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McDonald OKs 3-year contract for district’s 52 teachers
By Mary Smith
McDONALD
The McDonald Board of Education has approved a new, three-year contract for the district’s 52 teachers.
Members of the McDonald Education Association will see a 2.75 percent pay increase in each year.
The MEA has approved the contract, which runs from Sept. 1 ,2013, to Aug. 31, 2016.
Teachers have been working under contract extensions since summer.
Aside from wage increases, details had to be worked out on a new evaluation component for teachers.
The board also reinstituted a 20 percent PPO-1 (top level) health policy co-pay, which was dropped to 10 percent under the last contract — which also included no raises.
The contract increase will be retroactive to Aug. 31. A one-time $500 signing bonus will be given.
Jack Dugan, board president, said the board looked at the new contract as a six-year pact, since teachers worked their last three-year contract with no raises and made health-care concessions.
“The attitude we had was that the teachers are some of the important part of quality,” in the district, he said.
Changes in wages are:
Base starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no experience will be: $31,567 in 2013-14; $32,435 in 2014-15; and $33,327 in 2015-16.
On the high end of the salary scale, a teacher with a master’s degree plus 13 semester hours will make $66,670 in 2013-14; $68,503 in 2014-15; and $70,387 in 2015-16.
The median salary of a McDonald teacher was $50,526 before the new contract, and will go to $53,133 in the first year; $55,433 in the second year and $57,885 in the third year.
In other business, the board approved rejoining the state’s Cooperative Purchasing Program for the rest of the current school year.
Schools Treasurer Bill Johnson said the board re-joined the group, at a cost of $100 annually, because it is planning to purchase 52 new computers and monitors at an expected cost of $25,000 for two new computer labs that have been built into two unused rooms at the high school. The district has invested $19,000 in building and putting wiring and Internet connections in the lab so far, and projects the labs will be usable around January, Johnson said.