On Oct. 20, the School Board voted to approve a five-year collective bargaining agreement between the Freedom Area School District and the Freedom Area Education Association (FAEA). The previous contract expired on Aug. 31, since the district and FAEA didn’t reach an agreement before the expiration date.
“This was the first [recent contract] that never got completed before the previous contract ran out,” FAEA President, Mr. Ed Shephard said. The last time a contract was not approved before the prior contract’s expiration was before 1990.
FAEA members continued to work under the previous contract until the new contract’s approval.
“We continued to work and do our jobs and we were making progress towards an agreement, so there was no reason to look at [striking],” Shephard said.
Over 80 percent of the teachers voted in favor of the contract on Oct. 14 before the seven School Board members at the Oct. 20 meeting unanimously voted in favor of the contract as well. This agreement will be effective retroactively from Sept. 1, 2015 through June 30, 2020, which will last longer than the previous contract, which went into effect on Sept. 1, 2012.
“[The five-year contract provides the] security of being able to plan for the future, since it’s laid out for a longer period of time,” Shephard said.
One of the major changes in the collective bargaining agreement was the health care plan. Previously, the staff had a Preferred Provider Organization Plan, which included a lower deductible and copays; the new agreement has a Qualified High-Deductible Health Plan. With this plan, the deductible is higher, but the district’s monthly premium cost is lower.
“What’s different about our plan is that money towards the deductibles are being paid by the district for the teachers to use toward their deductible,” Shephard said. “The district gets some savings, and the teachers get the benefit of that savings.”
For the first year of the agreement, the district will pay 100 percent of the teachers’ deductible, but the percentage will be reduced to 70 percent in the following school years. As a result of future savings, teachers will receive a salary increase.
“[The contract is] a win for the teachers because they got a pay increase and a better health care system. The district saw some savings through the health care that enabled us to be able to provide a little bit more in terms of compensation for the teachers, so it’s a good deal,” Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Fuller said.
The teachers and district also agreed on changing how unused personal days carry over to the next school year. Each teacher is allotted two personal days each school year. However, previously, any of those unused personal days turn into sick days for the following school year. In the new contract, one unused personal day can be carried over to the next school year as an additional personal day.
Other changes include bereavement, or the amount of days a faculty member is permitted to miss school when a relative passes away, policy adjustments and the direct deposit of paychecks.
During this contract’s negotiation, both the district and FAEA discussed new language and issues that weren’t revised in recent contracts. Both sides estimate that the last time this type of negotiation occurred was before 1980.
“We were looking at some different things this time, so it took a little bit longer because there were some other issues,” Shephard said. According to Shephard, previous contract negotiations were mostly limited in scope to key items such as the salary schedule and health care.
“Things were resolved more quickly [during previous negotiations],” Shephard said. The 2012-2015 contract was approved on Nov. 10, 2011, nearly eight months before that contract took effect.
The 2015-2020 contract took effect immediately retroactive to Sept. 1 after School Board approval.
“Both sides went into the process with open minds and [were] willing to discuss issues, and it ended up being a positive process,” Fuller said. “I think both sides are well-pleased with the results.”