JACKSON-MILTON Board OKs new 3-year contract

Teachers will get just over 9 percent in raises.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NORTH JACKSON -- The Jackson-Milton Board of Education ratified a new three-year contract with the district's teachers union.
The board approved the contract Thursday. It had been approved Wednesday by the union, the Jackson-Milton Educators Association. The contract provides 3 percent pay raises each year. It also includes a change in health-care coverage from a traditional-benefit to a preferred provider organization plan that is expected to save the district about $95,000 annually, Superintendent Buck Palmer said at Thursday's board meeting.
Contract details
Other items include a job-sharing option for teachers, a retirement incentive program after the first year of eligibility and changes in the evaluation and nonrenewal procedures for staff. Teachers will undergo two cycles of evaluations -- one each semester -- instead of three, and the process will be streamlined and simpler, Palmer predicted. Staff new to the district will be on a two-year probationary period and can be removed without cause for the first two years, Palmer noted.
Palmer said that plans are on target to make several improvements to the middle school/high school over the summer. About $175,000 will go toward building a three-story elevator centrally located between the high school and middle school portions of the building, as well as two platform lifts for those who use a wheelchair. About $15,000 will be used to paint and make other repairs to some of the school's bleachers and perform other minor paint and touch-up work. Various high school renovations are slated for summer 2005, Palmer added.