BATTLE GROUND — School board members at Battle Ground Public Schools approved the new teachers contract at their Monday night regular meeting. The school board’s approval is the last step in approving the agreement. The new two-year contract is retroactive to Sept. 1, 2015.
The previous contract agreement expired Aug. 31. The teachers union and the school district reached a tentative agreement March 16 after months of contentious negotiations. The teachers union ratified the contract March 21.
With the new contract, the takeaway for teachers is an increase in compensation through additional time, responsibility and incentive pay, or TRI pay. TRI pay is money paid to teachers for extra work they do planning lessons and grading papers outside of the regular school day.
Under the expired contract, general education teachers and career and technical education teachers were paid for 14 TRI days last school year. The old contract allowed basic education teachers to earn between $38,380 and $72,340 per year in total compensation, plus $9,300 in health benefits and an average of $13,000 in other benefits, including retirement.
Under the new contract, these teachers will receive 21 TRI days in the 2015-2016 school year and 23 TRI days in the 2016-2017 school year.
“It was important to me that we put as much of our resources as we could toward our teachers’ compensation,” said Superintendent Mark Hottowe.
How much more money individual teachers will receive for TRI pay under the new contract varies according to a teacher’s number of years teaching and degrees and number of credits earned. For instance, under the new contract, a first-year general education teacher is paid about $194 per day. That teacher will receive about $4,000 in TRI pay for the 2015-2016 school year and about $4,450 for the 2016-2017 school year. That’s an increase of about $1,700 over two years.
A seasoned general education teacher at the top of the salary scale who has worked 16 or more years and has earned a master’s degree plus 90 credits or a PhD. is paid about $367 per day. That teacher will receive about $7,700 in TRI pay in 2015-2016 and about $8,440 in 2016-2017. That’s an increase of about $3,300 over two years.
This school year the additional TRI days will cost the district $1.85 million. Next school year, the district will spend $2.47 million for the TRI days.
“Because we’re regularly compared to other districts in terms of compensation, I really wanted us to stay focused to compensation for certificated staff as much as possible, given our fiscal limitations,” he said. “The money was the biggest item holding us back (from a contract agreement).”
He noted that the teachers union had additional demands that were important to them: reduced class size, a counselor in every primary school and longevity pay for longtime district teachers. He said he didn’t disagree with the union that those were important, but they weren’t included in the contract.
“Until we can convince the state to equalize compensation, districts will be responsible for doing their best to equalize compensation,” Hottowe said.
“We came to agreement on myriad of issues, in addition to money,” he said.
He added that outdated terminology was changed and language was brought up to date in the contract.
Of the 450 union members who voted, 97.5 percent voted to ratify the contract. The union’s bylaws require a simple majority to ratify a contract. The union represents about 825 teachers. About 54 percent of the members voted.
Four school board members approved the contract. Member Ken Root abstained from the vote because his wife is a teacher in the district.
