School board okays contracts

OXFORD — After four months of negotiations with the Oxford Hills Education Association (OHEA), the SAD 17 school board finally approved a new contract between teachers and the district during Monday's board meeting.

The three-year contract includes some significant changes, including a modification of the pay-scale –  teachers will now receive a pay increase for every two years of experience, rather than a smaller increase for each year.

Superintendent Rick Colpitts said although the negotiations were lengthy, the process was "healthy."

The board and OHEA use "interest-based bargaining" as its negotiation model. The bargaining model allows the parties to work towards mutual goals.

Fred Burbank, a member of the OHEA negotiation team said that SAD 17 was one of the few districts in the state that used interest-based bargaining.

Using the model took out a lot of the animosity between the teachers and administration and increased morale in the district, he said.

"There's nothing in the contract that we can't live with," Burbank stated.

The change in the pay model means that teachers will receive a pay raise every three years.

Savings generated by the change are reinvested into teacher's base pay, which will increase 2 percent in 2012-2013 and 2.5 percent each of the next two years.

The 2012-2013 pay scale ranges from $30,600 for a first-year teacher with no experience to $56,176 for a teacher with 25 or more years of experience and a master's degree plus 30 credits.

By 2015, those amounts increase to $31,992 and $58,400, respectively.

The changes will reduce the annual cost of pay "steps" by $131,000 over the three years.

The new contract also limits course reimbursement, from three classes to nine credits. It also only reimburses teachers for the value of the course at University of Maine in Orono.

In previous years, Colpitts said, teachers could attend any college for graduate work and the district would reimburse the cost.

With this change, the district will only reimburse what the course would cost if it were taken at UMO. Teachers can still take courses from any university.

The contract also keeps teacher stipends flat at the 2009-2010 level, but increases the stipend for head teachers at schools with shared principals – from $1,405 to $2,810.

The probationary period for teachers is increased from two to three years under the agreement and it clarifies the responsibilities teachers have to maintain certification and what the consequences are otherwise.

The SAD 17 Board also approved a one-year contract for middle management and the salary agreement with the Central Office Administrators.

Colpitts said that the only difference in the agreements from the previous year was a 2-percent pay increase.