Following an executive session held by the Bethlehem Board of Education at 8:15 in the morning on Thursday, June 26, the board unanimously approved the Bethlehem Central United Employee Association (BCUEA) contract, effective July 1 until June 30, 2012.
The settlement includes significant employee health insurance concessions that will reduce district expenditures, according to a release from the district, and the new contract contains an average annual overall increase of 2.6 percent plus step increases over the life of the contract.
The BCUEA encompasses the district’s support staff, including bus drivers, custodians and secretaries. Their last four-year contract contained an average salary increase of 3.1 percent per year plus step increases. The starting salary for first-year bus drivers is $29,247 and for first-year custodians, $30,756, according to district records.
The new contract’s insurance cost reductions will save the district an estimated $210,000 in 2008-09, according to the district’s spokesman, Matt Leon.
The way the school conducts its salary contract negotiations has come under some criticism recently by Citizen Budget Group member John Giordano, who in a June 18 article in Spotlight Newspapers titled Citizen Budget Group member wants more participation said he wanted to open up the negotiation process. A letter to the editor have been submitted to Spotlight Newspapers about the matter (see page 8).
The school said it wishes to maintain its current process of engaging in contract talks between the teachers’ unions and the school board elected to represent the district’s interests.
Another resident, Philip Carter, who owns a consulting business in Slingerlands, has also raised concerns over the matter and has sent several e-mails to the school district asking about its budget process.
In one of the e-mails, Carter questioned the school board about its last budget vote on May 20, which passed with about 60 percent approval.
`It turns out that only about 20 percent of the eligible voters took part in the election and only 11 percent approved your budget,` Carter wrote. `That’s a far cry from 60 percent approving.`
Contract negotiations have been ongoing, according to board president James Lytle, and the union had agreed to the conditions of the contract the night before the vote and recommended its approval to the board.
`We’ve been engaging in negotiations for the last several months, fairly intensely, a lot of issues on the table including some significant health insurance concessions,` Lytle said at the meeting. `Important changes allow us to be more flexible with the employees as you gain additional proficiencies in number of different areas. It has been recommended to us by the negotiating team to approve this contract.`
District officials said the contract calls for fair salary increases for valued employees and substantial savings in three areas: health insurance costs; improved transportation staffing and routing efficiency; and limitations on worker’s compensation costs.
`In particular, the contract calls for a significant increase in employee contributions to health insurance premiums for family coverage,` according to a district release. `Additional savings will come with greater staffing efficiency within the transportation department, including a reduction in mid-day bus runs when the district implements full-day kindergarten in 2009-10.`
Superintendent Les Loomis, in what was likely his last board meeting, described the health-care concessions in the contract as `incredibly significant.`
`Having been involved in negotiations along the way that I think the concessions in the health insurance are incredibly significant because the trend always of the increases in health insurance far outstrips any kind of salary increases,` Loomis said. `I think you’re going to see continuing significant saving.`
District officials are also touting the new provisions in the BCUEA as allowing for greater flexibility in assigning bus drivers, which will lead to more drivers continually maintaining their regular routes. Loomis said the stability will lead to improved safety in the district’s transportation program, which he said is already known across the state for its safety and reliability.
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