Lehighton Area School District ratified a one-year collective bargaining agreement with its teachers union Monday night.
The 158 members of the Lehighton Area Education Association had been working without a contract since Aug. 31.
Teacher retention and remaining competitive in the cur rent labor-short marketplace, district officials said, was a major focus of negotiations.
According to a news release from the district, the new pact increases salaries for a one-year period by an average of $3,751 from $62,101.00 to $65,852.
“In an effort to improve the district’s recruitment of faculty at a time when teachers are in short supply, the contract increases the existing average starting salary of $44,700 to $50,932,” the release states.
Average ending salaries increased from $78,654 to $79,882.
“This contract represents a major directional change for the district,” Board President Joy Beers said. “This new contract hopefully will meet the competitive marketplace for new and existing faculty salaries and, at the same time, for the benefit of our taxpayers, introduce a health benefit plan that more closely resembles the educational marketplace of our surrounding districts.”
The agreement calls for the introduction of a $250 single and a $500 family deductible on the plan, as well as the creation of a health savings account with a $2,000/$4,000 deductible. Healthcare contributions on the newly modified deductible plan have been adjusted to 5% of equivalent rates, not to exceed contributions of $1,600 in any year, and 7.5% of equivalent rates when wellness is not elected to not exceed a contribution of $2,400 per year.
Modifications to the Lehighton’s current no deductible health benefit program, district officials said, was one of the major issues in negotiations, which started last January.
Others, according to the news release, included “the competitiveness of the district’s salary schedule, anti-competitive restrictions in the salary schedule for placing teachers on the schedule above step three, and the continuation of the district’s inefficient and no longer educationally recommended block schedule at the high school.”
“We have made other changes in the collective bargaining agreement that will definitely lead to a more efficient operation of the district by moving away from block scheduling to regular scheduling for the high school, which other regional schools have done years ago,” Beers said. “However, our work is not done. We will continue our negotiations for a longer term contract, where we still have very important objectives to make additional changes to health care, eliminate more restrictive language issues in (the CBA), address antiquated procedures that do not adequately address the needs of students, and further provide for more time for staff professional development to address our ever-changing educational delivery environment.”
The contract, which has also been ratified by the union, was unanimously approved by Lehighton’s school board.
“It’s really great to have this in place,” Beers said. “Everyone worked hard. I know the teachers have. There is a lot of good on both sides of the fence here and I think this puts the kids first. We are hopeful that the collaboration that we developed with the union leadership for this one-year contract will continue in our ongoing discussions to update our CBA.”