School News

Last Updated on Monday, 30 May 2016 00:50

The Peters Township School District and Peters Township Federation of Teachers (PTFT) have reached an agreement and a new contract has been approved by both the PTFT and the Board of School Directors in meetings that took place May 16.

The agreement comes after several meetings that took place at the request of the arbitration panel. The new contract is a six year agreement that is retroactive to the start of the 2015-2016 school year and expires on June 30, 2021.

Details of the approved contract include:

• A salary scale freeze with step-movement only for the first two years of the contract for steps 2-16; and $500 and $750 increases for step 17 in years one and two.
• Salary increases of $1,200 annually for teachers on steps 2-16, and $1,000 for step 17 in the remaining four years of the contract.
• The “jump step” that occurs at step 17 will be split into parts A and B, with 50% of the increase for the first half of the year and the remaining 50% in the second half, reducing the impact on the District budget.
• Contributions to existing health plans would increase 78% for individuals and 65% for families over the life of the contract. Two additional lower cost plans will be offered. These additional plans are lower cost to both the District and the employee.
• An increase in the length of the teacher day in the final year of the contract to 7.75 hours.

“Our goal from the start was to settle the contract in a way that was responsible to the community and fair for our teachers,” said Dr. Jamison Hardy, a school board member on the negotiating team.

A primary focus of both parties was ensuring that the new contract was fiscally responsible, and kept the District on par with comparable districts both academically and economically in our region.

“We believe it is a fair deal for both the Federation and District,” said Kris Bergman, 6th grade teacher and President of the PTFT. “We wanted to remain competitive with other top tier academic schools in our area, and this contract achieves that.”

“Both sides have worked very hard to come to this agreement,” said Dr. Jeannine French, Superintendent of Schools. “We know that this process has not been easy on anyone involved, and I am grateful that we are now moving forward together.”