Cd'A schools, teachers reach deal

Coeur d’Alene teachers and the school board reached a tentative agreement Wednesday on a contract for the next school year.

The agreement includes a 2 percent salary increase for all employees and no changes in health insurance benefits.

It’s the first time since 2014 the board and teachers have reached an agreement without third-party mediation.

“We want to come to an agreement today and we want start the school year on a good note,” said Trina Caudle, the district’s chief negotiator and director of secondary education, following several proposal exchanges between the negotiating teams.

The state estimated it will give the district $1.5 million to cover teacher and counselor salary increases. The new contract, with a 2 percent salary increase for teachers and counselors, will cost the district $1,775,232.

The combined cost to the district of raising everyone’s salary by 2 percent while funding moves on the salary grid for eligible teachers based on experience and continuing education, and paying for a medical benefits premium increase of 5.73 percent is $1,920,474.

During the negotiations, some teachers and employees said they felt unappreciated. Some left notes for the district negotiators to read when they came back from caucusing behind closed doors, and some held signs that said “CDA Staff feels unappreciated.”

Some employees spoke about an increase in administrative staff numbers and salaries and a lack of similar support for teachers. Others said they just want the $1.5 million given to the district by the state to pay for teacher and counselor salary increases, not new teachers.

Part of the district’s promise to voters when they passed a supplemental levy in the spring of 2015 was to reduce classroom sizes. To do that, the Coeur d’Alene School District hired 12 teachers last year. Due to an unexpected amount of growth within the district, the administration is hiring another 12 teachers for the upcoming school year.

The levy funds set aside by the school board to reduce class sizes, $1 million per year from each year of the voter-approved, two-year $30 million levy, is not enough to pay for the new teachers required to reduce class sizes by two or three students.

This became a point of contention and confusion for the district and the CEA. The district said in order for new teachers to come in, they would have to use the levy money and more to cover the costs.

The CEA felt the district’s priority should be to help the staff it already has, instead of prioritizing new staff that isn’t there yet.

Tim Sandford, the lead negotiator for the CEA spoke afterward about how the money could be distributed differently.

“We have a fund balance of $4.5 million, the district only needs $3.2 million to maintain the required 5 percent contingent. That leaves $1.2 million extra and we feel that money is readily available to help pay teacher salaries,” he said. “There’s always been an argument about what steps and lanes on a salary matrix costs. They have budgeted $450,000, but Brian Wallace (the Coeur d’Alene School District director of finance and operations) told us in May it costs $232,000. There’s an extra $220,000 there that could be used to address current salaries.”

Wallace said because state funding is estimated based on factors that could change, like student enrollment and attendance, school districts never know the actual final amount they will receive by the end of the school year. Therefore, he said, it would be irresponsible to overestimate the amount of money the district will receive.

Caudle added the district already pays its teachers more than the state gives them.

“We use levy dollars to pay our teachers because we pay about $10,000 above the state, another $10,000 per person for salary and benefits,” she said. “They wanted all the new dollars to go to salaries and that’s what we did.”

The CEA will take the final bid to its board for approval, as will the Coeur d’Alene School District. The contract will be final once both boards agree to the terms.