Teacher deal elusive for second straight year
RATHDRUM - With the Lakeland Joint School District board approving the district's last best teacher salaries offer, it appears teachers will again work without a negotiated agreement.
"If the LEA (Lakeland Education Association teachers' union) indicated that it would like to continue negotiations in an effort to get ratification, we would be willing to do that," Assistant Superintendent Lisa Sexton said on Wednesday. "However, there is no additional money to put on the table. They've already turned down this offer and we agreed to every non-money issue they brought."
District and LEA representatives met six times in May and June, but didn't settle on an agreement. No more meetings are planned and mediation, which didn't result in an agreement last year when called upon, was not scheduled.
The district's last best offer - approved on a 3-1 vote by the board - includes restoring an experience step in the salary grid that had been frozen during the 2010-11 school year. However, an additional frozen step during the 2011-12 year is not being restored yet nor was the LEA's proposed 1.25 percent base salary increase granted.
During the recession, the state froze teacher salaries for two years, which meant no movement on the salary grid for experience coupled with no base salary hike.
Staff members not moving on the salary schedule will receive a one-time stipend of $800 for the coming year under the district's last best offer. The district will also cover the 3.1 percent increase to the basic insurance plan. It pays insurance for the employee only.
"(Superintendent Brad Murray) and I both feel strongly that we need to take care of our staff members to the best of our abilities," Sexton said. "We were disheartened that we could not get to a point where the teachers felt they could ratify, but that's where we ended up. Because we still owe our teachers one more frozen step, we felt strongly that we needed to honor the items to which both sides agreed. We were appreciative of the board's support."
Board members Larry Brown, John Shaffer and Tim Skubitz voted in support of the last best offer. Kyle Olmstead voted against the proposal. Brian Wallace was absent.
District representatives said goal throughout the school year was to unfreeze the two remaining steps, but state funding limited that plan. They said the frozen steps weren't a situation the district created, but had to bear. They also said it's more expensive to operate "neighborhood" schools such as in Athol, Garwood, Spirit Lake and Twin Lakes - areas outside of Rathdrum - and therefore it has taken the district longer than some to unfreeze all of the steps.
Lakeland has about 220 teachers.
LEA representatives said they'll continue to provide a quality education that Lakeland is known for, but teacher morale has been lowered with the second year of working without a negotiated agreement. Union leaders also say will also be more difficult to attract and retain teachers and say it's unfortunate that Lakeland hasn't been able to unfreeze all of the steps when neighboring districts have.
Lakeland classified staff members, who are not part of negotiated agreements with teachers, will see an average pay increase this year of 2.2 percent. The board also approved allowing as much as four weeks of vacation for any full-time classified staff member who has worked for Lakeland for 10 years or more to bring the district more in line with its neighboring districts.
* In Post Falls, district reps will meet with the Post Falls Education Association on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Post Falls High School for the seventh effort to strike a teachers agreement.
The latest proposal from the Post Falls Education Association is for a 4 percent base salary increase and funding increments for experience and education. The cost of the proposal is $1.004 million.
The district's latest proposal is for a 2.25 percent base salary increase and funding the increments. The cost of the district's proposal is $704,750.