East Palestine board OKs teachers contract

staff report

EAST PALESTINE — The city school board has approved a two-year contract ratified by teachers last week.

The agreement, retroactive to July 1 and extending to June 30, 2010, calls for a 2-percent salary increase for all teachers the first year and a 1-percent raise the second year, said Superintendent Tom Inchak. The school board approved the contract at its monthly meeting Monday.

The contract brings the annual starting salary of a teacher with a bachelor’s degree to $29,587 the first year and to $29,883 the second year. The top of the pay scale, for a teacher with a master’s degree plus 15 additional credits and 25 years’ experience, will be $59,160 the first year and $59,752 the second year.

No changes were made to medical benefits, Inchak noted. Teachers pay $360 a year for health insurance for a single person and $840 a year for the family plan. Each year the district contributes $463 toward an individual health plan and $1,218 per family health plan.

The 81 unionized teachers represented by the East Palestine Education Association had been working without a contract since June 30. Negotiation sessions were placed in the hands of federal mediator Mike Franczak after the union and the school board reached an impasse Aug. 8.

The two sides reached a tentative agreement last month, and the teachers ratified it last week.