The Perry School Board approved a range of employee contracts Monday for the 2023-2024 school year, bringing to an agreeable conclusion this year’s round of union negotiations that appeared to leave everyone smiling.
Master contracts with the Perry Education Association (PEA) and the Perry Support Staff Association (PSSA) were approved along with contracts with the Special Services Group, Director Group, Administrator Group and PACES staff.
“PEA is very pleased with our negotiations outcome,” said Mari Butler, PEA vice president and chief of the PEA negotiations team. “We have been working to get permissive language back into the contract since it was removed by the board in 2018, so this is a victory. While there are still some permissive items that remain in the handbook, this is an excellent start to continue to ensure that our working conditions are protected in our contracts.”
“We tried to do everything that we could,” said Perry Community School District Superintendent Clark Wicks. “This was a year when I think we could up the ante just a touch, and we did. It doesn’t mean that every year we’re going to be able to do that. It all depends on enrollment.”
The Iowa Legislature in 2016 stripped most collective bargaining rights from public-sector employees, such as public school teachers, and 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.
This year’s negotiations saw language involving employee hours and teacher compensation moved from the handbook to the contract. Butler said contract language is superior to handbook language because contract language is legally binding, is associated with a grievance procedure associated and can only be changed during negotiations, but handbook language can be changed at any time, with school board approval, and the language in the handbook is not negotiated.
Butler said the raise of $550 in the base salary “is especially significant given that our district is facing an insurance increase of 16.99% next year.” She said the total package represents a 6.19% increase. Positive changes were also made in policies governing sick leave, bereavement, catastrophic leave and employee hours, she said.
“The PEA would like to thank the school board negotiations team — Mr. Wicks, Laura Skeel and Travis Landgrebe — for taking PEA’s points seriously and coming to an agreement that focused not only on recruitment but also on teacher retention,” Butler said. “We hope that this theme can build momentum for future negotiations.”
The school board approved the following contracts at their Monday meeting:
- PEA Tentative Agreement with Perry CSD
- PEA Master Contract
- Teacher Handbook
- PEA Roster and Contracts including Extra-Curricular, Extended Day Contracts, TLC Agreements and Letter of Agreements
- PSSA Tentative Agreement with Perry CSD
- PSSA Master Contract
- PSSA Handbook
- PSSA Roster and Letter of Assignments
- Special Services Group Personnel Costing and Letter of Assignments
- Special Services Group Additions
- Director Group Personnel Costing and Contracts
- Director Group Additions
- PACES Support Staff and Letter of Assignments
- Administrator Group Personnel Costing and Contracts
- Administrator Group Additions
