EAST STROUDSBURG AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPPOSAL 8/10/2018

Transcription

1 EAST STROUDSBURG AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPPOSAL 8/10/2018 The East Stroudsburg Area School District submits the following supposal in response to the East Stroudsburg Area Education Association s proposal of July 31, The supposal as submitted is comprehensive and expires at midnight on August 22, INTRODUCTION: The District is committed to providing high quality educational opportunities for its students and recognizes the contributions of the professional staff through its hard work and dedication to achieving this goal. The District understands the need to provide its staff with a competitive compensation package in recognition of its service to the District and to continue to attract high quality candidates. The District must balance these goals with its commitment to its taxpayers to provide an affordable educational experience. The District recognizes the Association s willingness to think outside the box as exhibited in its July 31, 2018 proposal. In that spirit, the District is providing the following supposal that it feels is an equitable compromise between the Association s and District s positions and provides the professional staff with very competitive salaries as well as a healthcare plan that continues to maintain its rich benefits at an affordable cost, while not placing an undue burden on the District s taxpayers. Items highlighted in Yellow are changes from District proposals submitted to date. SALARY: Year 1: No Step Movement No Salary Increase Year 2: Step Movement at mid-year Salary Increase = 1.24%

2 Page 2 Year 3: Step Increase Begin Smoothing Bump Steps Step 1 Teachers + $1,600 Step 16 Teachers +$800 Salary Increase = 4.55% B,1 Salary = $44,199 Year 4: Step Increase Continue Smoothing Bump Steps Step 1 Teachers + $1,400 Step 16 Teachers + $1,000 Salary Increase = 3.46% B,1 Salary = $45,599 Year 5: Step Increase Continue Smoothing Bump Steps Step 1 Teachers + $2,224 Step 16 Teachers + $1,200 Salary Increase = 3.40% B,1 Salary = $47,823 Rationale: New Hires The District is glad to see that the Association recognizes that if the District is to continue to offer high quality educational experiences for its students, it is important to attract the most skilled and qualified teachers from a shrinking pool of candidates and that, in order to be competitive in the marketplace, the District must boost the salaries for new teachers. However, doing so by reducing the number of steps in the schedule is not the way to do it. Eliminating the early steps will lead to salary compression as new teachers hired in will now be paid the same salary as a new teacher hired in Under the Association s proposal, a teacher hired in would be paid $43,599. In , they would move to step 2 at a salary of $43,630, which is also the salary a new teacher hired in would be paid due to the elimination of step 1. The same teacher hired in will have 3 years of teaching experience in , but will still be paid the same rate as a new teacher hired in , $47,823, because the Association s proposal will have eliminated the first 3 steps.

3 Page 3 Teachers hired in and will experience similar salary compression. This hardly seems fair to the Association s members. Reducing the number of steps in the scale will also lead to significantly higher costs to the District over time. Teachers will reach the top step sooner in their careers and will, therefore, be paid the highest salaries for a longer period of time. The Association s proposal for starting salaries also does not adequately address the lack of competitiveness in a timely fashion. However, in the spirit of compromise, the District accepts the Associations proposal for the salary for new hires in to be $47,823. Step Movement Despite the fact that has now come and gone and that any retroactivity will not be able to be offset by any savings to the District through a modified healthcare plan, the District, in a significant compromise, is willing to reconsider step movement for last year. The District is willing to move all teachers one step for with the compromise that that increase be for mid-year instead of the full year. In doing so, teachers will move up the salary schedule sooner than in previous District proposals and will have advanced one additional step by the end of the contract. This compromise is in keeping with the Association s stated goal at the last meeting that moving steps is a higher priority than equal or greater salary increases. Smoothing Bump Steps The District appreciates that the Association recognizes that the number and sizes of the bump steps, which range from $3,800 to $9,000, in the current contract are an impediment to the majority of its members receiving opportunities for significant salary advancement due to the large amount of money absorbed by those who happen to be on one of the bump steps in any given year. The Association proposal attempts to smooth those steps in one year rather than over the life of the contract and deprives its members of higher salary increases sooner. Another option would be to split the bump steps by inserting an additional step in between. For example, instead of a $9,000 bump for one step, there could be two $4,500 steps. While addressing the bump step issue, this would increase the salary schedule by adding five steps. The District recognizes that this action would be contrary to the Association s stated interest of advancing its members through the schedule in as short a time as possible and, in the spirit of compromise, is not recommending this option, at this time. The District believes that its approach to smoothing the bump steps over the life of the contract is better for the Association s membership and maintains its prior proposal.

4 Page 4 HEALTHCARE: Deductibles: Deductibles as listed are In-Network. Out-of-Network deductibles are 2x In-Network. Deductibles are on a calendar year basis $0/$ $0/$ $500/$1, $600/$1, $600/$1,800 Coinsurance: % % % % % Office Visit Co-pays: $15/$15/$15/$ $15/$15/$15/$ $15/$15/$35/$ $15/$15/$35/$100 Prescription Drug Co-pays: Maintain single tier cost for Generic, Brand Formulary, and Brand Non-formulary % Retail/$20 Mail % Retail/$20 Mail % Retail/$20 Mail % Retail/$20 Mail Employee Premium Sharing: $50 per pay $50/$65/$65/$80/$95 per pay (Delay until 1/1/19)

5 Page $50/$65/$65/$80/$95 per pay (Effective 7/1/19) $50/$65/$65/$80/$95 per pay (Effective 7/1/20) Eligibility Restrictions: None Spousal Rule - $100/mo Surcharge (Delay until 1/1/19) Spousal Rule - $150/mo Surcharge (Effective 7/1/19) Spousal Rule - $150/mo Surcharge (Effective 7/1/19) ACA Language: Should the District receive notice that its health insurance plan for Teachers will, under ACA or its successor legislation, be subject to an excise tax, the parties will immediately commence bargaining over how to reduce the value of the plan in order to avoid the excise tax. The parties pledge to make themselves available at least once per week in this effort. Should the effort to avoid the excise tax not be successful, the matter will go to expedited binding arbitration where the arbitrator will determine how to reduce the cost below the excise tax threshold. Rationale: Deductibles The District has already made several significant concessions with respect to deductibles. The initial District proposal included deductibles beginning in ranging from $500/$1500 to $750/$2250. The current supposal now includes no deductible changes for the first two and one-half years of the contract, even though the District is willing to provide a salary increase for the Association members for Deductibles have been reduced to $500/$1500 with implementation January 1, 2019 and changing to $600/$1800 effective January 1, 2020 and remaining at that level for the balance of the contract. These are the same deductibles proposed by the Association on February 14, In the spirit of compromise, the District is willing to accept the Associations proposed deductibles. Office Visit Co-pays The District maintains its previous proposal to increase co-pays for urgent care and ER services from $15/$35 to $50/$100 in the last two years of the contract. ER service co-pays are only charged when treatment sought is not an emergency and does not lead to a hospital admission. Given the number of options available to Association members to seek less expensive medical care for non-life threatening conditions, the ER co-pay will likely be seldom used. The Association was in agreement with these co-pays in its proposal of February 14, Premium Share The District is pleased that the Association recognizes that those who utilize more health related services should pay more for them. The Association s proposal does not go as far as the District s previous proposals that premium share be based on a percentage of cost,

6 Page 6 which allows for shared risk from escalating healthcare costs. A fixed premium share still places all of the risk on the District. However, in the spirit of compromise, the District is willing to accept the Association s most recent proposal for premium share. Spousal Rule Mitigating the increase in healthcare costs is critical to the District s ability to provide salary increases to the Association. Throughout negotiations, the District has made several significant concessions on the issue of spousal coverage, moving from a strict rule to a soft rule and already lowering the surcharge for the soft rule. Under the soft spousal rule the spouse is only required to buy into the District plan if the spouse is eligible for an employer sponsored healthcare plan, but chooses to participate in the District plan. If a spouse is not eligible for an employer sponsored health plan then no payment is required to participate in the District plan. The District is again willing to compromise by reducing the spousal rule surcharge from $150/mo to $100/mo and from $200/mo to $150/mo. That will directly save Association members whose spouses have access to an employer sponsored health plan, but who choose to still keep their spouses on the District s plan because of its superior benefits and lower costs, $600/year. Additionally, Association members will see a savings from a reduction in their premium share. An individual who currently has a family plan and whose spouse moves to his/her employer s plan will now pay the premium share for either parent/child or parent/children instead of family coverage. That will save an additional $390 to $780/year. The District s concession on the spousal rule will save Association members between $1,000 and $1,400/yr. SCHEDULE B: The District agrees to increase the pool for Schedule B stipend positions by $130,000 for with the Association providing input on how those funds should be distributed. The District will also increase these stipends by 1% in and another 1% in The District also agrees to increase the rate for hourly Schedule B positions by $.50/hr in , $.25/hr in , and $.25/hr in HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (Art X.C, D): 1. Teachers who have not earned any credits beyond the Bachelor s degree at the time of the ratification of the contract all credits must be at the graduate level and from an accredited college or university in order to get credit for column movement. Additionally, all courses must be approved by the District in advance of being taken as being relevant to the bargaining unit member s subject area and teaching assignment. Column movement will be awarded for every 6 credits for the first 24 credits (permanent certification.) In order to receive column movement for credits after permanent certification, the bargaining unit member must be enrolled in an accredited Master s degree program and will receive column movement for every 6 credits. There will be no

7 Page 7 column movement for credits earned after permanent certification, if the bargaining unit member is not enrolled in an accredited Master s program. 2. Teachers who have already earned credits beyond the Bachelor s degree at the time of ratification of the contract shall receive column movement for every 6 credits earned up to a maximum of 30 credits (Status Quo.) 3. All teachers will receive column movement post Master s degree every 12 credits. All courses must be approved by the District in advance of being taken as being relevant to the bargaining unit member s subject area and teaching assignment. 4. Eliminate reference to Master s Equivalency Degree since it is no longer recognized by PDE. 5. Maintain language of B average. TUITION REIMBURSEMENT (Art X.E): 1. The District shall reimburse all bargaining unit members for the first 24 credits (permanent certification) at 12 credits per year provided that the bargaining unit member is enrolled in an accredited Master s program, otherwise the District will reimburse the first 12 credits at 12 credits per year and the remaining credits needed to achieve permanent certification at 6 credits per year. 2. Following permanent certification, the District will reimburse bargaining unit members at 12 credits per year if the bargaining unit member is enrolled in an accredited Master s program up to the Master s degree is earned. If the bargaining unit member is not enrolled in an accredited Master s degree program, the District will reimburse at 6 credits per year. 3. The District will reimburse all teachers for credits earned post Master s Degree at 6 credits per year up to a total of 60 credits. 4. All other language in this section to remain. COLUMN MOVEMENT EFFECTIVE DATES (X.F): Horizontal movement on the salary schedule will become effective on the 3 rd and 12 th teacher pay. In order to have salary adjustments become effective on these dates, all required documentation must be submitted to the Human Resources Office at least 30 calendar days prior to the effective date. Rationale: The District has modified its previous proposal to allow for earlier effective dates and to reduce the amount of lead time necessary for documentation to be submitted. The 3 rd teacher

8 Page 8 pay is the first pay in Oct. This will allow for teachers to get column movement for credits earned during the last summer session. The 12 th teacher pay is the first pay in February and will allow teachers to receive column movement for credits earned during the fall semester. INSTRUCTIONAL PERIODS (XI.H): Delete reference to instructional periods. UNUSED SICK LEAVE AT RETIREMENT (XII.G): Unused sick leave at retirement shall be paid at the current per diem substitute teacher rate and shall be made as a non-elective distribution to a 403(b) plan through one of the approved providers. (T/A) To be eligible, bargaining unit members must submit a binding letter of retirement by February 1 st. USE OF FACILITIES (XIV.A): Agree with Association request to include use of as well as bulletin boards (T/A). VIRTUAL COURSES: District agrees to include currently approved MOU language in the contract. (T/A) SUMMARY: The District believes that this supposal represents significant compromises in an effort to reach a fair and equitable contract with the Association. The District heard the Association s desire to advance its members through the salary schedule steps as quickly as possible. While the supposal does include a step freeze for , the District has modified its position to include step movement for despite the fact that has already passed and there can be no offset savings from healthcare. The additional money the Association s members will receive go 100% into their pockets. The step advancement will also generate millions of dollars to the Association members in the future as they reach higher salaries sooner. The District has heard the Association s concerns about protecting those members at the top step who do not receive the benefit of step increases in addition to increases on scale. The District s supposal does a better job of protecting those individuals at Step 16 than the Association s own proposal. The District is proposing an $800 increase to Step 16 for , while the

9 Page 9 Association s proposal only calls for a $500 increase. In , the District s supposal further increases Step 16 salaries by $1,000, which is virtually identical to the Association s proposed increase of $1,176. Finally, in , the District s supposal includes a $1,200 increase for Step 16, but the Association s proposal is only for a $1,000 increase. Over the life of the contract, those Association members currently at Step 16 will realize $324 more in salaries under the District s proposal than the Association s The District has also improved its proposed salary increase for by over 1%, from 3.51% to 4.55%. In this supposal, the District has continued to make significant concessions on healthcare. Initially, the District was looking for healthcare savings that would help offset the increased salaries provided to the Association. The District is no longer realizing any savings to offset the salary cost. In fact, the current supposal will cost the District an additional $1.4M in healthcare over and above the salary increases provided. The healthcare plan in this supposal incorporates many of the components of the Association s previous proposals and continues to provide Association members with a very rich plan design while still maintain affordability for its members. We believe that this supposal is truly a WIN-WIN and one that the Association s members will approve.