think it’s fair to both parties,” said school board President Larry Herbst. “We’re still in a competitive market and we have to keep out salaries competitive.”
Personnel committee Chairman James Marciniak, Herbst, and board Vice President Susan Kleinmeyer made up the board’s negotiating team.
“The benefit of a five-year term is that we got some long-term stability in our financial outlook and our staffing outlook,” Marciniak said. “The goal that we sought of maintaining fiscal responsibility over the salary schedule I believe we met, to keep increases in line with the local market for teachers and in line with current economic conditions.”
The union approved the contract by a vote of 105-2 last month, according to Mark Gouwens, the president of the RBEA.
“I think the vote pretty much speaks for itself,” said Gouwens. “The membership of the association was happy with the contract. … The school board set up certain parameters from a fiscal standpoint that they wanted to work within, and both sides during the course of the five months worked within the parameters and the result was the contract.”
Teachers chip in on insurance
For the first time, teachers will pay a portion of their health insurance premiums for single coverage. Previously teachers paid 20 percent of the cost for family coverage, but the district paid the entire cost of single coverage.
Under the new contract teachers will pay a flat fee, not a percentage of premiums as is common in most other school districts and most private employers, of $250 for HMO coverage.
That fee does not increase throughout the term of the contract and currently covers just over 5 percent of the $4,933.68 premium for HMO coverage for single employee.
For PPO coverage the fee for a single employee increases from $250 in the first year of the contract to $450 in the final year of the contract in an attempt to encourage employees to choose the less expensive HMO option.
At Lyons Township High School, which serves the southern half of Brookfield, next year, employees will pay 20 percent of their heath insurance premiums.
Marciniak said that it was an important step to get employees to contribute to single coverage for the first time, and the flat fee was the best deal the board could get.
“This is a negotiated solution to what we were after,” said Marciniak.
Employees will for the first time get a prescription drug card with co-payments of $15, $30 or $50 depending on the type of drug. Physical therapy coverage is increased from $1,000 to $3,000 and dental coverage is increased from $1,000 to $1,500. For the first time, domestic partners of employees can be covered.
Stipends for coaches and club advisors were increased by 2.5 percent per year. Currently RB has more than 100 positions that received stipends.
The stipends next year will range from a low of either $679 or $803 for the advisor to Quill and Scroll to as much as $8,028 annually for positions such as athletic director, head football coach, head basketball coach, Student Association advisor and a few other positions.