By an 80 percent margin, Haines Borough teachers last week voted to reject a compensation proposal negotiated between union representatives and the school district.
The borough school board had better luck with non-teaching employees, approving a two-year contract with those workers Tuesday that includes about a 5 percent raise for most workers. It will cost the district $130,400 total over the next two years.
Haines Education Association President Lisa Andriesen said the district’s offer to adjust the teachers’ pay scale didn’t do enough to incentivize teachers to stay here after a few years.
“The kinds of changes they proposed didn’t give an incentive for teachers to stay a long time, and we know that’s the best for kids, to have long-term teachers,” Andriesen said.
Andriesen said teachers also have been frustrated during negotiations in previous years when district officials said the district didn’t have money for increases to teachers’ pay schedule, only to discover later that the district had a surplus.
“They have all this money again this year. We feel we’re trying to do the best for the district, including winning awards, but the (budget) numbers are never accurate,” Andriesen said.
In a letter to the school board Friday, Andriesen also said the district’s offer “does little to keep up with inflation” and “devalues the educational achievements, experience and contributions to the school and community they have made over the years.”
Andriesen was not part of the staff’s negotiating team that included teachers Sophia Armstrong, Patty Brown and Darwin Feakes.
School board president Anne Marie Palmieri said the rejection was “something that happens” and that the district has only heard general statements on what the proposal lacked. “Teams representing the teachers and the district have been negotiating for three months over this. There’s been a significant back and forth on all aspects of the contract.”
Palmieri and Andriesen declined to provide the cost to the district of the rejected offer.
The two negotiating teams have been meeting since spring on terms of a new, two-year contract. “Everything was on the table” including wages, benefits, professional development and training, NEA’s Andriesen said.
On average, Haines teacher pay is in the bottom half for pay among districts statewide, Andriesen said.
Three years ago, teachers agreed to foresgo a pay raise, Andriesen said. Two years ago, they accepted a one-time, “stipend” instead of changes to the pay schedule.
The teachers’ contract includes a clause that they won’t strike. If negotiations reach a stalemate, a mediator would be brought in, Andriesen said. “We’ll go back to the table and say, ‘This is the strong feeling from the staff. What can we do to tweak that proposal?’”
In some previous years, contract talks have extended into August.
The agreement with 24 part-time and full-time “classified” employees includes increasing personal leave days to as many as four, depending on experience, and increasing to $800 from $350 a reimbursement for continuing education.
Under the agreement, the district would cover half of any increase in employees’ health insurance costs during the next two years.
The agreement doesn’t cover district secretary Ashley Sage, district bookkeeper Judy Erekson or food service manager Brandi Stickler. The school board voted Tuesday to accept the agreement without comment or explanation.