FeedsTeachers, district closer to contract
If all goes according to plan, the Northville Public School District will have a long-term agreement with the teachers union before the month ends.
Schools Superintendent Leonard Rezmierski said the district and the Northville Education Association (NEA) had reached a tentative agreement on Monday night.
“It’s a positive thing for the district,” he said.
The contract, which includes the 2008-2009, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years, provides teachers 1 percent salary increase each year. In addition, teachers on the step schedule will receive their step raise for each of the three years. A modified salary schedule for teachers hired after Nov. 1, 2008 is also a part of the tentative agreement. The modified salary schedule calls for the same minimum and maximum salaries as the existing wage scale, with even increments between steps, a schedule which will produce cost savings in the long-term.
Under the terms of the contract, the 500-plus members of the Education Association will continue to have the option to receive health care coverage under Community Blue PPO 1 or Health Alliance Plan (HAP). However, their contribution toward health care premium costs will increase from one-quarter of one percent of salary to one-half of one percent of their annual salary.
Teachers have worked under an extension of their old contract since the beginning of the school year. That contract, a one-year deal, was approved last year after much acrimony.
Rezmierski said he hoped to avoid that this time around. School board members were scheduled to meet in an executive session Tuesday night to discuss the deal.
The Northville Education Association has scheduled a Contract Ratification meeting for 4:15 Wednesday, Oct. 29. Pending the outcome of that meeting, the Northville Public Schools Board of Education has slated a special call meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30 to consider ratification of the agreement.
“We’re delighted we have this, obviously,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”
