A provisional contract agreement was reached Wednesday evening in negotiations between the Perry Education Association (PEA) and the Perry Community School District (PCSD) Board of Directors.
As the school board’s initial offer in March indicated, the bulk of the contract’s provisions have either been deleted because they were illegal or moved to a non-binding employee handbook because they were “permissive,” and the Perry School Board opted not to permit them in the contract.
“We had mediation last night and reached a tentative agreement,” PEA President Jenn Nelson said Thursday. “We lost almost all permissive items. The only permissive of substance we’re keeping is leaves of absence.”
On the question of base salary, which is the only contract term the school district is legally obligated to negotiate with the teachers union, the offer on the table is for a $460 increase on the base salary. This 3.3 percent increase package is composed of a 1.4 percent increase in wages and a 1.9 percent increase in the insurance benefit. The base salary for a PCSD teacher with a bachelor’s degree is currently $31,751.
The following is the list of articles in the 2017 master contract. The stricken articles were either prohibited as illegal by the Iowa Legislature in 2016 or rejected from the proposed 2019-2020 contract by the Perry School Board:
ARTICLE I AGREEMENT AND RECOGNITION 1
Section 1.1 Agreement 1
Section 1.2 Recognition 1
ARTICLE II BOARD-ASSOCIATION RELATIONS 1
Section 2.1 Request for Meetings 1
Section 2.2 Negotiation Teams 1
Section 2.3 Dues Deduction 2
Section 2.4 Dues Deduction Authorization 2
ARTICLE III NON-INTERRUPTION OF SERVICES 2
Section 3.1 Facilities and Equipment Usage 2
ARTICLE IV GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES 3
Section 4.1 Definitions 3
Section 4.2 Purpose 3
Section 4.3 Individual Freedom Clause 4
Section 4.4 Limitations 4
Section 4.5 Procedures 4
Section 4.6 Meetings and Hearings 5
ARTICLE V EVALUATION PROCEDURES 5
Section 5.1 Staff Evaluations 5
Section 5.2 Evaluation Limitations 5
Section 5.3 Board of Education Association Responsibilities 5
Overview of the Perry Professional Growth Plan 6
ARTICLE VI PROCEDURES FOR STAFF REDUCTION 8
Section 6.1 Coverage 8
Section 6.2 Notification 8
Section 6.3 Classification 8
Section 6.4 Procedure 8
Section 6.5 Recall 9
Section 6.6 Exclusion 10
ARTICLE VII PROCEDURE FOR TRANSFER 10
Section 7.1 Voluntary Transfer Procedures 10
Section 7.2 Involuntary Transfer Procedures 10
ARTICLE VIII HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS 10
ARTICLE IX INSERVICE EDUCATION TO TEACHERS 11
ARTICLE X EMPLOYEE HOURS 11
ARTICLE XI HOLIDAYS 12
ARTICLE XII LEAVES OF ABSENCE 12
Section 12.1 Personal Illness 12
Section 12.2 Immediate Family Illness 12
Section 12.3 Family Leave 12
Section 12.4 Bereavement Leave 13
Section 12.5 Personal Leave 13
Section 12.6 Leave Without Pay 13
Section 12.7 Professional Leave 13
Section 12.8 Association Leave 14
Section 12.9 Catastrophic Leave 14
ARTICLE XIII SALARIES 14
Section 13.1 Pay Periods 14
Section 13.2 Final Pay 14
Section 13.3 Advancement on Salary Schedule 15
Section 13.4 Pay for Extra Duties 15
Section 13.5 Interschool Travel Compensation 15
Section 13.6 Teacher Salary Supplement 16
Section 13.7 Salary for Phase III Duties 16
Section 13.8 Pay for Covering Class During Prep Period
ARTICLE XIV INSURANCE 17
Section 14.1 Health Insurance Spending Account 17
Section 14.2 Tax Sheltered Annuity 17
Section 14.3 Long-Term Disability 17
Section 14.4 Worker’s Compensation 17
Section 14.5 Life Insurance 17
Section 14.6 Commencement of Coverage 17
ARTICLE XV SAVINGS CLAUSE 18
ARTICLE XVI TERMS OF AGREEMENT 18
ARTICLE XVII PAY SCHEDULES
Section 17.1 Schedule A – Regulary Salary Schedule 19
Section 17.2 Schedule B – TSS Indexed Salary Schedule 20
Section 17.3 Schedule C-TSS Even Distribution Salary Schedule 21
Section 17.4 Schedule D – Combined Salary Schedule 22
Section 17.5 Longevity Pay 23
Section 17.6 Extra Curricular Pay Schedule – Percents 24
Section 17.7 Extra Curricular Pay Schedule – Dollars 25
Before a new contract becomes final, the PEA membership, now comprising about 52 percent of the school district’s teachers, must vote to accept the district’s offer.
The Iowa Legislature in 2016 stripped most collective bargaining rights from public-sector employees, such as public school teachers. As PCSD Superintendent Clark Wicks explained at a large public meeting held April 8, school districts are now legally barred from negotiating some of the items formerly found in master contracts, such as pensions, health insurance, supplemental pay and procedures for transfers, evaluations and layoffs.
“It is also absolutely mandatory to negotiate base wages,” Wicks told the audience, referring to a brochure he distributed to attendees. “As important as mandatory wages are, there are also many permissive (items), and eight of those are already in place. Four of those are now illegal, and that leaves us with another four we can discuss.”
It appears the discussions led to the board’s proposing to put three of the permissive articles in a non-binding handbook and to retain one — leaves of absence — in the contract.
