POLAND SCHOOLS Teachers, board settle on three-year contract

The new contract will go into effect Sunday.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Teachers in the village school district have settled on a three-year contract that school officials say will save the district a significant amount of money.
Teachers had been in negotiations with the school board since June. The contract will take effect Sunday and run through 2006. The old contract was set to expire Sept. 1, 2003, but was extended during negotiations.
Pay freeze
Superintendent Dr. Robert Zorn said teachers agreed to a pay freeze for the 2003-04 school year. He said teachers, by state law, will continue to get step raises agreed upon in the previous contract, based on seniority and other factors, but there will be no additional money beyond that in the first year.
Starting salary for a teacher is $28,345 a year, and the top pay is $47,336 after 13 years.
Zorn said teachers will receive a 3 percent pay increase in each of the second and third years of the contract.
Zorn said noncertified district employees and those not covered by any collective bargaining agreements will also receive the same wage freeze and 3 percent incremental pay raises over the next three years.
"Every employee from the superintendent to our bus drivers took the same pay freeze for this year and every employee switched over on medical. That took a lot of effort and I commend them for doing it. It's not easy to take a wage freeze," Zorn said.
Health coverage
The biggest savings to the district will come from changes in the health coverage offered to employees, Zorn said.
School employees in the past were able to choose from three types of coverage -- an EPO, HMO or PPO. The HMO and EPO have been eliminated as options and a new PPO installed for all employees.
"We told our staff that we can no longer afford to run three plans. We needed to go to a new PPO," said Zorn. "For these employees that was a huge concession. That was really good coverage, but it was a dinosaur and no one can afford to carry it anymore."
The new plan will amount to a 7 percent savings in premiums for the school district. The district pays $417 monthly for a single employee's coverage and $1,007 monthly for family coverage.
The district also offers dental at a cost to the district of $22 a month for a single person and $55 for a family. Prescription coverage is provided at a cost to the district of $74 per month for a single person and $150 per month for a family. Vision coverage is not offered.
Current employees still are not required to pay a portion of their health insurance premium.
For new employees
New employees will be required to pay a 5 percent of the premium.
According to Zorn, all employees will also be paying a higher deductible for medical coverage. Employees previously were required to pay a $10 deductible for any medical coverage, he said. The deductible is now $250 per year for a single employee and $500 per year for families.
Zorn said the district will save $8,166 a month with the changes in medical coverage. The savings to the district will be about $212,333 over the life of the contract.
jgoodwin@vindy.com