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Show Teacher, school district okay contract, no raises Members of the Alpine School District Board of Education approved ap-proved the contract between the district and teachers during their September business meeting, making it official for the current school year. The action followed ratification of the contract by the district's certified cer-tified personnel, and climaxed negotiations between a team representing the district and representatives from the local teachers' association. The contract includes no across-the-board pay increase, but agrees to keep pay scales for teachers at the same basic level as last year. While it does guarantee step-and-lane change raises, it means a large percentage of the district's teachers will receive no pay raise this year. District officials said the contract is similar to agreements reached earlier by the administrators and support personnel who are employed by the district. Ardy Greening, a member of the negotiating team and new president of the Alpine Education Association, said the board also agreed to provide for the increased costs required to maintain insurance coverage for employees at their present levels. Mrs. Greening said while teachers were not particularly pleased with the agreement, they were glad to have saved the step-and-lane increase. in-crease. "When the legislature didn't increase in-crease the WPU (Weighted Pupil Unit 1. we knew their wouldn't be any funding (for wage increases). In the first proposal last spring, step-and-lane increases weren't included so there was a lot of relief when that was finalized. It was quite a thing to get that." She explained in the past the district has funded the step-and-lane changes with money saved when instructors at the top of the salary schedule retired. Under the early retirement program in effect this year, however, districts had to return any savings to the state - making it necessary that any step-and-lane change money had to come directly from the district. Mrs. Greening said the negotiation process was delayed through the summer so district officials could see what funding was available. She said the average salary increase in-crease for a step or lane change is SGOOayear. AEA officials don't expect the negotiations to be any easier in 1SIK8. Sec TKACHKliS page I! Teachers . Continued from front page she said. "When I served as vice president i. the AEA three years ago, things . were tough. When I was president, h they were tougher. Now I'm (i president again and they are going tobeeven tougher," she said. i A lot of the teachers are disturbed .. -they're feeling a lot of frustration but they know the district's hands t are tied by the state legislature, r Mrs. Greening said, j'; "Our first negotiations (this year) has to be with the legislature, not the district." she said. "We have to work with the money that is given to the district. I see a real uphill battle over the next several years." Dr. Clark L. Cox, district superintendent, in presenting the contract for board approval, said he is pleased with the efforts of the negotiating teams and the overall positive communication that took place. He said even though there were some strained times during negotiations, "we have more in common than we do differences. "Overall, the dialogue between the district and the teachers' representatives was very positive. Our teachers have continued to be empathetic to the financial restraints placed on our district by the economic situation here in Utah," Cox said. "Their ratification of this contract without a pay raise is one4 more indication that they make the education of students their overriding over-riding objective." The contract also takes up an insurance update, pay for extracurricular-activities, and sabbatical sab-batical leave. It also includes a section regarding regar-ding the district's transfer policy. This was included in response to teachers' concerns about equitable transfers for instructors affected by extended-day schedules. Under the extended day schedule, fewer teachers are required, so some instructors had to be transferred tran-sferred from those schools to other schools. The contract also says that the student-educator ratio will not be increased above the 1986-87 level. |