“We are pleased to be able to work collaboratively with our association to create a contract that has the tools to meet today’s education challenges,” said Julie Shaffer, board president. “We were able to keep our commitment to the community of living within the budget set forth in the five-year forecast, reward those teachers who are effective in their performance and value the contributions our educators make every day in the lives of our students.”
Lakota’s 900 teachers have been on a salary freeze since 2010. That freeze will remain for a fourth year, but the contract details that each teacher will receive a $2,200 salary increase in the 2014-15 school year.
“We are very happy to be able to ratify this contract,” said Sharon Mays, president of the Lakota Education Association. “The amount of collaboration we have had throughout the past few years continued on during our contract negotiations with respect between both parties and their interests. It truly was a collaborative process.”
Other items in the contract include health insurance contributions ranging from 15 percent to 25 percent for teachers; a one-time $950 payment to teachers hired prior to July 2011 for helping the district maintain Ohio’s highest academic achievement rating for more than 10 years; and the contract has enabled yearly re-openers on salary, evaluation, insurance and certain working conditions each of the three years.
“We believe, based on the study we did with the UC Economics Center, that this agreement will allow us to remain competitive in the market for our area,” Shaffer said.
Since July 1, 2013, Ohio Substitute Senate Bill 342 has mandated that employees in the State Teachers Retirement System contribute an additional 1 percent of their salary annually to the teacher retirement system for the next four years. This has increased Lakota teachers’ total contribution from 10 to 14 percent.
The new agreement requires teachers to have “effective” performance appraisals to be eligible to receive salary increases, according to the district.
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