CASD teachers, board approve new contract

CHAMBERSBURG - After several months of negotiations and four potential strike dates, teachers in the Chambersburg Area School District now have a new contract. 

On Tuesday, the Chambersburg Area Education Association's membership approved the agreement during a vote after school. The Chambersburg Area school board then held a vote later that evening at its regular meeting; seven members voted to approve the contract, while Joan Smith voted against it and Dana Baker abstained because his wife is a teacher and a union member. 

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The board and the union, which represents more than 500 teachers, have been negotiating a new contract since March. The previous contract expired at the end of June. 

While the new contract overall will go into effect retroactively, according to board member Alex Sharpe, some key parts will begin later. The contract will run through June 30, 2021, according to a news release from the district. 

Throughout negotiations, salary was an issue for both sides. 

Teachers will receive salary increases. While the first year's increase is 3 percent, teachers will actually see about half of that, because this aspect will not be effective until February, according to union co-president Cindy Bowen. 

Teachers will then get a 3.35-percent salary increase for the second year, a 3.4-percent increase for the third year and a 3-percent increase for the fourth year. 

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On average, teachers in the district make about $60,825 a year, the district said, which is on par with the statewide average of $60,186 for the 2016-17 school year, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. 

A new teacher with a bachelor's degree will earn a salary of $48,418 under the new contract, the release states.

Health care was also a sticking point. 

Under the previous contract, teachers used a preferred provider plan and didn't pay anything toward their health insurance premiums, which cost the district $18,000 a year for each family plan, and $6,800 a year for each single plan.

Teachers will move to a qualified high deductible health plan under the new agreement effective July 1, the release states. This puts teachers in line with the health coverage all other employee groups (such as administrators and support staff) receive or are in the process of moving to. 

Deductibles will be set at $1,500 for individual plans and $3,000 for family plans, and members will begin to share some of the premium costs. 

Teachers will begin paying part of their premiums in February, while they are still under their PPO plans, Sharpe said. Teachers will pay 2 percent of the costs in the first year starting in February, 3 percent in the second year, and 4 percent in the third and fourth years, according to the school district's release. 

The district will also contribute to a health savings account for teachers who enroll in health care coverage. It will make no contribution the first year, then contribute 40 percent of the deductible in the second and third years, and 37.5 percent of the deductible in the fourth year.  

The teachers' union has ended plans for a strike now that a contract agreement has been reached. The union had originally planned to strike on Nov. 13 if a tentative agreement was not reached, but productive negotiations led the organization to push it back to Nov. 29. As negotiations continued, the strike was later postponed to Dec. 8 and then once again to Jan. 8. 

Bowen said both sides worked hard to come up with an agreement that was as fair as possible.  

"This involved a whole lot of time and work from all parties involved in negotiating the new contract," she said in a text message. 

Sharpe said the board is happy negotiations are over and it can now focus on some other items that were put off during the process. 

"We can now be more focused on the business of operating the school district," he said.

He thanked the negotiation team and its membership for ratifying the agreement

"On behalf of the board, I would just like to say, although there was some tension with the strike pending and everything, we would like to express our gratitude to the teachers for meeting us halfway and continuing to negotiate with us, and not caving to pressure to just strike," he said. "I'm happy that they were willing to consent to some of the changes in the contract, so that we could come out with a resolution that, in my opinion, is beneficial to both sides."

The district also thanked the association for "good faith bargaining and for making changes that mutually benefit teachers, the district, the community and taxpayers," the release said. 

Bowen said she hopes future negotiations will be productive, and "handled amicably." 

The full contract will be available on the district's website, www.casdonline.org. It was not yet there on Wednesday afternoon. 

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