By Lori Ehde
After nearly a year of negotiating, Luverne School District and the teachers union have reached agreement on a contract that should have been in effect at the start of the school year.
During a special noon meeting Tuesday, Luverne School Board members ratified the master contract between the district and the Luverne Education Association effective July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2003.
The two-year contract includes salary and benefit improvements that represent a total increase of 9.96 percent over the last contract.
As part of the agreement, starting pay for teachers increased from $25,844 to $28,643, bringing Luverne in line with the state average starting pay of $27,000.
"This makes it more attractive for hiring new staff," Superintendent Vince Schaefer said Tuesday.
According to the agreement, a change in the pay schedule in Luverne will also make it more attractive for teachers to stay long-term.
There are currently 19 step increases to reach the top of the scale, but the new agreement condenses those steps to 17.
Essentially this allows teachers to reach top pay more quickly, increasing their lifetime earnings.
LEA negotiator Doug Dooyema said the new contract is good for Luverne teachers, but he said it’s important to keep the numbers in perspective.
"Now we’re still just average," he said. "For us, the contract is good, but to attract teachers from other parts of the state, we’re still just average."
Overall, both parties are satisfied with the agreement and agree it’s good to have the contract settled.
During the last round of negotiations, Luverne teachers had requested a 12.16-percent total package increase, and the district was offering 9.75.
"The result is not totally what we wanted," Dooyema said, "but it's OK."
As part of Luverne’s new contract, teachers will have one additional Association leave day for a total of six days.
Compensation for curriculum and staff development increased from $17 per hour to $20.
The district's insurance contribution won’t change for the first year of the contract, 2001-2002. It contributes $1,862 for single and $5,286 for family. For 2002-03, the district’s insurance contribution increases to $2,106 for single and $6,100 for family.
Teachers will have one additional personal leave day for a total of three. The first and second personal day, teachers pay half of the substitute teacher pay and the day is deducted from sick leave. The third day is deducted from sick leave and the teacher pays full substitute pay.
In addition, the new contract changes severance language to exclude the word "continuous" from the statement that teachers are eligible at age 55 with 20 years of (continuous) full-time service.
Lack of deadline lengthens negotiations
Contracts are typically signed in the fall, after the legislative session is complete and after school districts know how much state funding they'll receive.
Nearly all Minnesota contracts are usually settled by year end because of a Jan. 15 deadline that if violated causes districts to lose $25 per student in state aid.
This year, with the legislative wrap-up months overdue, contract negotiations were delayed and the state approved a one-time waiver of the deadline.
Consequently Luverne joins three quarters of the districts statewide reaching a settlement on teacher contracts late into spring.
Structural balance
At that same meeting Tuesday, School Board members approved a resolution for Structural Balance, as required by the Minnesota Department of Children Families and Learning.
By law, districts must submit structurally balanced budgets to the CFL to assure the public that "expenditures will not exceed available funds as a consequence of approving a collective bargaining agreement."
Highlights of the worksheet presented to the board show the settlement will not break the district. It shows a current fund balance in the general fund of $2.4 million.
Accounting for increasing expenses and decreasing revenues in the next three years, however, that balance is predicted to dwindle to $1.3 million by 2004.
That amount includes the $800,000 set aside for technology - money that was to remain untouched and generate interest to be spent on technology.
Salaries, which are paid from the general fund, account for nearly half of the general fund expenditures - roughly $5 million by 2003. That’s figuring 99.56 full-time equivalent staff members.
Luverne's Structural Balance worksheet can be viewed on the CFL Web site at www.educ.state.mn.us.
Arbitration ruling
As a side note to the contract, an arbitrator recently ruled on the side of the district in a grievance filed by teachers as a sideline to negotiations.
Operating without a contract for much of the 2001-02 year, teachers asked for their step increases prior to the contract being settled.
Step increases for all positions total roughly $85,000 for a year, and teachers wanted access to the money they said was rightfully theirs.
The district maintained those increases would be paid out retroactively once the contract was settled.
The arbitrator, an objective representative from the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services, heard both sides during a March 5 four-hour hearing.
That ruling came down on the side of the district, and step increases will be paid retroactively to July 1, 2001.