By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Negotiations continued between the Hays National Education Association and the USD 489 Board of Education Thursday, but while initially it seemed the negotiations might stall, late meeting caucuses allowed the groups to come to an agreement over salaries and benefits – the last remaining pieces to be worked out.
Even after last week’s session that explained the lack of any funds to support vertical or horizontal pay increases, coming into Thursday’s meeting the HNEA at first remained insistent that movement take place, offering to give the board their desired four extra days of student contact days only if they received two years vertical pay movement and a horizontal step for teachers.
Further, the HNEA wanted higher dollars for teacher severance insurance packages.
The district currently has $130,000 remaining as a buffer, with $85,000 used if early retirement insurance and other benefits remain in place.
Despite the demand for pay increases, district negotiator Greg Schwartz informed both sides of current pay and benefits of the district compared to others across the state, explaining that even with teachers not moving up on the vertical pay scale, compensation throughout USD 489 is high compared to other state districts – with salary and benefits, Hays is in the top 5 percent of schools in the state.
After some debate, the HNEA team members and the board negotiators found agreement in a counter proposal from the HNEA team.
The final points both groups agreed on broke down like this:
• Teachers would get horizontal movement, the HNEA team agreed to last weeks BOE team’s staggered severance sick day accumulation with a change from $25 to $35 for each day accrued for payout with an 80 day cap, with current teachers grandfathered in as to not lose what was already guaranteed under the old plan, early retirement benefits available for 1 year with 7 years of payout and 2 years for 6, along with the other measure in which tentative agreements had already been reached.
• Both sides agreed that teachers that will no longer be able to take advantage of the early retirement insurance benefit, due to the change, would be otherwise compensated, likely in additional 401(3)b matched contributions, but details remain to be worked out if that is possible under the district’s plan.
Contract language will now be written and sent for both parties to review at a later date.