March 28, 2024

NCEA’s initial proposal starts negotiations with NCSD

The Newton Community Education Association presented its initial bargaining position to the Newton Community School District at a public meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Newton High School teacher Alison Grier represented NCEA and laid out the teacher union’s initial proposals at the EJH Beard Administration Center. There were not many empty chairs in the board room, as teachers showed up to support the proposals.

“We understand how trying these times are, both in the state and in the district,” Grier said. “Keeping that in mind, we want to get a fair and quick settlement. Newton Schools is now the largest employer in Newton, so every decision that the district makes has an impact, not only on the schools, but also on the community as a whole.”

NCEA highlighted four proposals for the 2017-2018 school year. Unlike in past years, the teacher’s union did not negotiate for an across-the-board wage increase. Instead NCEA proposed altering seniority, which would provide raises for some but not all teachers.

“We propose to age the scale, which is to move the seniority up, understanding that over 50 percent of our teachers are at the end of a seniority lane,” Grier said. “So aging the scale will not affect them at all.”

In addition, NCEA proposed adding $200 to teachers’ base salary to cover increased insurance costs. Grier said this was just a starting point because there are currently no exact figures for insurance costs.

Regarding severance, the teacher’s union proposed the district pay health insurance premiums for eight years following retirement or until the retired employee reaches Medicare age, whichever comes first. Under this proposal, the district would be responsible for the premium rate at the time of retirement. Any increase to insurance premium after retirement would be the responsibility of the retiree.

“Our proposal is something that would be easier to budget for because once you know how many people are going to retire, the cost would remain the same year after year,” Grier said.

Also among the proposals were a minor tweak to the hours in the work week and a change to how teachers are compensated for substituting. Under the substitute incentive proposal, teachers who have their classes canceled to cover for an absent teacher would get reimbursed for substituting.

After NCEA’s presentation, Superintendent of Schools Bob Callaghan requested about a week to look over the proposals and set up a date for a second public meeting. Callaghan said the school district needed time to look at the “ramifications of these issues.” He also said he would prefer the second meeting happen sooner rather than later.

Grier said that although neither teachers nor the school district are happy with every aspect of the current agreement, it has worked well for both sides.

“The heart of the school is the teachers and the educators,” she said. “We need to look at the agreement that we have and keep the pieces that are most important to the educators.”

Contact Justin Jagler at 641-792-3121 ext 6532 or jjagler@newtondailynews.com