Note: This story has been updated with additional information from Saucon Valley Education Association chief negotiator Rich Simononis.
The Saucon Valley School Board made what it is calling its “bottom line” teacher contract proposal public Friday afternoon “in the spirit of transparency,” posting it on the teacher contract negotiations section of the school district website and announcing that it will remain on the table until April 10.
The update describes the latest events in the tumultuous, nearly-three year history of new contract negotiations in the district as follows:
(1) On Feb. 26 the State appointed mediator met with the Saucon Valley Education Association (SVEA) leadership to review the Board’s bottom line contract proposal, which was designed to address the vast majority of the major issues raised by the current SVEA negotiating committee.
(2) The SVEA acknowledged that the Board’s bottom line proposal was likely going to become an on-the-record proposal, and that the Board would likely make its new proposal public.
(3) In the spirit of transparency and in recognition of 3 1/2 years of negotiations, the Board has decided to make its bottom line proposal public effective immediately, and has decided to keep this proposal on the bargaining table until April 10, 2015, after which time the bottom line proposal will be withdrawn and the previous proposal of the board will be reinstated.
(4) The Board believes this bottom line offer is extremely generous (over $1 million in retroactive salary or about 8.5 percent of the total salary budget for teacher’s salaries in 2014-15) and is very competitive with contracts recently negotiated and approved by other Lehigh Valley schools.
The board’s latest six-year contract proposal calls for teachers to pay more for healthcare, with monthly premiums increasing to $85 for an individual or $190 for a family plan, as well as a $500 annual deductible for an individual or $1,000 for a family.
Currently, teachers pay a $250 annual deductible for single coverage and a $500 annual deductible for family coverage. There is a $45 monthly premium for single coverage and a $95 premium for family coverage under the current contract.
All of the five school districts that recently approved new contracts–including Bethlehem Area, East Penn, Parkland, Salisbury and Whitehall-Coplay–require teachers to pay an annual deductible of at least $500/$1,000, according to the information posted in a contract comparison chart that is included with the update.
According to that chart, the top-level salary under the new contract proposal would be $97,820, which would be higher than the highest salary in four of the five school districts’ whose numbers the district provided for comparison. The only district with a higher top salary according to those numbers would be Parkland ($98,274), which also requires an annual deductible of $750 for an individual or $1,500 for a teacher’s family health plan.
The full-time average teacher pay for the first year of the contract (2012-2013) would increase to $69,386 under the terms proposed in the board’s latest offer.
In response to the offer announced Friday, Saucon Valley Education Association chief negotiator Rich Simononis said he was under the impression from the school board and its attorney, Jeffrey Sultanik, that contract negotiations in public were “finished.”
The union has crafted its own “new proposal that we feel addresses (the) concerns of the board” and “it is our intention to present this proposal to the board as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the SVEA “will continue to bargain in good faith.”
Simononis declined to release details of the SVEA’s proposal, citing the fact that the union and the school board remain at the bargaining table.
“We are in active negotiations which I was told were ‘off the record,'” he said. “We will honor that.”
The current teacher contract negotiations in the Saucon Valley School District have been marked by tension, finger-pointing and–at times–the threat of a strike, with teachers last fall calling some of the board’s public positions during contract talks “intellectually dishonest,” and its behavior disrespectful to teachers.
A hearing on a charge brought by the school board of regressive bargaining–an unfair labor practice in Pennsylvania that involves making less favorable offers over time–was held before a state labor board official late last year. A decision in that case is yet to be handed down, but the official compared the relationship between the Saucon Valley Education Association and the school district to a bad marriage.
Teachers have been working without a contract since their old one expired on June 30, 2012. Key sticking points in negotiating a new one have been salaries, the cost of health care and reimbursement as well as the approval process for graduate credits.
