Schools

Union Happy With District 196 Teacher Contract, Despite Few Financial Upgrades

Members of the Dakota County United Educators union, which represents District 196 teachers and nurses, ratified a tentative contract on Monday.

While District 196 teachers and nurses won't see much increased financial benefit from the new, two-year contract they ratified this week, the Dakota County United Educators union is "pleased with the settlement" overall, said DCUE President Jim Smola.

"We would like to see more money on the schedule, as anybody would," Smola said.But, he said, "In this economic time, we made a point of working with the district."

No staff member would go backwards in terms of net pay under the settlement, Smola said.

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The ratified contract is slated to go to the District 196 school board at its 6 p.m. Monday meeting at Dakota Ridge School in Apple Valley, according to a district news release.

Of 1,269 votes cast Monday by DCUE members, 1,088 voted in favor of the contract; there are about 2,100 DCUE members.

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Superintendent Jane Berenz said the district administration also is happy with the negotiation outcome.

“I am pleased that we have a settlement that fits within our budget parameters, reflects our current economic situation and will continue to keep us competitive in attracting and retaining the best teachers,” she said in a press release.

The contract, which would be effective July 1 of this year through June 30, 2013, would allow the employees to move up on the pay scale based on education or years of work in both of the contract years, and would include a 1-percent pay increase to the top level of the salary schedule in the second year, the release says.

Smola said a change at the state level will have teachers contributing 1/2 percent more to their retirement plans this school year and next year, so the 1-percent pay increase exists largely to offset that.

The cost of the health insurance program that covers teachers and nurses is slated to increase by 4.1 percent during the two years of the contract, the release says; the employees will pay the same percentage of their premiums as during the previous contract.

Under the contract's parameters, a first-year teacher would earn $36,592. A teacher at the top of a schedule with a master's degree would earn $66,395 and an additional $6,993 in longevity money in the second year of the contract.

Smola said negotiations began in May, and the tentative agreement was reached later than usual this year because of the state government shutdown in July, which left the district unclear about its financial situation.

Since 1991, the district and DCUE have used a bargaining method where each side presents their interests, rather than presenting adversarial positions.

"I think it's just been a wonderful ... tool to use to work together to look at common solutions to each party's problems," Smola said.


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